Why They Murder Our Kids, and How to Stop the Next School Attack

The core "pull quote" for me is....

Given our flawed political and media climate, we might think that the situation is hopeless if we want to stop someone who wants to kill others and then kill themselves. Threatening the murderer with punishment certainly doesn’t work. That means increased criminal penalties are ineffective. The murderers will study and plan for years. That means those mandatory waiting periods for firearms don’t work either.

Another "pull quote" is ...

We have the perception that teachers are politically liberal.....Teachers were polled to see if they would be willing to carry a concealed firearm at work as part of a recognized school safety program. Like the population at large, most teachers said no. What was surprising was that a much larger fraction of them said “yes” than the fraction of adults in the general population who have their carry permits. We don’t know the opinions of the rest of the adults at school, people like bus drivers, janitors, and cafeteria workers. We learned that school staff may not like guns but many were willing to carry a gun to protect “their kids.”

On training....Only a tiny part of law enforcement training was useful to defend a school. These law enforcement trainers considered if they could prepare civilians to stop a mass murderer. It would take only a few days of instruction rather than the months required for a law enforcement officer at a police academy.

Finally....Mass murderers want a sure bet and armed school staff creates significant uncertainty in the attacker’s plans. Mass murderers turned away from schools and looked for other helpless targets in “gun-free” zones.