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Commentary: Take it from an expert. Teachers have no business carrying guns in school.

There is little doubt that the guns that teachers take into the classrooms will result in many more deaths of innocents than bad guys.

Tyra Hemans, 19, left, and Logan Locke, 17, right, students who survived the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, wait to board buses in Parkland, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. The students plan to hold a rally Wednesday in hopes that it will put pressure on the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to consider a sweeping package of gun-control laws, something some GOP lawmakers said Monday they would consider. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

While serving in the military I qualified for an expert ribbon with the M-16 and spent some time on the pistol team. After retiring from the military I taught math at an inner-city high school. I mention these things only to show I have some familiarity with guns as well as classrooms.

President Trump’s suggestion that we arm high school teachers is insane.

Picture yourself teaching class when you hear shots and screams. You look down the hallway and see someone with a weapon and students running in panic. Are you going to jump into the hallway, pull out your “snub-nosed .38” or your “Glock” and yell “drop that gun”?

That’s a joke. If the shooter has a semi-automatic AR-15, the chances of you taking him down before he takes you down are minimal. In addition, the gun fight in a hallway filled with running students would, most likely, injure and/or kill students who may otherwise have escaped.

Are you going to wait until the shooter gets to your doorway and then shoot? Do you think that the fact that you qualify on the pistol range once a year while shooting at an unarmed, paper target will make it easy for you to put the shooter down with one shot? More likely, instead of walking past your classroom, the shooter will come in and use his weapon to kill as many as he can.

Let’s say that everything goes right and you get in a lucky shot in and kill the shooter. Thanks to you, only 20 instead of 25 students and teachers were killed. Weigh this against the additional, unforeseen consequences of arming millions of teachers. There will be the usual increase in accidents, purposeful shootings and suicides in the teachers’ homes.

Also, how many times will a teacher leave his gun in his coat or in his desk, only to have a student get hold of it? Take my word for it, they will, and the results won’t be good.

In addition, every year there are thousands of cases where students have pushed teachers to their limits. Instead of striking or screaming at the student, how many of these teachers will pull out a gun. Even if they stupidly do this only as a threat, it doesn’t take much imagination to see the possible safety and career consequences. There is little doubt that the guns that teachers take into the classrooms will result in many more deaths of innocents than bad guys.

Here is another hypothetical. The armed teacher is approached by a mugger who pulls out a gun and asks the teacher for his wallet. If the teacher pulls out his wallet and hands it over, the chances of him getting shot is probably less than 1 percent. The chances of the mugger getting shot are essentially zero.

Let’s say the teacher instead pulls out a his gun rather than his wallet. This, of course, significantly increases the mugger’s odds of getting shot. What do you think happens to the odds of the teacher getting shot? Do you think they go down or up?

If you think they go down, you are much too stupid to be carrying a gun.

Frank T. Globokar

Frank T. Globokar, Salt Lake City, served in the U.S Air Force for 28 years and later taught mathematics at Gateway High School in St. Louis.