According to a new study, the majority of Americans feel schools would be safer if teachers were given the choice to carry a firearm, with even Democrats agreeing that guns should be allowed on college campuses across the country.
Following last week’s catastrophic school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, The Economist and YouGov polled over 1,500 people from both political parties on whether they supported arming schoolteachers and administrators.
A total of 51% of those polled stated they support the proposal, with 31% saying they’strongly’ support it and 20% indicating they support it’somewhat.’
Meanwhile, only 37% stated they were opposed to the notion, with 14% indicating they were’somewhat’ opposed and 23% saying they were’strongly’ opposed.
Another 12%, or about 134 persons, indicated they were undecided.
A total of 1,489 respondents were surveyed as part of the survey, which was part of a bigger study by the magazine and research firm.
Republicans and Independents accounted for the majority of those who voted in support of the advice, with 73 percent and 54 percent of the vote, respectively.
However, only 31% of Democrats agree with the notion, with 13% favoring it “very” and 18% favoring it “slightly.”
Furthermore, 58 percent answered they would oppose such a program.
Democrats, on the other hand, were far more receptive to the idea of guns in schools if they were carried by people who had been trained to use them, such as an armed guard.
‘Do you support or oppose any of the following?’ Democrats’ answer was much more positive, with nearly half of those polled (48%) stating they would support such a move.
Despite this, 40% of the 1,494 persons polled – or 597 people – claimed they were still opposed to the idea.
Armed guards were favored by a large margin of 62 percent to 27 percent among all respondents from all political parties.
After the tragic massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, the National Rifle Association raised the idea of arming teachers, which has been a matter of national debate for more than a decade.
The shooting, which was carried out by then-20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed 27 people, 20 of whom were children aged six to seven, as well as the gunman.