Do we really need to terrify our children about school shootings? While JD Vance says that is just a fact of life, so is cancer. That does not mean we just accept it. Most people say we can and should do better, and we must.
There were 83 incidents in 2023 in the U.S. There are over 115,000 schools, so the odds of a shooting at a particular school in a year is about 1 in 1,200 or on a particular day 1 in 24,000. Not a comforting number, but not a higher risk than a lot of other childhood experiences. Children are more likely to die of suicide, vehicle crash or drowning.
People look for a magic bullet. So, the suggestions begin to come. Ban all guns sounds simple, but criminals are not likely to surrender theirs. “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong,” said H. L. Mencken.
Some preach “put God,” that is enforced prayer, “back in school.” Scaring children into good behavior is a practice as old as religion, but not necessarily effective. Remember the big bad wolf or boogie man. Think about how well that worked in the Middle Ages when people were tortured for trivial offences. Thoughts and prayers are not likely to change much. Hollywood could reduce their entertainment gunfire.
We could, someone suggested, have the same sort of screenings as an airport. Federal TSA screens almost 200,000 unique passengers at the 2 Hawaii Island airports. There are 84 public schools in the K-12 range. With the same people at school almost every day. How about a police officer in every school? We have about 100 officers, on duty at any one time. Those do not seem affordable. Most places police response time is under 5 minutes.
Declare schools and other public places gun free and put-up signs. Criminals and psychopaths are known for their religious respect for rules and signs. Some want to arm teachers; others are horrified by the idea. How is an occasional armed qualified coach or principal much different from an armed police officer? The terrorist has to guess which school has such a guardian.
Several shooter-on-campus incidents ended peacefully because someone skillfully talked the terrorist into surrendering before the police even arrived. That is a skill that should be taught to every principal, many police officers and anyone responsible for the safety of large numbers.
Red flag laws could make a difference, but they have to be enforced and that means they have to be taken seriously by family neighbors and authorities working within civil rights guidelines. Possible but not easy. Background checks for purchase or exchange can help, if they are enforced. Too often a person forbidden to acquire a firearm can try over and again until he succeeds, even though the law says he should be prosecuted the first time.
We could ban assault rifles, but handguns kill twice as many as all rifles. It is a bit difficult to define assault rifle and the definitions often used are more cosmetic than functional. A pistol grip or flash suppressor does not make a real difference in deadliness. A fully automatic rifle that can empty a 30-round magazine in 3 seconds has very little use anywhere but a battlefield. Even there, full-automatic is used frugally to conserve ammunition and avoid collateral damage. A questionable horrible SCOTUS decision make it possible with a bump stock semi-automatic to spray bullets indiscriminately. That does not make sense even on a battlefield unless you’re in a hurry to massacre captives.
A semi-automatic (one squeeze, one bullet) weapon is harder to regulate. Hunters justify them to avoid leaving wounded game to die slowly. Police favor them to avoid being overwhelmed. Individuals with a realistic fear of overwhelming attack favor them for the same reason.
The Second Amendment gets in the way of some proposed solutions but history provides sound reasons to retain it. In the 20th century hundreds of millions who did not have the right to keep and bear arms were legally deprived of their life, liberty or property. The solution is never easy, if many of the proposals above were implemented it would help.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com.