Mike Conrad:

I think that the moment that you put a gun on the hip of a teacher in a classroom, that we have accepted the norm that school shootings will not stop, that we are now on the front line to defend against them, instead of trying to find a way to stop them.

And I look at a classroom as a safe environment. And I never look at it, when I say that to students or to parents, that a safe environment in a classroom means defending against shootings. What I look at, is it a place where a student can talk to me, where a student can bring their problems to me?

When they know that one of their friends might go home this weekend and harm themselves, and not come back on Monday, and they come to me and tell me that, I know that they trust me that they can come and say those things to me.

That's a safe environment. The second I put a gun on my hip, I don't think that that relationship continues.