Are all teachers anti-gun?

[TarpleyG]

Out of the 4 or 5 close friends my wife has at her school, 2 are decidely pro-gun and the others don't seem to care either way. My wife is pro-gun for the most part but still doesn't understand why anyone needs an "assault weapon." In fact, we had that whole discussion again last night.

GT

 

[killermarmot]

Well the principal of Stanley intermiediete is a close friend and she's sympathetic if not pro, I have 3 or 4 college history prof in my major that are very pro (they know what happens to civs that ban guns) and I can think of a few priests that teach at the catholic elementary and catholic high school i went to that are pro. and that's in the bay area (there'e hope yet )

 

[MagKnightX]

My English teacher is conservative and pro-gun, although he tries to be pretty PC in class. My shop teacher from a few years ago was pro-gun. My Spanish teacher is pro and served in the Army.

But my government teacher is the sponsor of the Young Democrats, and my photo teacher actually said "yuk... the NRA? They're a bunch of nuts" when I showed her how the enlarger printed through the card, so you could see both sides of it on the paper.

It was a cool picture, though.

 

[Unisaw]

When dropping off my daughter one morning at school, I was pleased to see her 5th-grade teacher get out of her vehicle that had an NRA sticker prominently displayed.

 

[another okie]

Most pro-gun teachers don't feel the need to indoctrinate the little children into their political beliefs, whether those beliefs are about guns or something else.

I think the perception that teachers are anti-gun exists for several reasons.

1. Teachers' unions are indeed anti-gun and left wing.
2. Most elementary teachers are women, and there are more anti-gun women than men. Our society is also insane on the subject of children and guns, so pro-gun elementary techers probably find it prudent to be quiet about it.
3. Teaching is a helping profession that generally, though not always, attracts gentle people who have not thought very much about violence.
4. In colleges and universities the only people who talk about guns are in subjects such as English and history, and those teachers do tend to be left wing and anti-gun. The pro-gun teachers tend to be in engineering, medicine, sciences, business, and so on, where the subject would normally never come up. I teach at a junior college in Oklahoma, and I would estimate over half of our faculty own guns, and there are about ten rabid shooters.

 

[sharpie613]

Since I live and teach in an Alameda County elementary school, there is nothing I try to hide more than my views on firearms. 7 John Kerry bumper stickers in the lot...I counted, not to mention the student-made lifestory display of Hillary Clinton displayed in the office. I hate that I have to hide, but given the general attitudes of the area, I don't need the grief. All it would take would be some comments to the right people and I would lose my job, which would have a negative impact on future firearm purchases.

Another Okie--

Number 2 especially applies at my school.

 

[gunsmith]

I met a Texas couple who are teachers

Where I work in SF,I said "cool! in Texas you can get carry permits"
There reaction was anti,claiming "we work with children so we don't want any guns around"
I didn't bother to tell them it's probably illegal for them to take a ccw weapon in school with them.
I did ask them how did they expect to protect the kids in the case of a columbine type shooting in their school,they hadn't given it the slightest thought.

 

[Logistar]

I think I am in the same boat as Another Okie.

I teach at a 2 year college. 3 teachers here own AKs (I know 'cause I shoot with them) and there are a few more that own various handguns, etc. I am not trying to say that everyone here is Pro-gun. However, many of the faculty own and regularly shoot. (There are only about 8 full-time teachers here and a few of them I don't really know.)

In fact, we have had "faculty trips"to Knob Creek. (-Where an admissions lady who I was teaching to shoot took out my target holder on the first shot!) (It was one of those cheap Wal-mart metal target holders!) Thankfully, my Dad welded it back together for me.

It probably depends on what area of the country and what subjects are being taught even. I gamble that it's generally worse at 4-year institutions.

Logistar

 

[Rotnguns]

I'm a mechanical engineering professor at a midsize university. When the issue of guns has come up with my colleagues, I've noted one very pro and one on the anti side of neutral.

 

[joebogey]

My wife is an elementary teacher. The only time she is "anti gun", is when I walk through the door with another one for the safe.

 

[jfh]

it's regional variation, I suppose....

but here in Minnesota it's been impacted by a few different factors, AFAICT. So, here's a history of teachers, guns, and the culture wars here, in the greater M-SP metro area.

I started out my career as a HS English Teacher, in '68. (I had learned to shoot as a child, did the Boy Scout routine in the summers, and was on the Rifle Team in HS. I went away to a residential college that didn't give me time for hunting in the fall--and I really wasn't interested in making the time.) For the four years I did teach, guns were never a particular topic of discussion--except I would elaborate on firearms "facts" in the classroom if the reading assignment needed that. There was usually some kid that knew more than I did at that point.

I was fairly 'freaky' at that time--e.g., long hair, bell-bottoms, that sort of thing. At the State Fair each year I would show up at the .22 gallery. There was always some old fart wanna-be who would start mumbling about kids these days--and I delighted in telling him I was a teacher--then hustle him: usually, at about the $3-4.00 mark (e.g., $20.00 now), I would then run the entire moving duck row and walk off with my money. IOW, a typical cocky young guy who also had the makings of being a contrarian.

So, in MN, in the early Seventies, no gun issues anywhere that I recall.

I left teaching in 72--and, for various reasons was inactive shooting. Just not on the radar. In '86 I inheirited a 1934 52B Sporter, Model 27 .357 HP--and was re-hooked. As we all know, the current culture wars were underway, but gun control didn't really take off until Josh Sugarman got going...I leaped back in with both feet--buying guns, and getting interested in handguns and self-defense...what could make more sense than getting skilled again--I now had a wife and two daughters, and if you're a gunny, you oughta know what to do....

Then I started (substitute) teaching again in '92--and discovered, in the course of discussing things with some of the teachers in the lounge, that there was no individual right interpretation, that AWs were real, and that kids really shouldn't know about guns except maybe for hunting. I was truly flabbergasted to hear this from educated adults--and most of them were men from smaller MN towns, and perhaps five-to-ten years younger than me.

From what I can tell, these were the factors in making 'teachers' anit-gun, at least here in MN.

1. Democratic Party support of Public Education on the State Level had bound teachers and their Union to the Democratic Party.

2. On further reflection, I identified the fact that in my old group of cohorts, there had been a real mix education for us--some came from private liberal arts colleges, some from the MN State College (e.g., teacher ed colleges) and all of us had been educated prior to the Antiwar movement, and the Democratic assimilation of that group.

3. Many teachers I ran into now--particularly in '92--were MN public college graduates--and remember, a bit younger than me--and it was clear they had received a much more dogmatic and political education than any of us had who were educated in the late fifties/early-mid Sixties. That fits in nicely with the politicalization of the University Campuses with the Antiwar movement.

4. All these people are "good teachers"--I only remember one or two who were incompetent. But, the combination of the kind of education they had received, their committment to support of the Party that 'cared about education, and the related commitment to the (new) liberal ideals they learned in college locked them up.

Gradually, I again see rationality returning to these political issues in the classroom--at least here in MN--but the Democrats are locked into their Progressive values of the Radicals from the Seventies--and the teachers want education support.

As I've posted elsewhere, the MN DFL is being run by the Feminist Activists of men my age, with strong 'Progressive' values--and they don't know how to respond to change.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Absolutely not. I, for instance, am not anti gun.

Lemme tell you, though, there's an element to this I haven't yet seen discussed--the community where the school operates. Yesterday we had a "gun scare" at my school, an excellent middle school in a small town known throughout the region for excellent public schools. The fire alarms were being repaired, and the students in one class heard "fire alarm" over the resource officer's radio. Someone became frightened: "Did they just say firearm?!?"

Kids being kids, rumors swirled. Eventually it got to the point that the kids had an elaborate rumor all worked out. In it, one of the children had a gun in his locker or something and had made threats to shoot up the school at a specific time and place that day. The rumor didn't say who, so one of the little geniuses decided it was his chance to get famous and took credit. Not smart.

We had to hold a schoolwide meeting and send letters home to the parents to reassure them that the school is safe. We had a highly publicized (inaccurately) food fight not long ago and the principal really got raked over the coals. She wasn't taking any chances.

Some of this may have been her personal panic factor, but I guarantee more of it was CYA. She's had her experience with bad publicity and has no interest in repeating it. And in this "village" she's absolutely right that there would be shrieking panic from the soccer moms.


OTOH, the other day I was talking to a lady who was a substitute for the special-ed teacher with whom I normally work. Someone made the comment that one of our students might be moving back to Texas. "I don't blame him--I'd move back to Texas, too, if I could, and I'm not even from there."
This lady, who had talked about nothing but her children and craft projects all day, asked me why. I didn't want to scare her off before we could have a productive conversation, so I was a little vague. "Oh, there are lots of states I rather live in--Texas, Indiana, Tennessee, etc."
Well, she asked, why would I want to move to Indiana?
"Oh, you know, they just don't have all the silly laws we have here. Illinois is full of laws that start out Thou Shalt Not--taxes, gun control, all kinds of stuff."

That's when she floored me. "What about CCW?" she asked. "I'd love to move to a state with a CCW law. Is Indiana pretty good?"


Once again the stereotype had blinded our hero and left him vulnerable to shock. We ended up having a good conversation about CCW, gun safety, etc. She likes to shoot and would like to CCW, but her husband grew up anti-gun and she's afraid to own guns with him in the house. She doesn't think he'd be safe enough. For no very good reason, I thought that was really cool.

 

[DragonRider]

No, cause I am a teacher. This year alone I have taught 12 students at my school and 4 teachers how to shoot. This is including the Vice Principals wife (who is also a teacher here). Out of the parents, of the kids I teach, 2 work at NRA Headquarters, and other various organizations.

John

I have a feeling the security detail had nothing to do with the high percentage of shooters and learners here

 

[BlkHawk73]

My father was both a principal and teacher. Was in the field for 30 years. He is a collector of Civila War and Revolutionary long guns. As a history buff and history teacher, he would actually bring his muskets to class for display or as props in a school project. (Those were the days) I can remember pics of his students dressed in period uniforms holding the muskets as if they were at inspection. He missed the Army's highest shooting rank (marksman or expert, whichever is higher) by one shot. He only owns one modern rifle now - his fathers .22 but is still a deadly shot on the occasional squirrel or woodchuck.
I also remember my mathmatics teacher in college was into military rifles. He would bring thm in to show or sell or trade with the students. He had at least one full-auto.

 

[NightWolfe]

2 close family friends are retired teachers .. he taught Algebra and she taught Chemistry .. they are both Pro-Gun/RKBA and both dislike Kerry .. along with their son who is a Nuclear Engineer .. parents are both in their 70s now, and he was in Korea ..

haven't spoke with any other teachers about firearms though ....

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

From the teachers I actually know the gun beliefs of, two are neutral, one is pro, and one is anti.

 

[carp killer]

Where my wife student taught, the Science dept was rabidly pro-gun. The Language/Fine Arts dept was anti-gun. She was in the Science dept. Shows you what logical thinking can do.

 

[tcsd1236]

However, I would have expected my wifes school to be a little different since it is in a pretty rural part of upstate.

If its a pretty rural part of Upstate, I would suspect that most of the teachers were hired from outside your local area; that seems to be increasingly prevalent these days. Area districts here seem to lose adminstrators every few years because they keep going outside the local area instead of promoting from within the organization...and then they can't figure out why the admins keep resigning to continue up the career path with some other district....figure out where your teachers originally came from and you might have part of your answer.My guess is they tend to be urban refugees who cast their employment net out and accepted a job in your rural district because it meant a foot in the door they can use to start their career progression.

 

[Turkish]

So far, I've known 2 openly pro-gun teachers. One was my 8th grade science teacher, whom I almost went shooting with, and the other was my tech exploration teacher, who asked me for advice on a future ar-15/ak-47 purchase.
I've also been lucky enough to not have run into any openly anti teachers, which is good for me as I have resolved that no matter how much I need a credit I will not take a class taught by someone who wants to deny my rights as an American citizen.

 

[c_yeager]

I have found that around here at least it also depends on what area your studying and at what educational level you are at. It seems that the college level technical fields are full of gunnies, while elementary school gunnies are far and few between.

 

[gambrinus]

I teach 3d grade at a private elem. school here in Los Angeles. 4 of us on staff are regular shooters. Only 1 or 2 folks on staff that are really anti-gun. Most are neutral to unconcerned.

RW

 

[jfh]

as the cliche goes, gambrinus, welcome aboard...

tell us more about your gunny interests, and I would like to hear more about the 'gun mentality' you see in your school--particularly the parents, if you have a sense of it.