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Preventing School Shootings

I’ve read a wide variety of recommendations to prevent another school massacre in different places. I’m sure they all mean well, but most will be very difficult or impossible to implement.

Those who wish to further restrict gun rights may win a few battles, but even if they are very successful they aren’t going to change the landscape of the U.S. by much. If there is a “next shooter” out there right now he probably isn’t going to be affected by any new gun laws.

Those who wish to significantly revamp our mental health system to identify and better handle these situations are also unlikely to make a big difference. Among other things, our protection of civil liberties, medical privacy laws and litigiousness as a society will continue to make it difficult to prevent these cases.

Those who wish to make schools much harder targets will also probably meet with limited success. Some areas may be comfortable with armed teachers, others with armed guards or policemen, but many will not.

There are a few things I would suggest that might be more easily implemented (let’s grab the low hanging fruit first):

I don’t know about the most recent shooter, but several of the mass shooters in the recent past were motivated by the prospect of fame. Some of them obsessed about it and spent a lot of time pondering how to make their massacre the most famous ever. I propose that the major media (U.S., international, you name it) stop identifying them by name. This would be voluntary, but if enough public pressure were applied perhaps we could get them to agree to it. Yes, I know that the names and photos would still end up on the internet, but the big thrill of imagining your name and photo above the fold at the supermarket or on the home page when you log in would be gone. This may be a very small step, but not glorifying these atrocities seems like one that could get widespread support.

A second idea that I hope can get widespread support and be implemented rather quickly involves hardening the targets apart and aside from bringing in armed security (teachers or otherwise). Again, I haven’t studied the details of the Parkland shooting, but the murderer walked into the school carrying a rifle. In most office buildings in a metropolitan area this couldn’t happen. There is, at a minimum, a receptionist or security guard watching everyone who enters. If the Parkland shooter had faced this obstacle he might have still pulled it off, keep the rifle out of sight as long as possible, shoot the guard first, then start the attack. However, there is a chance that the guard would raise the alarm, possibly even stop him. Even if he took out the guard quickly and cleanly the school would know it was under attack before he reached a classroom. This could be made far more effective depending on the physical layout, for example, if the guard is situated so that they can’t be approached furtively or if there is a physical barrier that they must permit you to pass.
We should develop a comprehensive “best practices” security plan that can be fine tuned to each school’s circumstances. Obviously, nothing is foolproof, and people fail to follow through, procedures stop being followed, etc. but this seems like something that should be doable.

I’m really interested in feedback, especially any reasons these two ideas aren’t practical or worthwhile – or if the details I’m unaware of make these ideas moot.

I’m working on a separate article about other options re: guns, mental health, the government’s role in the Parkland massacre, etc. so please leave those comments out of this discussion. I really, really, want to vet the two ideas noted above, not get into an argument about the NRA or PC at this point, that can come soon enough.

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Raffles
Raffles
6 years ago

I wonder if you’ve seen English schools?

They look like prisons, with their security fencing.

It’s certainly hardened the target, but what does it show to the pupils? That they’re not trusted to stay within their assigned boundaries? The outside world is too dangerous for them?

Once you’ve made schools a little harder, what next? Malls, sports grounds? Wherever people congregrate can be a target.

I don’t have the answer, but hardening one target doesn’t seem to be an solution.

Gamecock
Gamecock
6 years ago
Reply to  Raffles

Agreed. Terrorists are tearing down Western decadence.

Some of the public need always be armed. The militia. The Yeomanry. It is absolutely impossible to keep someone from attacking groups of people. The people need the capability of their own defense. All else will fail.

Matt
Matt
6 years ago

It seems to me that hardened classroom doors that lock during lessons would be a barrier to most of the murders. Obviously that needs to be balanced against the fire brigade being able to open doors during a fire.

The killer can wander the halls with impunity if he can’t get to anybody.

Benaud
Benaud
6 years ago
Reply to  Matt

I Fl the gunman was locked in the corridor. He breached the door window a sniped those within.

Several students have commented on how the set up limited the transverse of the weapon, casualties may have been heavier if he had a shorter weapon.

The door may have offered protection for him.

Chris
Chris
6 years ago

Broadly yes. Voluntary press restrictions were used to minimize coverage of other albeit less brutal issues and urban schools often already have secure perimeters. It is however much harder with schools with playing fields and other facilities and wider campuses on site simply as the perimeter is larger and access can be easily managed. (ironically securing artillery ranges is really rather hard for similar reasons).

The oddly missing element from a European view is not so much gun control but ammunition control.

Mr Ecks
Mr Ecks
6 years ago

No to ANY gun or ammo control. Those intent on replacing us–and those doing the replacement–have no interest in any gun control apart from on us. The little local school I went to as a kid–with a little low wall around that we used to jump over now looks like Stalag-Luft 14 with 15 foot wire fences etc. I’m surprised they haven’t put a helicopter net over the playground in case some paedo tries to ‘copter in for an abduction. Also the men who taught there –men–who had fought and suffered in WW2 and knew something of what life was… Read more »

Gamecock
Gamecock
6 years ago

A ban on publishing multiple murderers’ names is a good idea. It’s not a new idea. The legacy press is conscious of what they are doing. We now have a president, Trump, who is capable, and motivated, shame the legacy press into stopping it. As far as being voluntary, I think it could be made law. In spite of Constitutional uncertainty, NO ONE would dare challenge it, not even the ACLU. Hardening schools is a waste of money. Like a border wall, it would represent failure. Arming some school staff will create a deterrent far beyond the local school. I.e.,… Read more »

Bloke in North Dorset
Bloke in North Dorset
6 years ago
Reply to  Gamecock

“A ban on publishing multiple murderers’ names is a good idea. It’s not a new idea. The legacy press is conscious of what they are doing. We now have a president, Trump, who is capable, and motivated, shame the legacy press into stopping it.”

Well it might work except that Trumps version of Tourette syndrome means he’ll blow it by tweeting out the details.

Spike
6 years ago

That, and the “legacy press” is not exactly eager to do things because Trump asks it to. (In fact, I don’t see the risk of a rash Tweet in this case, as you shame someone by shaming them publicly, in which case everyone knows the details anyway.)

So Much For Subtlety
So Much For Subtlety
6 years ago

26 of the last 27 mass shootings were committed by children of divorce. Make divorce harder. Or give custody to the father rather than the weak and ineffectual mother. Among other things, our protection of civil liberties, medical privacy laws and litigiousness as a society will continue to make it difficult to prevent these cases. I disagree. In the old days a panel of doctors could decide someone was a danger and lock them away. But then the Left saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and decided that the mentally ill were the good guys and insisted they all… Read more »

Spike
6 years ago

Obama’s racist PROMISE program is at issue. http://sunshinestatenews.com/story/progressive-promise-program-still-issue-making-parkland-tragedy

And Trump and Education Secretary DeVos are studying dropping the program. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-education/2018/03/13/trump-school-safety-plan-targets-obama-discipline-directive-130118

It is tragic that this has taken more than a year, but there is simply too much Obama sabotage, too many administrative rules against an agency arbitrarily reversing course, and too many Obama appointees to District Courts, to do it quickly.

Gamecock
Gamecock
6 years ago

“The other thing is that this boy could buy his weapons because he had a clean criminal record.” He was able to get his weapon because he lives in the United States. Gun control – keeping undesirables from getting guns – is juvenile in a country with 300,000,000 guns. And would all be happier if he had use an IED and killed 125? Should you actually be able to keep him from getting a gun, which you can’t, he’d still pursue a path to destruction, and many paths would lead to greater loss of children. See Bath School Massacre as… Read more »

Spike
6 years ago

Yes, America will remain a nation committed to gun rights, and to protection against individuals having their rights curtailed because of a government guess about what they might do next. Yes to “hardening the targets,” but see my article here, at https://www.continentaltelegraph.com/2018/03/11/the-colonies-garbage-in-massacres-out/ for some of the institutional resistance to this. We should develop a comprehensive “best practices” security plan – There are already bookshelves of plans at the federal and state levels, and an entire new Cabinet-level department with the vague name of Homeland Security. Another American tradition, local control, will serve it well. Administrators in the schools know their… Read more »

Ljh
Ljh
6 years ago

Re not naming the shooter: in this case if the press anonimised reports, it would be enabling the coverup of the failings of various taxfunded agencies supposedly keeping the community safe ie education department policies keeping criminal youth from getting criminal records with financial incentives; social services for keeping Nikolas Cruz off the record despite being obviously damaged in utero by his addict mother before being adopted and becoming a problem child despite loving care; the police department, complicit with the education department in keeping minority folk from having their crimes at home or school recorded; the armed school guard… Read more »

Spike
6 years ago
Reply to  Ljh

Grade-school children are in our legislative hearing rooms begging to be declared soft targets for the next shooter, as Mayor Bloomberg and “Everytown [sic] for Gun Safety [sic]” uses them as props for more gun-free [sic] zones. They are proving mostly that they are incompletely educated, though they are stuck in a system where advocacy beats education. Cruz was 19, but if he were under 18, police here cannot disclose, and the press either cannot or will not investigate, an assailant’s name. We seem to have decided that young lives should not be ruined based on “youthful mistakes,” in the… Read more »

Gamecock
Gamecock
6 years ago
Reply to  Spike

Mayor Bloomberg – is that the guy with all the armed guards?

Yes, he has armed guards, but doesn’t want you to be armed. Cos he’s more equal.

Spike
6 years ago
Reply to  Gamecock

Hizzoner does have armed guards – and surely a wall on his personal Southern Border.

Daniel
Daniel
6 years ago

The media love these school shootings because they can bash Republicans and call for gun confiscation. No way would they allow any restriction on reporting, it’s just not in their interest.

Gamecock
Gamecock
6 years ago

What’s going on? Another post of mine being put up under Mr Ecks banner.

Spike
6 years ago
Reply to  Gamecock

One attributed to me as well. Mr Ecks’ remedy of saying nasty things about Murphy is not a deterrent; this is a different vandal. It does not take much noise to ruin a conversation. I’ve emailed Tim.

eris23
eris23
6 years ago

People have committed heinous acts to become famous since the time of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herostratus

Maybe, instead of “a right to be forgotten”, we need “an obligation to be forgotten” as with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae

mikesixes
mikesixes
6 years ago

I’d like to see legislation that changes a mass murderer’s legal name to “Some Asshole” before it’s released for publication.

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