Another school shooting, this time involving 15 year ancient at Saugus High School in California, another search for answers. But 20 years after Columbine, the United States is still searching for a way to stop mass shootings in public places. The rest of the world, where mass shootings in public places are actually much more commonis also looking for solutions. Russia, France, Finland and Norway are among the European countries that have experienced significantly higher deaths per capita from these attacks.
Change is coming, albeit slowly, in the United States. Earlier this year, Florida and Texas passed significant amendments to their laws that significantly escalate the number of teachers with guns in schools. Both bills received powerful support from the states’ Republican governors.
FloridaThe bill removed the restriction that allowed only teachers outside the classroom to defend the classroom. Texas the limit on the number of school employees who can carry firearms on school grounds has been lifted.
It is no coincidence that every mass shooting in public places in Europe since at least 1990 has taken place in an area where average, law-abiding citizens are prohibited from carrying firearms for protective purposes, and in the case of the most recent mass shooting in public places New Zealand, Brazil and the NetherlandsThe same thing applied 94% such attacks in the USA since 1950.
Moms Demand Action, a gun control group funded by Michael Bloomberg, he argues that the Texas and Florida bills “will make school a much more dangerous place for our children.” Meanwhile, President Trump continues to propose arming teachers and staff in schools, saying, “I’m telling you it will work.”
But 20 states teachers and staff are now allowed to carry weapons to varying degrees on school grounds, so we don’t have to guess how sheltered those schools are. Some states have had such laws for decades. Only California and Rhode Island have taken steps to impose more stringent restrictions in recent decades. The Crime Prevention Research Center, of which I am president, just released fresh report looking at all school shootings that occurred in the United States between 2000 and 2018.
In those years, Utah, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and parts of Oregon allowed all eligible teachers and staff to carry guns without any additional training requirements. Other states leave it up to the discretion of the local superintendent or school board. As of December 2018, teachers carried guns in more than 30 percent of Texas school districts. And as of September 2018, Ohio teachers carried guns in more than 200 school districts.
About 5 percent of Utah teachers carry permitted concealed handguns at school, according to Clark Aposhian, a senior fellow at Utah’s Concealed Firearm Review Board. Support staff — including janitors, librarians, secretaries and cafeteria staff — carry at a higher estimated rate of 10 to 12 percent.
Carrying a gun in school is no different than carrying one in a grocery store, movie theater, or restaurant. Seventeen million Americans have concealed firearm permits—which is 8.75 percent adult population outside of California and New York, which are license-unfriendly states. No one knows whether the person next to them might have a gun unless it’s absolutely necessary.
We found 306 cases of shootings on school grounds, of which 48 were suicides. Excluding suicides, 193 people died and 267 were injured in these incidents. Four cases were simply cases of accidental police shootings.
The number of shootings and people killed in them has increased significantly since 2000. The average annual number of people killed doubled between 2001 and 2008 compared to 2009 and 2018 (whether or not gang fighting and suicides are excluded).
This escalate occurred exclusively in schools that do not allow teachers to carry weapons. Aside from suicides or gang violence in the morning, there has not been a single case of anyone being injured or killed in a shooting at a school that allows teachers and staff to carry weapons during school hours. In fact, one shooting occurred at 2:20 a.m. in a parking lot when there were no armed teachers there.
There were no stern accidents. No student ever got their hands on a teacher’s weapon, and one accidental shot by a teacher occurred outside school hours. The teacher suffered only very minor injuries.
School insurance premiums have not increased at all since teachers were allowed to carry insurance.From what I saw in Utah, [school insurance] rates did not escalate due to gun permit,” says Curt Oda, former president of the Utah Association of Independent Insurance Agents. A study of six other states also found no escalate in insurance costs.
Police are essential, but they can’t be everywhere at once. Even if an officer is stationed at a school, mass shooters in public places are more likely to attack an officer first. We’ve seen this happen in malls, nightclubs and schools. It makes police work much safer. Concealed carry means that killers won’t know who’s armed. Even if they catch an officer off guard, they have to worry about revealing their position to someone else who can stop them.
Not a single person has been injured or killed by a teacher’s gun. But even more astonishing, not a single person has been shot during school hours. Gun control groups can paint terrifying pictures of what could go wrong with teachers carrying guns, but that fear becomes harder to push given the success of these programs. This research provides evidence that armed teachers deter attacks.
It’s high time we do something that actually works. In the wake of another mass shooting in California, it’s time for California to acknowledge that its gun control laws may be part of the problem. Let’s stop leaving our kids in school as basic targets.
* Lott is the president Crime Prevention Research Center and author of the latest “War of the Guns.”
