Armed Protection in Schools Is an Obvious First Step to Preventing School Shootings

By Trevor Burrus Trevor Burrus

In the midst of a nationwide debate about school shootings, and
only days before the “March for Our Lives” will take place in
Washington, D.C., another school shooting happened this week at
Great Mills High School in Maryland. This time, however, the script
was a little different: the shooter was stopped by an armed School
Resources Officer.

The shooter entered the school with a Glock semi-automatic
pistol and was confronted by the SRO moments after he shot two
students, a boy and a girl. According to reports, the girl and the shooter had a prior
relationship, so it is possible that the intent was a targeted
killing rather than massacre. Or, the shooter could have intended
to keep going. The boy was shot in the thigh and recovered, but,
unfortunately, the girl, Jaelynn Willey, was taken off life support on Thursday.

This event underscores and oft-repeated but still misconstrued
truism: adding more armed protection to schools is a reasonable and
proportionate response to school shootings. Such policies are
likely to save more lives than any gun-control policy that has even
a moderate chance of being passed—whether raising the age
limit for purchasing rifles, banning “assault weapons,”
banning “high-capacity” magazines, or something else.
And while you’re free to complain about …Read the Rest

Source:: Cato Institute