Editing School shooting (section)

==School countermeasures==

=== Armed classrooms ===
{{main|Arming teachers}}
There has been considerable policy discussion about how to help prevent school and other types of mass shootings. One suggestion that has come up is the idea to allow firearms in the classroom. "Since the issue of arming teachers is a relatively new topic, it has received little empirical study. Therefore, most of the literature does not come from peer-reviewed sources but rather published news reports. In addition, most of these reports are not objective and clearly appear to support a specific side of the debate."<ref name="auto">{{cite web|title=Teachers with Guns: Firearms Discharges by School teachers, 1980–2012 |url= http://homicidecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Teachers-with-Guns-RESEARCH-REPORT-FINAL.pdf|website=Homicidecenter.org|access-date=May 21, 2018 |page=3 |date=2013}}</ref> So far, data has been inconclusive as to whether or not arming teachers would have any sort of benefit for schools. For years, some areas in the US have allowed "armed classrooms" to deter (or truncate) future attacks by changing helpless victims into armed defenders. Advocates of arming teachers claim that it will reduce fatalities in school shootings, but many others disagree.

Many teachers have had their concerns with the idea of armed classrooms. "One teacher stated that although she is pro-gun, she does not feel as though she could maintain gun safety on school grounds (Reuters, 2012). Teachers expressed the fear that bigger students could overpower them, take the weapon, and then use it against the teacher or other students." Some members of the armed forces have also had concerns with armed classrooms. Police forces in Texas brought up the potential for teachers to leave a gun where a student could retrieve and use it. "They are further concerned that if every teacher had a gun, there would be an unnecessarily large number of guns in schools (even including elementary schools). This large number of guns could lead to accidental shootings, especially those involving younger children who do not understand what guns do."

To diminish school shootings there are many preventive measures that can be taken such as:
* Installing wireless panic alarms to alert law enforcement.
* Limiting points of entry with security guarding them.
* Strategically placing telephones for emergencies so police are always reachable at any point in the campus.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Morris|first1=Robert|last2=Duplechain|first2=Rosalind|title=New Ways To Stop Bullying|journal=Monitor on Psychology|date=2002|volume=33|issue=9|pages=64}}</ref>
* Employing school psychologists to monitor and provide mental health services for those that need help.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf|title=Now Is The Time|website=[[White House]]|access-date=May 21, 2018}}</ref>
* Coordinating a response plan between local police and schools in the event of a threat.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Deadly Dreams|last=Robertz|first=Frank|date=August 1, 2007|work=Scientific American}}</ref>

In a 2013 research report published by the Center for Homicide Research, they find that many also reject the idea of having armed classrooms due to what is termed the "[[weapons effect]]", which is the phenomenon in which simply being in the presence of a weapon can increase feelings of aggression. "In Berkowitz & LaPage's (1967) examination of this effect, students who were in the presence of a gun reported higher levels of aggressive feelings towards other students and gave more violent evaluations of other students' performance on a simple task in the form of electric shocks. This finding points to possible negative outcomes for students exposed to guns in the classroom (Simons & Turner, 1974; Turner & Simons, 1976)."<ref name="auto"/>

In 2008, [[Harrold Independent School District]] in [[Texas]] became the first public school district in the U.S. to allow teachers with state-issued firearm-carry permits to carry their arms in the classroom; special additional training and ricochet-resistant ammunition were required for participating teachers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/us/29texas.html?scp=2&sq=gun+control&st=nyt |first=James C. Jr. |last=McKinley |title=In Texas School, Teachers Carry Books and Guns |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 28, 2008}}</ref> Students at the [[University of Utah]] have been allowed to carry [[concealed carry|concealed pistols]] (so long as they possess the appropriate state license) since a [[State Supreme Court]] decision in 2006.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Campus-Guns.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219151807/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Campus-Guns.php |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 19, 2008 |title=Guns on college campuses allowed in U.S. state Utah |agency=The Associated Press |newspaper=[[Int. Her. Trib.]] |date=March 29, 2009 |access-date=May 4, 2012}}</ref> In addition to Utah, Wisconsin and Mississippi each have legislation that allow students, faculty and employees with the proper permit, to carry concealed weapons on their public university's campuses.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/Channel/University-Security/News/2011/09/07/U-of-Wisconsin-Prepares-for-New-Concealed-Carry-Law.aspx |title=U of Wisconsin Prepares for New Concealed Carry Law |journal=Campus Safety Magazine |date=September 7, 2011 |access-date=May 4, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=February 19, 2012 |url=http://www.thedmonline.com/article/mississippi-passes-new-campus-gun-laws |title=Mississippi Passes New Campus Gun Laws |newspaper=Daily Mississippian |access-date=August 19, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109162315/http://thedmonline.com/article/mississippi-passes-new-campus-gun-laws |archive-date=November 9, 2012 }}</ref> Colorado and Oregon state courts have ruled in favor of Campus Carry laws by denying their universities' proposals to ban guns on campus, ruling that the UC Board of Regents and the Oregon University System did not have the authority to ban weapons on campus.<ref>{{cite news |first=Monte |last=Whaley |newspaper=[[The Denver Post]] |url=http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20104814 |title=Colorado Supreme Court affirms that CU students with permits can carry concealed guns on campus |date=March 5, 2012 |access-date=May 4, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Bill |last=Graves |newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2011/09/oregon_court_of_appeals_reject.html |title=Oregon Court of Appeals rejects university system's ban on guns on campus |date=September 28, 2011 |access-date=May 4, 2012}}</ref> A selective ban was then re-instated, wherein Oregon state universities enacted a ban on guns in school building and sporting events or by anyone contracted with the university in question.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ous.edu/sites/default/files/state_board/polipro/OUS-Policy-on-Firearms.pdf |title=Oregon University System Policy on Firearms |date=March 2, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504202504/http://ous.edu/sites/default/files/state_board/polipro/OUS-Policy-on-Firearms.pdf |archive-date=May 4, 2012 }}</ref>
A commentary in the conservative [[National Review|''National Review Online'']] argues that the armed school approach for preventing school attacks, while new in the US, has been used successfully for many years in Israel and [[Thailand]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel200409022215.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107001716/http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel200409022215.asp |archive-date=January 7, 2010 |first=Dave |last=Kopel |title=Follow the Leader: Israel and Thailand set an example by arming teachers. |journal=[[National Review]] |date=September 2, 2004}}</ref> Teachers and school officials in Israel are allowed and encouraged to carry firearms if they have former military experience in the [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]], which almost all do. Statistics on what percentage of teachers are actually armed are unavailable and in Israel, for example, the intent is to counter politically motivated terrorist attacks on high value, soft targets, not personal defense against, or protection from, unbalanced individual students.

The National Rifle Association has explicitly called for placing armed guards in all American schools.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/us/nra-calls-for-armed-guards-at-schools.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231005300/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/us/nra-calls-for-armed-guards-at-schools.html |archive-date=December 31, 2012 |work=The New York Times |first1=Eric |last1=Lichtblau |first2=Motoko |last2=Rich |title=N.R.A. Envisions 'a Good Guy With a Gun' in Every School |date=December 21, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> However, Steven Strauss, a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, offered a preliminary calculation that placing armed guards in every American school might cost as much as $15 billion/year, and perhaps only save 10 lives per year (at a cost of $1.5 billion/life saved).<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-strauss/armed-guards-in-schools_b_2468810.html | work=Huffington Post | title=Five Concerns About Armed Guards in Schools | date=January 13, 2013}}</ref>

=== Preventive measures ===
Because of the increase in guns in the United States, many schools and local communities are taking it into their own hands by providing young students with early gun safety courses to make them aware of the dangers these objects actually are, also to prevent school shootings. According to Katherine A. Fowler, PhD, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An average 1,297 children die (two children per 100,000) and 5,790 are treated for injuries caused by guns each year, the study reported. Six percent of these deaths were accidental, 38% were suicides, 53% were homicides and the remaining 3% were from legal intervention or undetermined reasons. Guns injured children at a rate of 8 per 100,000 children, but this rate is likely considerably higher because of unreported injuries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2017/06/19/american-denial-about-facts-on-guns-continues-to-kill-children/#38cd87354a9a|title=Children Are Dying Because Of Americans' Denial About Guns|last=Tara|first=Haelle|website=[[Forbes]]|date=June 19, 2017}}</ref>

A preventive measure proposed for stopping school shooting has been focused on securing firearms in the home. A shooting in [[Sparks, Nevada]] on October 21, 2013, left a teacher and the shooter, a twelve-year-old student, dead with two seriously injured. The handgun used in the shooting had been taken from the shooter's home. [[Sandy Hook Elementary School]] in Newtown, [[Red Lake High School]] in Red Lake, Minnesota in 2005, and [[Heath High School (Kentucky)|Heath High School]] in West Paducah, Kentucky in 1997 also involved legal guns taken from the home.

A 2000 study of firearm storage in the United States found that "from the homes with children and firearms, 55% reported to have one or more firearms in an unlocked place". 43% reported keeping guns without a trigger lock in an unlocked place. In 2005 a study was done on adult firearm storage practices in the United States found that over 1.69 million youth under age 18 are living in homes with loaded and unlocked firearms. Also, 73% of children under age 10 living in homes with guns reported knowing the location of their parents' firearms.<ref>"Preventing school shootings starts with gun safety at home". ''Christian Science Monitor''. October 31, 2013.</ref>

Most states have Child Access Prevention Laws—laws designed to prevent children from accessing firearms. Each state varies in the degree of the severity of these laws. The toughest laws enforce criminal liability when a minor achieves access to a carelessly stored firearm. The weakest forbid people from directly providing a firearm to a minor. There is also a wide range of laws that fall in between the two extremes. One example is a law that enforces criminal liability for carelessly stored firearms, but only where the minor uses the firearm and causes death or serious injury. An example of a weaker law is a law that enforces liability only in the event of reckless, knowing or deliberate behavior by the adult.<ref>{{cite web|author=Randich, Cheri|title=Description of State Child Access Prevention Laws.|publisher=Law & Justice|date=December 10, 2012|url=http://www.leg.wa.gov/Senate/Committees/LAW/Documents/SummaryOfStateChildAccessPreventionLaws.pdf|access-date=May 21, 2018}}</ref>

In 2019, the [[United States Secret Service]] released an analysis of targeted school violence, concluding the best practice for prevention was forming a "multidisciplinary [[threat assessment]] team, in conjunction with the appropriate policies, tools, and training".<ref>{{cite report |url=https://www.secretservice.gov/data/protection/ntac/usss-analysis-of-targeted-school-violence.pdf |title=Protecting America's Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence |date=November 2019 |publisher=U.S. Department of Homeland Security |author=National Threat Assessment Center, United States Secret Service |access-date=February 24, 2020}}</ref> An earlier report published in 2018 concluded there was no single profile of a student attacker, and emphasized the importance of the threat assessment process instead. The threat assessment process described includes gathering information about student behaviors, negative or stressful events, and what resources are available for the student to overcome those challenges.<ref>{{cite report |url=https://www.secretservice.gov/data/protection/ntac/USSS_NTAC_Enhancing_School_Safety_Guide_7.11.18.pdf |title=Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model: An Operational Guide for Preventing Targeted School Violence |date=July 2018 |publisher=U.S. Department of Homeland Security |author=National Threat Assessment Center, United States Secret Service |access-date=February 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220024224/https://www.secretservice.gov/data/protection/ntac/USSS_NTAC_Enhancing_School_Safety_Guide_7.11.18.pdf |archive-date=February 20, 2020 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Countermeasures ===
In 2015, [[Southwestern High School (Shelbyville, Indiana)|Southwestern High School]] in [[Shelbyville, Indiana]], was portrayed as possibly the "safest school in America". The school has been used as a "Safe School Flagship" of possible countermeasures to an [[active shooter]].<ref name=indi-sheriffs>{{cite web |title=Indiana Sheriffs Set New Standard in School Safety |url=http://www.indianasheriffs.org/ns/school.php |website=indianasheriffs.org |publisher=Indiana Sheriffs Association |access-date=October 18, 2015}}</ref>
* All teachers have lanyards with a [[panic button]] that alerts police.<ref name=take-safe/>
* Classrooms have automatically locking "hardened doors", and windows have "hardened exterior glass" to deflect bullets and physical attack.<ref name=take-safe/>
* Cameras, described as "military-grade", that feed video directly to Shelby County Sheriff's Office<ref name=indi-sheriffs/> are mounted throughout the school.<ref name=take-safe/>
* [[Smoke canister]]s mounted in the roof of corridors can be remotely discharged to slow a shooter's movement.<ref name=take-safe>{{cite web |last1=Hockenberry|first1=John |title=Is This the Safest School in America? |url=http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/safest-school-america/ |work=[[The Takeaway]] |access-date=October 18, 2015 |date=October 8, 2015}}</ref>

Other countermeasures include tools like doorjambs, rapidly-deployable tourniquets, and ballistic protection systems like the CoverMe-Seat.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newsweek.com/chair-doubles-bulletproof-vest-879802|title=Tired of mass shootings, man creates a chair that turns into bulletproof vest|website=[[Newsweek]]|date=April 13, 2018}}</ref>

In 2019, [[Fruitport High School]] in Michigan became the first school in the U.S. to be rebuilt with concrete barriers in hallways for students to hide from bullets. The [[BBC]] also reports the "hallways are curved to prevent a shooter from having a clear line of sight during any potential attack." Classrooms have been redesigned so students can hide more easily.<ref name="Barriers">{{cite news |title=US school rebuilt with bulletproof barriers and curved corridors |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-49447335 |access-date=September 19, 2019 |agency=BBC}}</ref> Costing $48 million to rebuild, Bob Szymoniak, Fruitport High School's superintendent, believes these alterations will become part of the structure of all U.S. schools. "These are design elements that are naturally part of buildings going into the future."<ref name="Barriers"/>

The '''STOP School Violence Act''' is pending legislation to provide funding grants to schools to be used for implementing security measures.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://townhall.com/notebook/bethbaumann/2018/03/26/what-is-the-stop-violence-act-n2462550|title=Everything You Need to Know About the STOP School Violence Act|first=Beth|last=Baumann|date=March 26, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/14/house-oks-stop-school-violence-act-fbis-david-bowd/|title=House OKs Stop School Violence Act; FBI's David Bowdich testifies on Nikolas Cruz failures to Senate|newspaper=[[The Washington Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/stop-school-violence-act-passes-house-representatives/|title=House Passes School-Safety Bill on One-Month Anniversary of Parkland – National Review|website=[[National Review]]|date=March 14, 2018}}</ref>