The massacre of the innocents in Uvalde, Texas, has, very understandably, produced a shockwave of anger and a torrent of demands to “do something” — most especially to pass new and stricter gun control laws.
However, no one has been able to describe the wording of a law which could have prevented the tragedy. New York and Illinois have the strictest gun control laws in the country, yet New York City and Chicago resonate with murderous gunfire every night of the year.
So can nothing be done? Actually, something indeed can be done. Israel has, if anything, a more dangerous environment, and it has enacted measures to protect its schoolchildren that seem to be working. For the last 50 years, there have only been six incidents. Nothing, of course, is perfect, but Israelis protect their kids with common-sense measures that seem to be doing things quite well.
Israel requires armed guards at every school. They permit certain school officials to carry guns. They have only one entrance to a school, and no one other than students and staff are permitted entry unless they are vetted. At airports, everyone, including students, must pass through an electric scan. Every school has shelters and fences. Guards must check the school site 30 minutes before school starts. Unannounced inspections are made at irregular intervals to make sure all requirements are being met. School buses are reinforced. Barricades are built to prevent vehicles from ramming into schools. Behavior monitoring is employed to help detect potential assailants. School grounds are patrolled at upwards of 50 yard perimeters.
These methods seem to work in Israel, and they should work here. Are they expensive? Yes. There are roughly 10,000 public schools in America. If Congress provides $1 million per year to each school to supplement security, it would cost about $10 billion annually. Given how profligate the government now is, surely it can find $10 billion of fat in the budget that can be far more meaningfully used to protect the lives of our kids.
Lee Levin is from Overland Park, Kansas.
