Guns and Butter

Abstract

The buzz about violence in schools has lightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, but without a plan or resolution to the problems of gun availability, pervasive gun culture and other issues of violence in U.S. schools and society. In recent, pre-COVID conversation with preservice teachers and school administrators (separate conversations), I was surprised by the support that was expressed for a highly-policed school environment that includes armed teachers, principals and other school personnel. At an intellectual level, I cannot grasp how increased policing in schools can promote any result other than the possibilities of increased racism and further inculcation of a police-state mentality in schools and society. As I mulled the issues around gun violence in particular, I realized that my objections go beyond a philosophy or an intellectual point of view, but are instead rooted in visceral, long-held feelings based in experience. In this autoethnographic essay, I recount my personal experiences in an attempt to illustrate through personal experience the folly of wide-spread gun ownership and to underscore the canard that guns can protect us in our homes and schools.