Lott looks at safety record of armed teachers

A well-known firearms and safety researcher says schools that allow teachers to carry guns remain safe.

There are approximately 1,000 public school districts in 20 states that allow faculty and staff to carry a concealed firearm and to date there has never been an injury according to John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center.

“There are two obvious questions: Does letting teachers carry create dangers? Might they deter attackers?” reads the research paper’s abstract.

Lott spoke recently to American Family Radio about the study, which examined school shootings from 2000 to 2018.

 “There's over 1,000 school districts that have teachers that carry guns,” he told radio host Sandy Rios. “And what we've found is that despite all that experience, there hasn't been a shooting where anybody's been injured in any way, or killed during anything close to school hours, where teachers would be around with guns during any of those years."

Lott acknowledged an increase in deaths from school shootings during that time frame but said that statistic was driven by attacks at schools that do not allow teachers to carry.

"Do students get a hold of a teacher's gun? Does a teacher accidentally shoot somebody?" Lott asked rhetorically. "And the answers to those are definitely no."