The Industry of School Shooting Safety

Blender Bluid and Amy Do are back on the podcast for a VERY absurd episode. We get into the down and dirty of the free market's response to the very USA-based problem of school-based gun violence. As far as the more grim episodes go, this is one that we tried to bring a lot of levity to (especially about 24 minutes in). First we take a look at the products, then the politics, then profit-based active shooter training programs. There's a lot of ways to make money off of national policy failure and consistent tragedy, apparently. 

A little note I want to say to everyone: I think this episode is very important, but I beg of you to not inappropriately share this episode every time there is a mass shooting. It's a (relatively) funny one, and I don't think it's appropriate to plug it under inevitable tragedies. That already happened to my NFL episode in the wake of the Damar Hamlin injury, and I just want to say that it makes me really uncomfortable. I'm proud of my work and I'm SO happy people are spreading it, but I want to do my part in being an upstanding and thoughtful creator. XOXO. 

SOURCES: 

Methodologies for different school shooting tracking statistics: 

1. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/methodology

2. https://rockinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Overview-American-School-Shooting-Study-TASSS.pdf (page 4) 

3. https://www.chds.us/ssdb/methods/

Products/Industry Talk:

1. The Free Market Responds to America’s School Shootings, Ben Schott, Bloomberg, July 2022

2. https://fightingchancesolutions.com/ 

3. Armored school doors, bulletproof whiteboards, and secret snipers, John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich, Washington Post, 2018

4. Experts cast doubt on high-tech efforts to stop school shooters, Laura Meckler, Washington Post, May 2022

5. CMS staff warned security system didn’t work. The district expanded it anyway., Annie Ma and Fred Clasen-Kelly, The Charlotte Observer, January 2020

6. School security technology at center of fierce debate after Uvalde shooting, Max Zahn, ABC News, June 2022

7. Schools Are Spending Billions on High-Tech Defense for Mass Shootings, Natasha Singer,  New York Times, June 2022 (this is where I got the 3 billion number; the nonprofit is cited here)

8. These Businesses Say They've Got What You Need to Survive a Mass Shooting, Melissa Chan, Time Magazine, Oct 2019

9. A Comprehensive Report on School Safety Technology, John Hopkins University 

POLITICS: 

1. Department of Justice Awards More Than $125 Million in Grants Under The Stop School Violence Act, DOJ website

2. Dickey Amendment wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Amendment

DRILLS/TRAINING: 

1. Indiana Teachers Shot with Plastic Pellets as Part of Training, Lauren Camera, US News March 2019

2. The Company Behind America’s Scariest School Shooter Drills, Sylvia Varnham O’Regan, The Trace, Dec 2019

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpsnrxHdCc&t=78s&ab_channel=NBCNews

4. Estate of Davis v. City of North Richland Hills, TERRY MEANS, District Judge 2003