My colleague VyVy Ha addresses an important and concerning issue in her editorial blog post, cleverly titled “Oh Shoot! More Guns at School.” She discusses the Federal 1033 Program, which allows the Department of Defense to equip state and local law enforcement agencies with excess military equipment. The program has now made its way into public K-12 schools, supplying campus security officers with these highly powerful weapons.
The legislation was created in response to school shootings, and Ms. Ha makes a valid point in connecting this reaction to George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory. She contends that these shootings are highly publicized and magnified by the media, which strikes fear into the hearts of Americans who then feel that extreme actions such as the 1033 Program must be taken. While action does need to be taken to prevent school shootings, I agree that the media’s portrayal of the tragedies is leading people towards solutions that will make schools a less safe environment. The weapons used by the military are very powerful and potentially dangerous, and do not need to be carried around hundreds of young children.
Ms. Ha adds that placing such heavily armed officers throughout public schools will normalize the presence of guns and teach children from a young age that it is acceptable to carry these types of weapons in public. I think this is very true, as children are easily influenced by others, particularly figures of authority. If a generation grows up believing that the only way to feel safe in a public space is to be protected by a military grade weapon, people in the future will be pushing for legislation that allows citizens to carry these weapons everywhere. To keep arming larger and larger portions of our society with increasingly powerful weapons is not an effective way to decrease gun violence.
Like Ms. Ha, I believe that the 1033 Program is a very downstream attempt to solve the problem of gun violence in schools. Rather than prevent tragedy, it merely prepares people for the moment when a tragedy strikes. Ms. Ha suggests that legislators should focus more on implementing school programs aimed at counseling students and preventing violence. I think this is a much more productive idea. If children are taught to peacefully resolve conflicts and school counselors are able to work with students who have shown signs of mental illness, we will see a decrease in violence of all types in public schools. I think Ms. Ha did an excellent job of discussing the implications of the 1033 program. She makes several logical arguments about why it is not an effective solution to violence, and I agree with her that it will potentially create an unsafe environment in schools.
