The murder of 19 elementary school students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, has left many teachers in the US feeling desperate. “We feel powerless,” says Ohio kindergarten teacher Mandy, who decided to do something about that feeling by buying a 9mm pistol. Maddy signed up for a gun training course that would allow her to carry him to daycare.

Ten years ago, carrying weapons was a rarity among teachers. Today, in the aftermath of a wave of school shootings, arming teachers has become a key proposal by Republicans and gun advocates to combat mass killings on school campuses. At least 29 US states allow police or federal security officials to carry guns on school property. As of 2018, 2.6% of U.S. public school teachers are armed with a weapon. This number must have increased significantly since then.

At least 29 US states allow guns to be carried on school property.

Four of the five deadliest school shootings—Newtown, Uvalde, Parkland, and Santa Fe—occurred in the last decade. That’s why he took Mandy to a shooting club in northeast Ohio. For three days, Mandy was trained in injections, placement of a styptic arm to stop bleeding, and other emergency procedures. In kindergarten, Maddie’s duties are limited to singing and dancing with the children, serving ice cream as a reward, and posting the children’s colorful drawings on the wall. Mandy’s education is an implicit acknowledgment of the country’s inability to end the massacres and shifting the burden of that responsibility onto the shoulders of educators who are already dealing with the fallout from the pandemic, the ideological divisions and polarization of the Trump era.

Jim Irwin, president of a guns organization and organizer of teacher training on guns, notes that speed is critical in dealing with a gunman and that schools cannot afford to wait for the police to arrive. At Newtown Elementary School, the police were called five minutes after the gunman broke in, and three minutes later the police were on the premises. However, 20 children and six adults died.

Schools do not disclose which teachers and staff are armed to prevent would-be attackers from planning their moves. This makes the choice of armed teachers especially important. “We do not prefer those who are too eager to take up arms. My “mustache” sharpens when I see someone who is eager to carry a gun at school. I can’t choose a person like that,” says Malcolm Hines, principal of a school in Swaney County, Florida.