Survey Results: Do US Teachers Have Guns in Schools?

A recent poll in the US found that 54% of teachers think that teachers carrying guns would make schools less safe. But 20% said they would like to carry guns to feel safer.

White teachers favoured arming more than their Black colleagues, and male teachers in rural schools were ready to carry guns. If they could, about 550,000 teachers would choose to have a gun. Half of all teachers were most worried about bullying. High school teachers were worried about drugs and fights.

The poll also showed that about half of the teachers thought physical security measures in their schools, like locks, ID badges, cameras, and security staff, improved the school environment. Only a small number of people (5%) thought these changes could have been better.

In a separate poll done in the fall, 70% of school district leaders said they had put more money into school safety measures because of the school shooting in May 2022 in Uvalde, Texas.

Half of the teachers thought that security steps were a good idea. Overall, teachers care more about the safety of their students than their own.