How to stop school shootings

The epidemic of school shootings in America could be drastically curtailed by a few simple policy changes. 

First, school shooters should automatically receive the death penalty with only limited opportunities to appeal. The problem of frivolous appeals and court cases dragging on for decades afflicts our entire judicial system, but it is especially egregious in the case of school shootings. 

There are often hundreds of witnesses and the shooter, when captured alive, is generally caught in the act while in possession of a firearm with their acts caught on camera. The evidence is overwhelming in these cases. There is no reason for extensive appeals over irrelevant aspects of the law.

In the case of school shootings, we need the law to provide a swift and painful deterrent to psychopaths who want to murder our children in a place that should be safe. We should execute school shooters in public, too. There is a large literature on “copy-cat” killers who are motivated to commit heinous acts, often for fame or attention, because they saw a story of a mass killing. The same principle works in reverse. If we fill social media with clips of mass shooters being violently flogged and then beheaded it will serve as a powerful disincentive for those who wish to kill as a way of getting attention. 

Pain and fear are potent weapons against the psyche of even the worst kinds of criminal. Punishment is far more important than policing. Make clear that killing children comes with extraordinarily painful consequences and we will see a reduction in the number of these cases.

The recent case of Ethan Robert Crumbley of Michigan, a 15-year-old who committed a mass shooting at a school, is an object lesson in what not to do. Instead of swiftly and decisively punishing Crumbley, the state went after his parents. This strategy is a violation of the doctrine of mens rea. Criminals must have a guilty mind, a will to commit a maclicious act, in order to be punished.

The best way to prevent school shootings is by making it clear that any school shooter caught alive will have a world of pain and death awaiting them. 

This disincentive to be captured will encourage more school shooters to kill themselves instead. This is good. The sooner a school shooter kills himself, the fewer people he can harm.

The second arm of our anti-school shooting strategy should be to allow qualified teachers and staff to conceal carry on school premises. Schools should not be gun-free zones. They should be filled with adults ready to defend children by any and all means necessary, including lethal force. 

In most states in the Union, virtually every profession is able to defend themselves with a conceal carry license. Teachers are a bizarre exception. Teachers who own guns to defend themselves in their homes are not allowed to defend their charges while at work. It doesn’t make sense. 

Every school in America should seek out physically and mentally qualified teachers for additional training in firearms safety and usage. Those teachers should be trained to run to the sound of gunfire and to intervene to save the lives of their students by confronting school shooters as soon as they attack. 

Every school in America should have at least one staff member who is armed at all times. Indeed, schools should seek to train as many competent faculty as possible in self-defense. They should also loudly proclaim to the community that schools are well-defended “hardened” targets that will fight back against killers. 

This brings us to the last point: we need a cultural shift around mass shootings in America. The “run, hide, fight” strategy is cowardly and invites violence. Instead, schools should adopt a “fight, run, hide” approach. Teachers, staff, and older male students should adopt a strategy of fighting back when threatened. 

We should encourage a sense of spirited courage among students and staff alike. We should honor those who fight with statues, medals, and public commendations. We should encourage bravery in the face of danger. The one thing a school shooter never wants to face is opposition. 

They want to murder as many as possible, they don’t want to be in a stand off with law enforcement or targets who refuse to be victimized. When opposed, many mass shooters will simply kill themselves. 

We should not seek to have our children simply cower like sitting ducks until they are brutally murdered. We need an attitude of quick response and fierce demeanor. In the Marines we called this “violence of action.” 

Schools should be hard targets, well-defended and secure. School shooters should be subjected to harsh and painful punishments and then execution if caught alive. Our overall approach to mass murderers should be unrelenting. 

Adopt these simple policies and our children will be safer than ever, able to learn and play together far from the shadow of brutal violence. 

This piece was originally published at American Greatness on October 3, 2024.