There's nothing left to say after the horror that played out Friday morning in Sante Fe High School. There might be something when can learn. Ironically, and sadly, just last week I broke down the latest research, from teens, as measured by the Pew Research Center regarding what students themselves thought would make their schools safer. These were the top five answers:
#1: Preventing those with mental health issues from legally owning a firearm
#2: Improving mental health screening and treatment
#3: Metal detectors
#4: Additional gun control
#5: Allowing armed school staff
I'll come back to those in a minute. First, you've probably heard about the 22 school shootings so far in 2018. I went through each one of them to find out the details and to determine how many are relevant to the conversation regarding grade school security. First, most of the school shootings this year have been on college campuses and outside, so I excluded them from this conversation. When you break down the school shootings at grade-schools that happened in-doors (a couple took place in parking lots) here's what we're starring at in 2018:
8 School shootings
So, I wanted to go a bit further to attempt to discover how reforms, changes in laws, etc. would have potentially impacted the outcomes. I started with how many of the guns were legally possessed at the time of the shooting by the perpetrator. The answer is one. The one we're all too familiar with in Parkland. As we know we passed a law in Florida that would have prevented the shooter from legally obtaining the guns used. While, I and many, feel that the reforms in Florida can and should be passed federally that still wouldn't have impacted these other shooters. So, what would have?
Look to the number three answer of the students. Metal detectors. If someone is illegally possessing firearms, passing the additional reforms, and even stronger gun control measures with more specific bans, a la rifles, wouldn't change the outcome. Not being able to get those weapons into the school would have the ability to deter and prevent those types of attacks, like what happened in Texas on Friday from happening. Where we go from here is somewhat unclear but we're closer to answers if we more closely examine what students suggest would help and the facts of the shooting thus far in 2018.