"Should Birth Control be Free?" response

I agree with the article “Should Birth Control be Free?”. In this article, it states that birth control being free and covered by the affordable care act is a good measure in preventing pregnancies and helping women with other medical needs. After doing my own research on this topic, I found some more great statistics that support why birth control should be free. According to bedsider.org, unplanned pregnancies cost U.S taxpayers 12 billion per year. 12 billion dollars is a significant amount of money that could be used elsewhere. This amount is significantly reduced when birth control is free for all women. It also significantly reduces the number of abortions. This protects the health of the woman since abortions can come with many risks and saves women money because of the cost of the abortion. All around, having free birth control saves money. Many women said they are on birth control strictly because they cannot afford to become pregnant. When a woman does not have birth control and becomes pregnant when they were not ready, this significantly increases their likelihood of living in poverty. Providing free birth control prevents women from living a life of poverty. Birth control also has medical uses such as clearing acne, preventing cancer and reducing menstrual cramps. When we make birth control cost money, it makes managing these medical problems harder. Overall, the benefits of free birth control significantly out weight any of its negatives. 

Armed Teachers

      Should we allow teachers to protect their classrooms with a gun? We should be allowing teachers to protect herself or himself and the 10-20 other lives in their classroom with an approved handgun, and a thorough mental health screening. I do not think a teacher should be required to have one, but it should be an option if they would like further protection for their classroom. It is a right given to us in the Bill of Rights that we can bare arms and I find that there is no better way to carry out that right than to use it to protect others. 

     Think back to the awful Sandy Hook shooting of 2012. Do you think 27 people would have died that day if just one teacher had been able to protect the school with their own fire arm? I do not have any children of my own, but I would be worried sick daily if I knew I was sending my child to school and their teacher had absolutely no way of protecting them other than locking the door and hiding in the corner. What good does that do? The number of school shootings would significantly decrease if a shooter knew that there were armed teachers in the building. Schools are targets. It’s a bunch of people, confined in one space with no way to protect themselves other than turning some lights off, locking doors and hiding in the corner. That does not seem to be stopping shooters. We need to take action and stop playing victims. We need to allow teachers to protect themselves and their classrooms if they feel comfortable.

     So how do we carry this out? How do we make sure teachers are ready and properly prepared to have a gun in their classroom? First and foremost, I believe a mental health screening is most important. We need to make sure these teachers are mentally stable and prepared for the responsibility that comes with handling a gun. Second, there should be extensive and proper training on how to handle, work with, and shoot a gun. Gun safety classes are the second most important step in allowing a teacher to have a gun in their classroom. We must make sure that they are extremely knowledgeable about the safety and significance of having a gun in a school. Third, they should stay in a safe at all times, so that it is ensured that only the approved teachers have access to the weapon. I believe that these are the top 3 most important things we must do so that teachers may have a gun to protect their classroom.

     Allowing teachers to carry in schools is a significant and vital step to protect the children and stop more school shootings from happening. Just as having a gun in your home is optional, teachers should have the option to protect themselves and their students throughout the school day. It would deter many potential school shooters and I believe that is an important step in completely eliminating school shootings.