America's response to school shootings is shockingly wrong
“He shot and killed horrifically, incomprehensibly,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said, describing the actions of the 18-year-old gunman allegedly responsible for killing 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last Tuesday.
Horrifically? Yes. Incomprehensibly? Hardly.
Americans have come to expect such tragedies. Columbine. Red Lake. Newtown. Parkland. And now Uvalde.
Recent analysis shows that active shootings at K-12 schools are getting worse. Yet the vast majority of school shootings are preventable if we didn't have a completely misguided approach to addressing the problem. Instead of being proactive we are overwhelmingly reactive.
Just hours after the shooting in Uvalde, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested that the best way to keep our children safe is to “arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators.” The idea of arming teachers is right out of the gun lobby's playbook.
If our goal is to keep school shootings from happening, we have to prioritize prevention over after-the-fact interruption. Our laws make it nearly impossible for bad actors to legally obtain the precursor explosives necessary for building large-scale bombs. And there are no elected officials claiming that the only way to stop a bad guy with a bomb is a good guy with a bomb.
President Joe Biden argued that the path forward requires “common sense gun laws.” As he said, “We know they work and have a positive impact.” Research on gun violence confirms this.
There is strong evidence that these specific measures could reduce horrific acts of gun violence.
• Bans on assault weapons have been shown to significantly reduce the frequency and lethality of mass shootings. In particular, when the federal assault weapons ban was in effect between 1994 and 2004, gun massacres resulting in six or more deaths fell by more than onethird. They nearly tripled after the ban expired.
• Permit-to-purchase laws are known to reduce mass shooting violence. Research shows that in states where gun purchasers are required to be licensed and fingerprinted before obtaining a firearm, mass shootings occur at a much lower rate.
• Red flag laws allow authorities or family members to petition a court if a loved one is believed to pose a threat to themselves or others, and to request that the person in question be temporarily dispossessed of their firearms. Early research around these orders is encouraging.
• Restrictions on firearms those younger than 21 can purchase also offer promise. The alleged Robb Elementary gunman reportedly bought his assault rifles just a few days prior to the shooting, right after he turned 18. Approximately 20% of active shootings at K-12 schools are committed by people between 18 and 20. By limiting this age group to ownership of long guns traditionally used for hunting, mass shootings could be significantly reduced.
• Finally, as approximately 3 out of 4 school shooters who are under 18 obtain their firearms from home, safe storage and child-access-prevention laws — which require that firearms be unloaded and locked when unattended in the home — can be beneficial in preventing school shootings. Broader studies indicate that such laws also reduce gun theft, firearm suicide and unintentional shootings.
Officials need to turn to evidence-based gun restrictions, which can help save lives through prevention, and stop reacting to massacres like the one in Uvalde with rhetoric and excuses promoted by the gun lobby. If there's one thing better for public safety than a good guy with a gun, it's a bad guy without a gun.
Louis Klarevas is a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the author of “Rampage Nation: Securing America from Mass Shootings.” Sonali Rajan is a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Charles Branas is a professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. © 2022 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.