I carry a gun. So should you.

Edit: Wow, thanks for the gold and platinum kind of y'all! Cheers. <br><br>I've been called many things in my life, but "patronizing, condescending, snarky, and arrogant" are new ones. Since I can't respond to everyone in the comments, I'll respond here. If I came across any other way than genuine concern for people's safety, that's on me. <br><br>Some people seem angry that I suggest people obtain a weapon and training. It frightens me to see people comment, "good post, but I don't like guns." I don't like guns either. I have been directly affected. I have been victimized. I refuse to be a victim again. <br><br>This is my story, not yours. This is my advice, not yours. I'm not insisting anyone do anything. <br><br>But this is Chambers, so people can say what they want.<br><br>****<br><br>Hello. I am not a typical redditor. I don't really "get" the subculture. I'm more of a Facebook guy. I only subscription to two chambers, tipsyteacher and guns. Tipsyteacher is where educators can go to speak freely about work, students, and the system in general. They don't really care that I'm armed all the time. This is important because I'm a teacher, and this post is going to be centered on why I think you should be prepared to defend yourself, your family, and your coworkers. <br><br>I've never written anything so painstakingly slow in my life. This is my first post here, and my first "story" on any platform. I've been stewing on this for a long time. I've been directly affected by two school shootings, and I have something to say. I'm going to ramble in places, and that's okay. <br><br>I have a lot of students, and I love each and every one of them. My career is chosen and every time a teacher goes "bang bang" at a room full of kids, I'm painted with the same brush. It breaks my heart. <br><br>Teachers are underpaid, overworked, and vastly underappreciated. But we do it. We do it anyway. We love our students, our subjects, and the system. We know we can make a difference in their lives, and we do, every single day. I wouldn't trade my job for any other job in the world. <br><br>But we are human. <br><br>There's an old joke about teaching. You can tune teachers out exactly the same way you can tune out the "brrr" of the plane engine. It's just background noise to students. It isn't until the plane engine sputters, or a teacher loses control, that the students paying attention. <br><br>In my early 20s, I worked as a paraprofessional in a special education room. The teacher was a total lost soul. She abused the children. She would hit them and call them fat, ugly, and stupid. She would take their food for laughing too loud in class. She would grab their neck and shake them when they wouldn't listen. She would throw things at them. The kids didn't report her because they thought that was just the way school was. I reported her, and she was let go. Nothing came of it. Honestly, not much should have. She was met with a shrug. "Oh well, some people can't handle it." The people who knew her all agreed she let a shitty job get to her head. <br><br>I mention this because this is a person who was in charge of children. This is the person who tossed chairs at 6 year olds when they were too loud. This is the person who everyone knew was a horrible person, but was allowed to be in the room with kids who couldn't defend themselves. <br><br>I now work in a public high school in the United States. I teach social studies to 9th and 12th grade students. I have over 100 students throughout the day, and I interact with hundreds more. I don't just know the kids in my classes, but I make it a point to know every kid I interact with. I know their faces, their names, and their current issues. We work in groups and do a lot of discussion, so I have to know who is friendly with who, who will work well together, and who needs to be kept apart. I have to make decisions about this on the fly every day. It's a hard job, but again, I wouldn't trade it. <br><br>When I was 15, my high school was shot up. Fourteen kids were injured, and three were killed. Two were shot in the back. Another was shot in the stomach. He was one of the two that died. I knew everyone who was injured or killed. One was a close friend. I don't talk about this often. It isn't something people want to hear. I can't imagine how the people who lost their children feel. I can't imagine how people who were shot feel. It's been years, and I still think about it every day. <br><br>Fast forward a few years. I'm 28 now. An ex-student of mine shot up his high school. Two students were injured. One was a minor injury, the other is still in the hospital and isn't going to make it. A janitor and a teacher were shot and killed. I knew all of them. The shooter was a former student of mine. He was in my classroom two days a week for two years. I knew him. He looked like every other student, except he wasn't. <br><br>He was quiet, which is fine. I've always been a quiet person. I'm not someone who likes to draw attention to myself. I don't like loud places, or loud people, or being the center of attention. <br><br>When I was 15, it was impossible to ignore the shooting. It was everywhere. But the people directly affected by it were told to be quiet. We had to go back to normal. Life had to go on. We couldn't talk about it. It upset people. <br><br>I was given the option to transfer schools, but I declined. It was where all my friends were, and it was closest to my house. We only missed two days. <br><br>I will never forget the first time someone called me stupid for staying. My friend told me, "it's really fucked up you decided to stay. You know the type of place it is." I was shocked. I didn't know how people felt. No one talked about it. We knew. But no one else did. The staff, the students, administration, they all knew. It wasn't a random event, it was a foreseeable end to a terrible beginning. <br><br>The boy who did it was a student there. Everyone knew his name. I knew him directly, personally. He was in my grade, he was in my classes, he sat next to me in the auditorium, and he was in my lunch. The staff knew he was a threat. They let him in the doors anyway. They refused to take the threat seriously. "No, not here. That couldn't happen." <br><br>It did. <br><br>One teacher insisting that taking his gun away from him in class wouldn't do anything. "He will still shoot people," she said. One teacher. One person. One vote. One voice. <br><br>In the years following, students in my school would turn 18 and buy guns. When questioned about it, they would respond, "I'm just tired of being a victim." I remember one student in particular who thought he was defending our school. He was going to stop the next shooter be being armed himself. I knew he wasn't capable of it. He was a shitty student and an even shittier person. But he was allowed. <br><br>Because teachers don't think about being victims. <br><br>We don't think about our students being victims. <br><br>I do. I refuse to be another teacher who was "stunned" when one of my students went on a murder spree. I refuse to be another teacher who says, "not my student." I refuse to be another teacher who votes against self defense. <br><br>I vote for teachers being armed. I vote for students being armed. I vote for staff being armed. I vote for everyone being armed, if they want to. I don't carry at work. It's illegal. But I don't want it to be illegal. I think everyone at work should carry if they want to. <br><br>I refuse to be a victim. <br><br>I refuse to let students I love become victims. <br><br>I refuse to be shot in a classroom I love, by a former student I knew. <br><br>I refuse to die like that. I refuse to be shot by a student who was allowed to carry a weapon when the teachers knew he was a risk. <br><br>I carry a gun. So should you.