Calls to arm school teachers grew louder after a gunman at a Santa Fe, Texas, high school on May 18 killed eight students and two teachers, and injured 13 others.
Second Amendment proponents, with backing[1] from President Donald Trump, say putting guns in the hands of volunteer personnel would make schools safer. But gun control advocates argue the proposal would lead to dangerous unintended consequences.
"Trained police hit their targets less than 30 percent of the time, yet the @NRA wants to arm volunteer teachers," Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, tweeted[2] May 21. "It's on each of us to prevent this NRA dystopia, and stop letting the gun lobby write our gun laws. We're sacrificing our children at the altar of gun manufacturers' profits."
Trained police hit their targets less than 30% of the time, yet the @NRA wants to arm volunteer teachers. It's on each of us to prevent this NRA dystopia, and stop letting the gun lobby write our gun laws. We're sacrificing our children at the altar of gun manufacturers' profits. https://t.co/mWCBVrrLNH[3][4]
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts)
Watts may have a point that the average armed teacher might be less accurate than a trained cop. But her claim that trained police hit their target "less than 30 percent of the time" is not as clear-cut as Watts suggests.
New York Police Department
For starters, national numbers on police marksmanship are not readily available. But we found data on some individual jurisdictions, including several major metropolitan police departments.
An aide to Watts pointed us to a 2008 Rand study[6] that looked at the accuracy
