While school shootings do happen in other countries, it is, by far, a problem that is largely unique to the United States.
As we try to figure out what drives individuals to commit these horrific acts, we also struggle with the timing of responses and the need to keep perpetrators alive long enough to get inside their heads.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may have just solved both issues.
As noted above, you may see a story now and again of a school shooting in another country, but they happen far too often in here, making this a problem primarily faced in the United States.
Since 1999, we have seen more than 420 school shootings in this country, with nearly 40% of those taking place after the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is clearly a link to mental health regarding this issue, and we know that in far too many cases, people holed up in their homes for months only made those concerns worse.
The problem is further exacerbated when there is a slow response by local authorities when such events do happen.
The best example of a failed response in recent years was the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, where hundreds of officers were on site, ready to go, but they were told to stand down while a maniac was killing children inside the school.
The children were trapped in a room with the shooter for more than an hour, with then-Attorney General Merrick Garland stating, "That should not have happened."
Local police did not breach the facility for several reasons, one of which was a failure to get the proper equipment in place for officers to enter the room in which the shooter was located.
A subsequent report on the incident stated that officers are supposed "to immediately neutralize the subject; everything else, including officer safety, is subordinate to that objective,” but that clearly did not happen, even though there were literally hundreds of officers on site.
DeSantis has funded a project that would station armed drones throughout schools, which could confront and possibly subdue an active shooter. At the very least, the drones could occupy the shooter while law enforcement moved into place.
Campus Guardian Angel CEO Justin Marston, the company that would operate the drones, stated, “The sprinkler system is able to put water on the fire in seconds because it’s already there. You still want the fire trucks to come, you still want the guys with hose pipes to show up -- but since sprinkler systems were installed, there hasn’t really been a mass fire in a school that killed a bunch of children.”
The drones would be armed with pepper spray to try to neutralize the shooter. They could also be used as weapons, literally attacking the shooter until authorities could arrive. They would also offer the advantage of having cameras operating inside the school to give officers a much better picture of what is taking place in real time.
Of course, there are already detractors criticizing the project, saying that the drones could escalate the situation. But let me ask you this… how often do we see police stop active shooters in schools before children are dead? If these drones are actively monitored, it could be the difference in preventing hundreds of children’s deaths every year, and that sounds like something worth pursuing to me.
