Teachers like me are trained to educate kids. Arming us will make everyone less safe.

My lifelong passion for education has led me straight to Nashville, Tennessee, where I now major in elementary education at Vanderbilt.

Part of my studies requires me to complete countless hours of elementary education curricula, including tutoring, practicum, and student teaching, all to ensure I’m well trained for the many challenges of the job. Managing a classroom is taxing, it takes an incredible amount of focus and dedication for not only students, but also teachers, to get through a single lesson.

And these difficulties are all without deadly weapons in the mix. Our attention should be on students, not firearms. Guns are already the leading cause of death for my generation – and my students’ generation –  and this would only increase the risk for me and my students.

Counterpoint: These Tennessean readers support allowing teachers to be armed in the classroom

Teachers overwhelmingly agree that guns do not belong in schools

More guns in more places do not make us safer, especially schools. The risk of a shooting increases when we bring guns into the classroom. There have already been several incidents of guns unintentionally or intentionally discharged on school grounds by school staff. Not only that but research also strongly suggests that children will access guns when they are present. There have been multiple situations where guns carried into schools were misplaced and several more where they were outright stolen by students.

So why is the legislature trying to make our jobs more dangerous by passing House Bill 1202 to allow teachers to be armed?

Guns do not belong in schools – and the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, the nation’s two largest teachers’ organizations representing millions of educators and staff, agree. They also staunchly oppose arming teachers. If we want to set the precedent that students are safe at school, then lawmakers must enact laws that uphold the sanctity of the classroom.

I can’t fathom what our educational system would become in a world where access to children’s books in schools is more regulated than access to lethal weaponry. Our job as teachers is to help children learn while keeping them safe. That’s impossible if guns are part of the equation.

Educators must focus on student outcomes, not firearm safety

I know that I feel safer at my school when firearms can’t plague our hallways, and so do an overwhelming amount of teachers. A March 2018 survey of almost 500 U.S. teachers found that 73% oppose proposals to arm school staff. The chance of an unintentional shooting is zero when guns aren’t present. But for every gun that gets placed in a classroom to arm a teacher, there is a new opportunity for a student to become another statistic. Schools should be a sanctuary for students, not a battlefield.

Arming teachers is a gateway to more violence. I thought my biggest worry as a teacher would be making sure my students succeed, but now my focus has shifted, because I’m forced to think about how to save one of my students' lives if they get struck with a bullet.

A teacher's job is to teach. We all agree that keeping students safe is the priority and I would take a bullet for my students, which believe me when I say it is: It’s not a metaphor. I would do anything to protect them, and that’s what I’m doing now by advocating against this bill.

I’m fighting for the lives and safety of my students by demanding Tennessee House Leadership not take up House Bill 1202. Arming teachers will not prevent or stop school shootings. We can’t end gun violence with more gun violence.

Barbara Sloan is a junior at Vanderbilt University and a volunteer leader with the university’s Students Demand Action chapter. Sloan is a student teacher, channeling her passion for helping students learn and grow through her advocacy to prevent gun violence, the leading cause of death for children, teens, and college-aged people in the United States.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee would rather ban books than outlaw guns in the classroom