I’m leery of any suggestion to arm teachers with pistols, let alone students. When I was at Keflavik Naval Station in 1975-76, I was trained to use an M-14 rifle* to help defend the base in the event of a Soviet ground attack. We wanted to be issued Colt 45s as well, but our Marine trainers wouldn’t allow it. They said handling a pistol in combat is tricky. We’d need serious training up front, and periodic refreshers to maintain proficiency. In the absence of those, if we faced off with a Soviet soldier in close quarters, we’d kill the friendlies around us and completely miss the bad guy.

* We used M-14s because the M-16s at that time were apt to get fouled by ice, snow, and shards of volcanic rock. M-14s were sturdier and easier to un-jam.