top of page
Writer's pictureCapitalismizawesome

How to Stop School Shootings

Updated: Apr 6, 2018


Guards help escort Chicago children to school to prevent gang violence.


I don't think that any one would argue with the fact that our children are precious. The future that they have ahead of them can have so much potential, and the idea that someone would cut that short is mind boggling.


We are once again staggered by the horrific news. Another school shooting has happened and with formulaic regularity all of the talking heads and politicians are parroting their same old rhetoric. On one side the gun banners want to ban all guns. Anyone who is against the idea is just heartless and mean. They say that something has to be done, but they offer no suggestions for how this is to be done other than suggesting that all guns should be banned.


On the other side we have people offering condolences, offering prayer, and offering comfort. They argue that banning guns would not prevent criminals from getting guns. They are argue they use comments like banning guns to stop violence is like banning spoons to stop obesity. All of that is true but they also offer no solutions.


While there are no 100% fool proof methods of stopping motivated criminals from committing crimes, there are concrete steps that we can take to prevent them. I think that we can take some cues from banks, casinos, and other industries that successfully protect valuables from criminals all the time. We can build smart schools (and upgrade older schools to make them more difficult for criminals to infiltrate.


We could guard our children the way that we guard other precious cargo. Look if there is a threat at the airport armed air marshals guard the planes. If there are large sums of money or something very valuable we put armed guards to watch it. Why don't we have armed school marshals at every school? Why not allow teachers with concealed carry permits to carry their weapons at school? We could even offer them additional training to help them protect our children if something happens. We could even deputize them if it makes people feel better, but in my opinion the more armed guards the school has the better.


Bank Tellers Desk with high barriers


Banks and Casinos also use smart architectural designs to protect their valuables and customers. For example look how most banks have designed the teller's desk. It is built with high barriers designed to prevent criminals from easily climbing over to get to the other side and each teller has access to a silent alarm that alerts police in the event of an emergency.


Many banks are designed with mantraps. They are rotary doors controlled by security and made from bullet resistant glass. If a criminal tries to come through the door and security spots a danger then with the push of a button they can trap them and hold them until police arrive.


Casinos use one way glass in key location so that they can observe would be cheaters without them knowing that they are being observed. They also have security cameras every where sometimes hidden behind that same kind of glass.


They use facial recognition software to identify known criminals and cheats to keep them out of their casinos. Even if a cheat tries to disguise themselves the software is so sophisticated that it can tell who they are.



For years now we have had watch lists which are used to prevent terrorists from getting on planes. Why not share that information with school systems? Or create a watch list just for school systems? Casinos do already do this so I know that it can be done. Casinos watch for suspicious activity inside the casino and enter suspicious characters into a database that they share nationwide with all of the other casinos. How hard would it be for schools to do something like that? They could add people from the sex offender registry, the terrorist watch list, or even people with history of domestic violence. My point is this the news has been reporting about all of the red flags that went up before this last school shooter did what he did.


I believe that a convergence of physical and logical security measures in our schools would go a long way toward preventing these things from happening. What is more some of these measures are a no brainer. We already use these techniques to protect customers and valuables in other areas of life so why not apply them to our schools? No, it would not be fool proof, but I believe that it would help a great deal.


Today it was reported that security at this school was virtually non existent. The suspect took an Uber cab to the campus, got out with suspicious looking back packs and duffel bags, walked onto the campus unchallenged even though he is not a student there, he entered a building through an unlocked door, and proceeded to commit his horrific crime. How different would this story be if the school had just locked the side doors during class hours?


Not all schools are this lax. In my own local area all the schools have side doors that lock automatically and require key entry or someone from inside to open them. The main entrance is locked and visitors interact with a receptionist inside through an intercom system with a camera on it. You have to tell the receptionist what your business is before she buzzes you in. They also have an armed policeman on campus during school hours. This kind of set up makes it real easy to guard children at key times like when buses are loading and off loading.


Basically it boils down to this. All the schools in the country need to wake up. This is part of our reality in America now. It is time to take steps to improve security at every single school in America. There is no excuse for someone to be able to walk in through an unlocked door on any school campus in America knowing what we know.


Finally I offer this advice. Stop making these people famous. I think that for some of these people that is what is motivating them to commit these crimes. They know that if they do something horrific enough that they will become famous. Their pictures and videos will become viral on social media and the news will talk about them for months. Everyone will know their name. I say stop telling the public what their name is. If it was up to me I would make it a media wide policy that they can report every detail about school shooting except for the name of the criminal that did it. Remove the lure of infamous notoriety and you will remove the temptation that some of these people are drawn to.


Learn about Global Warming

https://capitalismizawesom.wixsite.com/rightabouteverything/blog/vegetarians-cause-global-warming

Prepare for the red wave. Democrats about to get their butts handed to them in the mid term elections and here is why.

https://capitalismizawesom.wixsite.com/rightabouteverything/blog/election-mania-2018

22 views0 comments

Comentarios


bottom of page