When It Comes to Preventing Gun Violence, Good Intentions Aren’t Enough

By Jonathan Blanks Jonathan Blanks

Too many people are injured or killed as a result of gun
violence in this country. Although the number of gun deaths
has generally declined in recent decades, the
recent spate of spree shootings in schools and concentrated
violence in certain American cities reinforce the necessity that
more can and should be done.

Unfortunately, many of the policies aimed at reducing gun
violence have little or no measurable impact on safety. Some, in
fact, may even inflict other harms while doing so. The unintended
consequences of these proposals serve as a reminder that when it
comes to reducing gun deaths, good intentions aren’t enough.

School shootings, for example, have resulted in wall-to-wall
media coverage. And that, in turn, has led schools to over-react to
perceived threats because parents and their kids feel threatened by
what should be an unthinkable menace. “Active shooter drills,” in
which kids and teachers simulate a response to a school gunman,
have become common in schools around the country.

Too often, the methods
employed to stop gun violence harm far more innocent people than
the underlying threat presents.

These drills are intended to prepare students for the
unthinkable. But the main effect is to repeatedly terrify
schoolchildren.

A Washington Post reporter recently said in an
interview that “kids don’t feel safe” in schools because school
shootings …Read the Rest

Source:: Cato Institute