Arming teachers is equipping teachers in preschool through secondary school with firearms with the intent to prevent casualties from school shootings. Such proposals have engendered public debate regarding with whom the responsibility for providing a safe environment lies, and whether it would reduce or escalate the risk of shootings. School shootings, and proposals to arm teachers, are most common in the United States, but proposals have also been made in countries such as Israel, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Thailand.

In the United States, proposals to arm teachers were made following shootings at schools in Columbine, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; Newtown, Connecticut; Sidney, Ohio; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. 43 percent of Americans support arming of school personnel, with greater support among gun owners, Republicans, and White Americans. The federal Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 allows individual states to designate who may carry guns in schools.

In places where proposals to arm teachers were made or implemented, public debate ensued. Opponents of arming teachers argue that it is not the teachers' job to provide security, but rather the task of the government, as the teachers' employer, to provide a safe work environment. Another argument is that doing so would be a public health hazard, escalating violence and posing a risk to both students and staff at schools. Opponents state that teachers could accidentally shoot themselves or accidentally shoot students or staff, that teachers could accidentally discharge their firearm, that there are legal risks associated with improper use of firearms that could create a heightened liability risk for insurance companies, that a teacher responding to a perpetrator with force could be mistaken as the perpetrator by law enforcement, that black students would feel less safe around armed teachers due to institutional racism and that teachers could misplace, lose, not properly store, or have their firearms stolen.

The RAND Evaluation of the New York City Police Department Firearm Training and Firearm-Discharge Review Process found only 18 percent of shots fired by trained police officers in gunfights hit their criminal targets. This suggests four or five of every six shots fired by comparably trained teachers would hit something or someone other than the targeted shooter. Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wrote, "although the perpetrators of mass school shootings have been almost exclusively white, there's little doubt that arming teachers will lead disproportionately to the killing—by teachers—of children of color."

Proponents of arming teachers state it would minimize deaths and deter potential attackers from carrying out attacks at schools. Proponents also state that teachers in the United States have both a right and responsibility to use firearms to protect themselves and their students. They point out that where security has been entrusted to police or private guards, they have failed to prevent attacks.

Israel had experienced six terrorist school shootings dating back to the 1970s. In response, in 1995 a law mandating an armed security guard at every school with more than 100 students was passed, while teachers remained unarmed. In 2001, a proposal was made to establish "stand-by" squads of teachers to respond to terrorist attacks. The teachers would be volunteers, who already have gun licenses, and would be trained by police in emergency response.

The plan was not implemented. Instead, some schools post an armed guard outside the entrance.

The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has called on the Kenyan government to deploy firearms to teachers and offer security training to tutors following incidents of teachers in high-risk areas being killed by attackers.