Guns in Schools
Guns in Schools
What is the problem?
We need meaningful strategies to keep our nation’s schools safe. School communities must be provided with the tools they need to intervene and prevent school-based gun violence.
It’s time for leaders to pursue the approaches that have been shown to be effective to keep guns out of schools. These approaches include addressing students’ health, empowering teachers and law enforcement to intervene if students show warning signs, improving schools’ physical security in a targeted way, and keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. We can’t let risky ideas, like arming teachers, dominate the debate on school safety. An armed teacher cannot transform into a specially-trained law enforcement officer in a moment of extreme duress.
What are the solutions?
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Stop Arming Teachers
To prevent tragedies we must implement strong school safety solutions, but arming teachers is not one of them. School shootings are chaotic and in these moments of chaos, we cannot ask teachers to stop a shooter, potentially a former student.
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Reconsider Active Shooter Drills
95% of American public schools drill students on lockdown procedures. Yet, there is almost no research affirming the value of these drills for preventing school shootings or protecting the school community when shootings do occur.
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Threat Identification and Assessment Programs in Schools
The most important thing that schools can do to prevent active shooter incidents—and gun violence overall—is to intervene before a person commits an act of violence. Threat assessment and identification programs allow schools to intervene to address potential violent behavior.
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Extreme Risk Laws
When a person is in crisis and considering harming themselves or others, family members and law enforcement are often the first people to see the warning signs. Extreme Risk laws, sometimes referred to as “Red Flag” laws, allow loved ones or law enforcement to intervene by petitioning a court for an order to temporarily prevent someone in crisis from accessing guns.
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Secure Gun Storage
Gun owners can make their homes and communities safer by storing their guns securely. This means storing them locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition. Securing firearms protects children and adults by preventing unintentional shootings and gun suicides.
Featured Resources
How To Stop Shootings and Gun Violence in Schools: A Plan to Keep Students Safe
We need meaningful actions to keep our schools safe, actions that address what we know about gun violence in America’s schools.
How Can We Prevent Gun Violence in American Schools?
School leaders and policymakers must support and implement strong gun safety laws and school-based interventions.
The Impact of Active Shooter Drills in Schools
Since the 1999 Columbine shooting, active shooter drills have proliferated in America’s school systems at an exponential rate.
Gunfire on School Grounds
Since 2013, Everytown has tracked incidents of gunfire on school grounds to learn how often youth are affected by gun violence.
All Resources
Guns in Schools
All Resources
Promising Approaches for Implementing Extreme Risk Laws: A Guide for Practitioners and Policymakers
This guide details the best available practices and promising approaches to effective implementation of extreme risk laws.
Report
Beyond Measure: Gun Violence Trauma
This study focuses on trauma from gun violence by listening to the voices and experiences of those directly impacted.
Report
Methodological Note for Beyond Measure: Gun Violence Trauma
Read the Report Beyond Measure: Gun Violence Trauma Report The United States is a nation of gun…
Methodological NoteFootnotes for How Can We Prevent Gun Violence in American Schools?
These footnotes are a companion to the “How Can We Prevent Gun Violence in American Schools?” brief.
FootnotesShooting Straight: What TV Stories Tell Us About Gun Safety, How These Depictions Affect Audiences, and How We Can Do Better
This research project explores how often gun safety and prevention measures are portrayed or discussed in entertainment media.
Report
Cómo detener los tiroteos y la violencia armada en las escuelas: Un plan para mantener seguros a los estudiantes
Necesitamos acciones significativas para mantener nuestras escuelas y las comunidades circundantes seguras en los Estados Unidos.
Report
The Danger of Guns on Campus
Guns on campus are likely to lead to more shootings, homicides, and suicides, and they’re unlikely to prevent mass shootings.
Fact Sheet
Active Shooter Drills in Schools: Methodological Note
Literature Review Psychological wellbeing concerns and mental health challenges are known to be characterized by latent processes that include negative perspectives, self-focused attention, loss of…
Methodological NoteGunfire on School Grounds
Since 2013, Everytown has tracked incidents of gunfire on school grounds to learn how often youth are affected by gun violence.
Data Tracker
Arming Teachers Introduces New Risks Into Schools
Introduction Arming teachers is opposed by school safety experts like law enforcement, and teachers and parents. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education…
Fact SheetState Firearm Preemption Laws
State firearm preemption laws are a relatively recent phenomenon inconsistent with centuries of American history in which cities and rural areas had different gun laws.
Fact Sheet