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Why do people think puting metal detectors in public high schools will stop gun shootings? I mean instead of pulling out the gun outside the school, you just pull it out 2 feet before you get to the front of the school........ we debated this is class and everyone disagreed with me. Why would you waste millions, possibly billions? of dollars to give people false security. does anyone have a dissenting opinion?

2007-04-16 17:12:59 · 8 answers · asked by igy112000 2 in News & Events Current Events

8 answers

Gun detectors are not a feasible solution. Security guards can only give people a "sense" of security. They cannot guarantee virtual security. Security guards must keep people calm. They take charge of the area and stop panic.

It is a horrible, horrible tragedy but it time, it will fade from public view. Only those who have suffered a personal loss will be faced with the struggle to overcome their grief and restructure their life.

After the reports have been filed, the investigations have been completed and the recommendations made, people will calm down and feel secure, then complacent.

Because of my personal experience, I favor allowing individuals to carry concealed weapons if they have had training and have not had a felony conviction. Most of the people in the self-help group Parents of Murdered Children have strong feelings about this issue as well as Citizens against Homicide. (Members of both national groups have suffered the loss of a loved one to homicide) Compassionate Friends is also a self-help group however it is for parents who have lost a child to any cause homicide, accidental death or disease.
http://www.pomc.com
http://www.pomc.org
http://www.murdervictims.com/CAH.html
http://www.compassionatefriends.org

In 1999 at the Columbine High School shooting 22 students were killed.

So far 33 have been confirmed dead at the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — (located in the western end of the state near the borders of West Virginia and Tennessee). It has been called the worst mass shooting in modern American history. The shootings began in the Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory at 7:15 a.m. Eyewitnesses described the gunman as an Asian male about 6 feet tall. He apparently shot himself in the head after the killings; part of his face was missing when his body was found.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574&page=1

He was said to have quarrelled in a dormitory with his girlfriend, whom he believed had been seeing another man. A student adviser was called to sort out the row. But the killer produced a gun and shot dead both his girlfriend and the adviser.

The second shooting was at Norris Hall. Two hours later he rampaged through an engineering building on the other side of the campus in the town of Blacksburg, killing indiscriminately.

The gunman was said to be of Asian appearance and dressed in maroon hat, leather jacket and black-military style shooting vest.

He had ammunition strapped across his chest as he calmly walked from room to room refilling his two 9mm handguns as he shot students.

He locked the doors of several classrooms to stop anyone escaping. Some terrified students jumped for their lives from fourthfloor windows, while others used desks to barricade doors.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=448955&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

The gunman has been identified as a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa. The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/343354,vatech041607.articleprint

The number of dead is almost twice as high as the previous record for a mass shooting on an American college campus. That took place at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 1, 1966, when a gunman named Charles Whitman opened fire from the 28th floor of a campus tower. Whitman killed 16 and injured 31.

another good account
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070417/D8OI106O0.html
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2007-04-16 17:26:02 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

You have your point, but I imagine...

Because the school is a static space while the entrance is full of people (a dynamic space).

Psychologically, the gunman has less time for preparation if he is at the entrance, and the gunman may feel more risky to pull out a gun in a space that everyone has different interaction and movement, so he has less control of the situation.

On the other hand, in the classroom, everyone is sitting and focusing (static). The proximity between the gunman and targets reduces, but not to the point of an open area (since school/classroom is a confined space), so the gunman has more control of the situation.


Plus gun firing by school kid is very abnormal comparing to a grown up psycho. It is something that the government should pay attention to.


You mentioned about "false security". So do the metal detectors really reduce gun firing "within" the school?

Then think about intention. Why does the gunman have to choose the entrance if he wants to kill somebody? Does he intended to kill a specific target? If not, why not firing in a shopping mall? why not a basketball court? And think about the concentration of population, proximity and possible escape rounte too. They all may affect the gunman to choose the location unconciously.


I am not arguing whether the detector actually works. If they don't work, it's the problem of the manufacturer. I'm talking about the "intention" for the government to spell money, whether the detector is put in the right place.

2007-04-17 23:35:42 · answer #2 · answered by Fire Lemon 2 · 0 0

I know what you mean, they could kill the guy standing at the metal detectors and just walk through! People don't want to see what bad can happen...they are just satisfied being in their cacoon of stupidity/sancuary.

Even with the people saying that the school should have been on lock down, he could have still killed many students! He could shoot out a window before anyone notices him and killed whoever he came in contact with. People need to realize there are no easy answers!

2007-04-17 00:57:22 · answer #3 · answered by Violation Notice 6 · 1 0

It is a waste of time,patience,energy and money especially. I have metal detectors in my school but students still bring guns, knives, cell phones and all other things that are supposed to be detected. there are ways around metal detectors just like there is a way around everything else.this world is imperfect and has fallacies.why is that so hard to see? great question..this should be brought up for weeks on end!

2007-04-17 00:33:26 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Even if it did stop guns and knives from getting past the doors, it would only serve as a band-aid for a symptom of a generation of kids seemingly out of control.

2007-04-17 00:19:13 · answer #5 · answered by TheHumbleOne 7 · 4 0

I agree! My high school had about 6 metal detectors...Did they work? Absolutely not! People went in with knives, flasks...etc...They did not help at all.

2007-04-17 00:38:10 · answer #6 · answered by Kalikina 7 · 1 0

Maybe it would prevent just 1 person from taking a gun to school and people being killed like today at Virginia Tech.

2007-04-17 00:16:56 · answer #7 · answered by Tenn Gal 6 · 1 1

Nothing to hide why worry??/

2007-04-17 00:22:22 · answer #8 · answered by Grand pa 7 · 0 0

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