It seems to me that the area where you are likeliest to get consensus and action that might make an immediate difference on school shootings is even more effort to harden schools. It will be an expensive proposition, it will mean a lot of security measures at the vast majority of schools that will never be targeted, and it won’t be fool-proof. But it would help make these massacres more difficult to carry out, and I believe parents are going to demand it.
Two of the more wrenching statements from parents of victims yesterday, at the White House and the CNN forum respectively, were about the need for more school security.
School security has the advantage of side-stepping divisive cultural issues and involving the very American approach of throwing resources at a problem. It won’t end these shootings, but it will make a difference.