Gun Control and School Shootings

Could meaningful gun-control laws and regulations reduce school-related shootings? It is a challenging topic to report, given that gun laws and regulations are made at the federal, state and municipal levels. Plus, the issue packs a lot of political heat. For those reasons and more, gun-control proposals – and sometimes the lack of them – need journalists’ scrutiny, especially around the issue of school shootings. 

First, some context on these incidents from the Centers for Disease Control (2002): School-associated violent deaths account for less than 1 percent of homicides among school-aged children and youth. Of those, 36 percent of homicides occurred outdoors on school property and 35 percent off campus. Killings inside school buildings accounted for 28 percent of the deaths.

Shooters and weapons

Analyses of school-related shootings done by the CDC and by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics find a broad range of weapons have been used, including semi-automatic handguns, rifles or assault weapons that are especially deadly when used by an accomplished marksman. The CDC study, covering 358 school-associated violent deaths from July 1992 through June 1999, found most of the shooters were male, with a median age of 16. Most shooters appear to obtain weapons from home – theirs, or those of relatives or friends.

The most reliable statistics on legal gun possession over time derive from the General Social Survey, conducted regularly by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. According to NORC's most recent National Gun Policy Survey, up to 36 percent of households had a gun in 2001, and 22 percent had a handgun. The number of households with guns has declined: In 1973, guns were kept in 47.3 percent of households. Studies suggest that at least several million teenagers carry guns on any given day for protection or to use as a weapon.

Whither gun laws?

The 50 states have approved approximately 300 gun-related laws applicable within their borders, but the variance from state to state is huge. Many laws aim not at preventing gun crimes but at implementing harsher punishment after gun-related crimes occur. At the federal level, sparse laws and regulations contain so many loopholes that their preventive impact is negligible, according to advocates across the gun-control spectrum.

Kristin A. Goss, an assistant professor of public policy studies and political science at Duke University, researches why gun-control movements are so ineffective compared to the efforts of gun-ownership advocates. Not even the post-Columbine campaigns for gun control succeeded. Goss’ well-researched, logically reasoned new book, “Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America” (Princeton University Press, 2006), notes the obvious influence of the National Rifle Association. The NRA and allied groups long ago figured out an effective message – the liberty to own guns is paramount – while their opponents struggled to voice a compelling one. But she sees evidence that gun-control advocates, such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, have made progress with the public by casting gun control as a public health issue. (CDC data indicate that 82 percent of 10- to 24-year-olds killed each year die from gun injuries. That's an average of 12 young people each day.)

Gun-control debates at the local, state and federal levels remain politically charged, right up there with abortion, stem cell research and school prayer. After President Bush’s summit on school safety last month, Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank noted that Bush “moderated an hour-long discussion about the rash of school shootings in the past week without once mentioning the word ‘guns.’ "

But legislators have tried to address the issue. Journalists can get deeper background by reading the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990, and related court decisions and amendments. (The original Public Law number is 101-647.) It prohibited possession of a firearm on the campus of a public or private school and within 1000 feet of school property. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that the law exceeded Congress' authority to regulate commerce. That decision, styled United States v. Lopez, is located at 514 U.S. 549. Congress amended the provisions in Public Law 104-208.

And at the state level, the Brady Campaign grades each state’s gun-violence prevention efforts. In a 2005 report, it gave D or F grades to 32 states. The state where I reside, Missouri, received a D-plus grade. The evaluation looks at 22 measures, including restrictions on juveniles from buying or possessing weapon, limiting sales of junk handguns sometimes called Saturday Night Specials and restrictions on carrying concealed weapons in general and specifically in school zones.

The NRA maintains a legislative map as well.

What can schools do?

To prevent guns from entering schools, many districts and principals have purchased metal detectors, installed security cameras, locked exterior doors and hired guards. Several speakers at the White House summit, including University of Colorado researcher Delbert Elliott and school safety specialist Thomas Kube, suggested metal detectors not only were ineffective but sent a negative message to students. Further, print and broadcast journalists in numerous cities have tested school security measures and found them wanting: entering doors meant to be locked, passing checkpoints where the security guards had disappeared, smuggling weapons through or around the metal detectors, wandering the hallways and entering classrooms as well as cafeterias without being challenged. After the school-related shootings this fall, Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute devoted his daily posting to such efforts by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily Mail of Hagerstown, Md., WHAS-TV in Louisville, Ken., and others.

Such journalistic initiative does not always win applause from audiences. At the Annapolis (Md.) Capital, reporters and editors tested security last month after a school shooting in Pennsylvania. One reader termed the reporters’ conduct “shady” and “outrageous.” Another reader commented “Now you have informed sexual predators and any psycho out there how easy it is. You have endangered all of our children.” Tom Marquardt, the newspaper’s executive editor, felt compelled to publish a column explaining why he agreed to the sting operation. After all, he suggested, schools can improve on-site security within days. Effective gun control legislation and regulation would take years, assuming it could even be achieved.

The School Violence Resource Center, housed at University of Arkansas works to find solutions that will not become entangled in politics. The center reports “a number of risk factors have been identified” that might contribute to shootings: drug and alcohol use, mental health problems, abuse and neglect of children at home, high-crime neighborhoods, poverty and involvement with delinquent peers. Director James T. Clark, a former local and state police officer, believes principals, classroom teachers and social workers must team with parents and guardians to improve conditions at school and at home simultaneously. Clark and his colleagues seem especially enthusiastic about on-site, specially trained school resource officers as a means of prevention; a National Association for School Resource Officers has existed since 1990.

Besides reviewing laws and local regulations, journalists can explore school safety measures around guns by interviewing:

• School principals and school boards. What measures have they considered to discourage guns on school property? Among those adopted, is there evidence that any are working? Does it make sense for your news organization to test?
• Teachers. Are they trained to detect guns that might have made it into the classroom, the lunchroom or the larger campus? Then what?
• Parents of schoolchildren. Have any school-parent organizations conducted an education campaign or other messages about guns kept at home?
• Local law enforcement agencies. How do police and sheriff’s departments patrol school buildings and school grounds? How do they assess the risk of school-related shootings?
• State and federal legislators. Which legislators representing constituents in the readership/listenership area have sponsored gun-related legislation, especially bills mentioning school-related shootings?  What was the genesis of the proposal? Which gun-related groups contribute money to that legislator, and why? Are those legislators gun owners or parents of school-age children? If so, what measures do they take at home to educate about and prevent gun violence?

Steve Weinberg writes books and magazine features from his home in Columbia, Mo. He served as executive director of Investigative Reporters & Editors Inc. from 1983-1990, and teaches part-time at the University of Missouri Journalism School. Sue Schuermann, library information specialist II at the journalism library, University of Missouri-Columbia, contributed research to this article.

Other Select Resources

Government

Bureau of Justice Statistics reports including “Firearms and Crime Statistics”; “Homicide Trends in the United States”; “Background Checks for Firearm Transfers”; “Survey of State Procedures Related to Firearm Sales.”

Gun Use by Male Juveniles: Research and Prevention, from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education issue briefs, including “Annual Report on School Safety” and "Indicators of School Crime and Safety.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention media relations fact sheets, including research from the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, such as "Source of Firearms Used by Students in School-Associated Violent Deaths—United States, 1992-1999” published in 2003.

Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. Various studies, including “Gun Legislation in the 109th Congress” by William J. Krouse, social legislation analyst, Domestic Social Policy Division.

Academic Research

Center for Gun Policy and Research, Bloomberg School of Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Faculty research is intended to reduce gun violence across society, including on school property. It is funded partially by public and private foundations.

Law review articles galore, including “Overcoming the Fear of Guns, the Fear of Gun Control, and the Fear of Cultural Politics: Constructing a Better Gun Debate,” by Donald Braman and Dan M. Kahan of the Yale University Law School, published during 2006 in the Emory Law Journal.