IT seems that better sense finally prevailed last week as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government reconsidered its decision to allow arms on the premises of educational institutions.

Earlier, the KP information minister had stated that the provincial cabinet had authorised the employees of educational institutes to carry licensed arms with them.

While the idea itself of promoting the presence of weapons on campus is appalling, even more preposterous was the reason in this case: that the weaponry they carried would facilitate the staff in engaging with assailants in the initial moments of an attack.

Also read: KP makes a U-turn on allowing arms on campus

It quite seemed to have escaped the authorities’ attention that those involved in such an assault would most likely be hardened militants, ready to fight to the death, and not ordinary criminals who might be scared away by a security guard or a watchman with a gun.

Thankfully, after a representative body of KP’s primary school teachers volubly rejected the move, the provincial government distanced itself from it, with the provincial education minister saying that his department had not issued the directives and that his government would not encourage teachers to take arms to school.

The KP government did well by rescinding its decision, even as across the country schools were being asked to ensure that their premises were protected by gunmen. Security must be boosted at education institutes but are guns necessarily the answer?

Some accidents have already occurred as schools hire the services of armed security. Quite recently, four schoolgirls in Mansehra were injured when the gun held by a private security guard hired by the school went off accidentally, with one student receiving a bullet near her eye.

Before that, in Rawalpindi, a college student was similarly injured; in this case, it was found that the guard had never received any training in handling firearms.

Better ways have to be found to protect campuses. True, the fear factor in the aftermath of the Peshawar school tragedy is high. But the answer lies in implementing well-coordinated safety measures rather than encouraging the acquisition of guns.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2015

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