Reducing School Shootings Smartly

The Florida school shooting, like the many before it, horrifies most of us and we want them to stop; but it ain’t that easy. It is more complicated than gun control and the 2nd Amendment. It is more complicated than arresting someone for a social media posting and the 4th Amendment. It is more complicated than screaming at the President, protesting the non-action of Congress and blaming the FBI, although in this case they are nakedly guilty of inaction. Sometimes you need to go all the way back to the beginning. Every cop starts his career walking or riding a beat and that is where we have to go to better prevent school shootings. One of the most effective ways to reduce crime is the presence of police officers. A cop on the corner with a gun will make most would-be criminals think twice. So a simple stop gap measure to reduce such incidents would be to have cops include stops at schools within their beat. It is a statistical fact that most police time is not spent fighting crime but preventing it. Cops on the beat stopping at schools at unpredictable times as part of their daily activity could create a significant barrier to someone contemplating becoming a “professional school shooter.” I can hear the complaints already, but it is a suggestion that could be integrated easily into an officers daily routine and would probably be more successful than protests by terrified students and activity by gun control advocates or the NRA. Such a plan could be implemented nationwide easily and would not require any more resources than currently being spent on law enforcement. Give it chance, it’s for our children.