Martinson 1
Katie Martinson
Professor Natalie Churchill
ENGL 102: Research and Academic Writing
15 October 2011
Guns in School: Why Allowing Firearms at Schools Will Keep Them Safe
The day of April 20, 1999, left a scar on American culture that will not soon be forgotten.
On that morning in Littleton, Colorado, two students walked into Columbine High School with a
plan to kill. Their names were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and together they carried “four
guns and more than thirty homemade bombs” (Kleck 1447). In only 49 minutes, they murdered
twelve students and one teacher, wounded two dozen other individuals, and finally committed
suicide (1447). This bloodbath was not an act taken on impulse but a premeditated execution that
the two students had planned for over a year (1451).
School shootings, such as the Columbine tragedy, continually prompt debate over how to
handle the issue of gun control and the presence of guns in schools. Two camps offer their
arguments to this dispute. Gun rights advocates argue that guns should be allowed in school
while gun control advocates insist that schools must remain gun-free. Currently, on federal and
state levels, laws exist that prohibit the carrying of firearms in school zones; however, it is
specifically because of such laws that school shootings occur. The prohibition of guns in schools
leaves school campuses vulnerable to attack. American schools are left unprotected and helpless
whereas the presence of licensed gun-carriers could stop an attacker from killing or even deter
the attacker from assaulting a school in the first place. Laws should permit legally licensed and
trained individuals to carry guns in school; at the same time, people must be mindful of the
responsibility and implications of carrying and firing a weapon, even defensively.
Your last name and the page
number should appear flush right
in the header of every page (117).
Your name, your professor’s name,
the course name, and the due date
should appear on separate double
spaced lines flush left at the top of
the paper (116-117).
Place the title of your paper in
headline style capitalization as a
header before the text of your
paper starts (116-117).
In-text citations consist of the
author’s last name and the page
number placed in parentheses at the
end of the sentence, before the final
punctuation (214-215).
If you use the same source consecutively
within a paragraph, you do not need to
repeat the author’s last name (218-219).
Note: MLA permits only including a citation at
the end of a paragraph if this does not cause
ambiguity. However, the Regent University
Student Handbook necessitates using citations
after each occurrence of borrowed material in
order to ensure proper attribution.
The lines throughout the
paper should be double-
spaced (116).
Only place one character space
between sentences (117).
All margins should
be set to 1” (116).
All text should be
Times New Roman,
12pt., and black (116).
Martinson 2
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