Last Thursday, Maryland’s General Assembly successfully passed one of the nation’s strictest gun control bills, including a ban on 45 types of assault weapons, among other measures. When it is signed into law by Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley in the coming weeks, it will be an encouraging sequel to a similarly tough state bill signed into law by Connecticut’s Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy last Thursday and certainly, a preview for serious gun control legislation at the federal level.
While these substantial changes constitute hard-won victories, certain provisions included in the gun control bills may do more harm than good. In direct response to last December’s Newtown shooting, the state proposals collectively seek to designate $40 million for schools to invest in security. Such efforts are in the same vein as those advocated by the National Rifle Association, which released a prescriptive report last week that recommended placing armed guards at every K-12 school.
As a strategy for school safety, increased security is inefficient at best, and toxic at worst. Already, one-third of American public schools employ armed guards, and arming the remaining public schools would cost an estimated $2.5 billion. While it is clear that that we cannot place a cost on safety, school studies point to a spurious correlation at best between increased police protection and decreased violence in schools.
On the contrary, it appears that armed guards actually negatively affect students—study after study reports that the presence of armed guards makes students feel powerless and even unsafe. In an environment where children and young adults spend nearly half of their time, student well-being is quickly being eroded by heightened security.
Studies merely serve to back the protests of students, who are taking it upon themselves to oppose the emphasis on punishment represented by increased school security. Here in the District, a group of students is using photography to document metal detectors, police pat-downs, and other school security measures intended to protect them. Armed with cameras to fight for their safety, the student photos evidence how their learning environments, like the estimated 10,000 other high schools across the nation with police on campus, have been transformed into quasi-prisons.
Instead of harsh law-and-order policies, schools should embrace restorative justice measures that focus on rehabilitation and cooperative security rather than bringing intimidation and potential police violence into the halls of our nation’s schools. The activist D.C. students and their “Homework Not Handcuffs” campaign, which advocates such measures, shows many students are ahead of the curve in terms of knowing how school discipline should work.
These brave students are rightly demanding a voice in the legislation that will not only shape their lives at school and beyond, but also the national discourse on violence, crime, and punishment. It is imperative that we fully consider the implications of all the provisions included in prospective gun control legislation, and refrain from unwisely expanding school security, lest our attempts to protect instead stifle our youth.
