Guns in Sensitive Places

Key Point Summary

Limited data suggest that Americans are comfortable with dedicated security personnel in schools but much less so with the idea of arming teachers.

  • The majority of Americans favor increasing the number of armed security guards at schools and public venues.
  • Allowing teachers or school officials to carry guns produces mixed or closely divided results across surveys.

Bottom line: Conclusions about American public opinion on the issue of professional armed security in schools and public venues and arming teachers are very tentative, given the limited available data. The small number of studies available from 2022 and 2023 show support for armed guards but very mixed opinions about arming teachers.

Availability of Data and Confidence in Conclusions

This assessment draws on 4 unique questions from 3 nationally representative surveys conducted between June 2022 and August 2023, with a combined sample size of 7,282. This is a very limited and dated evidence base, covering only two types of policies: armed guards and teacher or school-official carry. The findings are consistent enough to suggest public support for armed guards and mixed opinion on arming teachers. But the narrow scope, lack of more recent data, and small number of items make broader conclusions tentative.

Overall Confidence: POOR.

Policy Implications

The available evidence suggests that policymakers' proposals to increase armed security personnel in schools will be compatible with American public opinion. Proposals to arm teachers or school officials will likely draw much more divided public reaction.

Detailed Discussion

Data on arming teachers and guards in schools are very limited and several years old, lending caution to generalizations about current public opinion on this topic.

The data that are available show that Americans draw a clear distinction between adding armed security guards on the one hand and allowing teachers or school staff to carry guns on the other.

Increasing armed security guards in schools was clearly favored by the American public as of 2022. The one available survey showed such a policy was favored by 73% of registered voters. [1].

Americans' opinions on arming teachers and school officials are much more divided.

  • In a 2022 survey, 48% of registered voters favored allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns on school grounds, compared with 45% opposed [1].
  • That close divide continued in 2023, with a survey showing an almost exact split, with 50% of national adults favoring and 49% opposing allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns in K–12 schools [2].
  • Some Americans apparently had not made up their mind by 2023 on this topic. A 2023 survey provided a middle option (neither favor nor oppose). Some 22% said they neither favored nor opposed a proposal to allow trained teachers and administrators to be armed, with a similarly divided public among those who did have an opinion- 41% of adults in favor and 35% opposed. [3].

Bottom line: These results a) suggest strong support for increasing armed security guards in schools, b) confirm the lack of a consensus on the idea of arming teachers, and c) show that over one in five Americans haven't come to a judgment on the issue of arming teachers.

Impact of Question Wording and Other Survey Factors

The limited amount of data available precludes conclusions about the impact of question wording on these policies, other than the overarching impact of differences in attitudes towards arming security personnel versus arming teachers or other school officials.

Trends Over Time

The limited evidence suggests that opinion on arming teachers and school officials did not shift meaningfully between 2022 and 2023. The same basic pattern persisted across surveys: public opinion remained closely divided, with some evidence of continued ambivalence.

Citations

  1. Fox News/Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research. (2022). More voters put trust in Republicans to handle inflation, crime. Fielded 6/10/22-6/13/22. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  2. Pew Research Center/Ipsos. (2023). Gun Violence Widely Viewed as a Major – and Growing – National Problem. Fielded 6/5/23-6/11/23. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  3. Associated Press/AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (2023). GOP support for gun restrictions slips a year after Congress passed firearms law. Fielded 8/10/23-8/14/23. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.

Related Polling Data

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