Money Over Children: The New Market For Defensive School Shooting

While scrolling through TikTok, I came across an ad for an upcoming documentary called “Thoughts & Prayers.” This movie documentary highlights the new industry of school defenses against school shootings. At first, I thought this wasn’t real, like a gag video. But I was mistaken; this industry is massive, with $3 billion invested. 

The Start of Safety

For a while, schools didn’t have drills for shootings until the 1999 Columbine High School Shooting in Columbine, Colorado. This is one of the first massive school shootings that really rocked the nation, with a high number of deaths, after this school started implementing drills. From 2005 to the present, about 95% of schools conduct the drills regularly.

These drills are a mock of what to do if a shooting were to occur. The typical drills would be to lock the door, turn off the lights, cover the windows and hide as far away from the door as possible, huddling on the floor. 

Teachers going back to School

To be a teacher nowadays means to risk your life to defend your students. 

Some schools across the country advocate for their teachers to take classes on how to use a gun, how to disarm a shooter, and how to stop a wound from bleeding. 

In Texas, there is a program called the School Safety Training. This program is located in North Texas, where it teaches educators and regular employees how to defend themselves and the students. This program is two days long, with each day lasting 8 hours, for a total of 16 hours of training. The school runs its training through active shootings with real guns but fake bullets, writing exams, and discussing different ways to deny any intruder/shooters in the classroom. To attend, you must be in person and pay the $450 fee. 

While in Utah, at the Teacher’s Academy, taught by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, teachers are brought to a shooting range and learn how to shoot a pistol for six weeks. For these teachers to be able to attend, they have to be considered to be able to carry a gun at school. 

Buying off the Market 

Schools and worried parents are buying from different defense companies to protect the children. 

On social media, parents post about the bulletproof backpack they purchased for their elementary student. In contrast, other parents take a different route by buying professional bulletproof plates to insert into the backpack.

These items are not cheap; bulletproof backpacks range from $70 to $300, depending on the protection and quality. For the bulletproof plate inserts for bags, the price range is $80 to $200. These inserts weigh about 5-10 lbs, which can be heavy for a small child. 

Some school districts are buying protective items for the classroom.

For the door, there is a blackout shutter above the small window, and pulling down the string releases the blind. These shutters would fully block out the shooter from looking inside the classroom. The company ALP produces and sells them on its website, Walmart and on Amazon. Ranging from $25 to $50. 

Another item is a handheld bulletproof shield by the company Hardware. It is a red shield with bars on each side to hold it in your hands, with the wording “Emergency Response Shield… Active Shooter Protection,” and shows how to use it and which weapons it protects against. This shield is on the pricer side, costing about $299 on the Hardware website. 

There is no Ending

At this rate, we are going from robotic dogs alerting people about an intruder to bulletproof skateboards. We are just providing a whole market of protection with no end goal of actually stopping school shootings from happening in the first place. Schools and parents will buy these items hoping to prevent and protect their children, but this won’t change how easy it is to buy a gun in America, legally and illegally. 

In 2022, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed. This law ensures background checks for potential buyers under 21, funding for mental health resources, the red flag law and school safety. The red flag law prevents anyone who is deemed a threat to themselves or society from being able to purchase or own a gun. But to do this, a court order of Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) must be in place. Over the years, it has shown that this has worked, but not at the rate America needs. 

Change will happen; no one knows when or how, but for now, just keep hitting that check out button!

• School Safety
• schools