The provincial government and police of Kyhber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, has recently started offering a two-days fire arms course for school teachers and university lecturers. This program is completely voluntary and only educators who are nominated by the principal and pass the gun licensing process will be allowed to carry firearms. The authorities decided to start offering this course after the massacre that took place in December at Peshawar school, where 150 people were killed by the Taliban. There has been a lot of controversy concerning this decision because parents think that it is the government's responsibility to ensure that schools are safe, not the professors'. Additionally, the fact that many women are receiving gun training is unsettling for this society because it goes against its patriarchal culture. Some people consider this as a lack of courage from men to stand up and fight for their people. Moreover, security experts believe that it is unrealistic to expect professors with two days of fire arms training to be able to stand up against terrorist forces. They think that professors with access to fire arms will only put themselves and students in danger. Nonetheless, the government has stated that, given the extreme situations that the country is going through, they have little options and have been pushed to take drastic measures. The number of police officers is not enough to protect the number of schools in the country, so the government has had to come up with alternative means of protection. The government has also ordered schools to raise boundary walls and hire security guards as an additional security measure. This has raised more complaints from schools, which claim that they have no money to invest in drinkable water and restrooms, but are required to have boundary walls and security guards. Teachers have been conflicted by this option because even though they do not like the idea of carrying a firearm in school, the memories of terrorist attacks make them feel like they need some form of protection.
-Ricardo Morales
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