Gun violence is a critical public safety concern in the United States. In 2006 California implemented a unique firearm monitoring program, the Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS), to address gun violence in the state. The APPS program first identifies those firearm owners who be-come prohibited from owning one due to federal or state law,…

Calls to weaponize teachers with guns as a means of enhanced school safety and protection against a school shooting have intensified in recent years. Arguments for and against arming teachers are relatively well-established, but a paucity of scholarly research exists regarding its effectiveness and whether teachers generally support carrying guns…

With the tragedies of school violence igniting calls for increased safety and security, one popular proposal is to use metal detectors in schools. To address questions about what impact such devices may have on day-to-day safety and on what happens during school violence events, this research brief summarizes what is known about metal detectors in…

Concerns for student safety are a commonly cited reason for the presence of police in schools. But as the nation grapples with the appropriate roles and responsibilities of police more broadly, the time is right to shine a light on what we know about the effects of police in schools. This brief summarizes the research related to this question.…

This article summarizes the accomplishments of research on school safety in the past quarter century, identifies important gaps, and indicates promising directions for further progress. Although closely related, there are distinguishable bodies of research on physical and psychological safety. Physical safety research concerns the prevention of…

Public school districts and police departments in the United States often collaborate to address school-based violence and other threats to the safety and well-being of students, teachers, and staff. As a result of these partnerships, law enforcement officers have become an increasingly common presence in schools around the country, even at the…

Recently, states have enacted teacher-carry laws. While controversial, little scholarship has tapped public attitudes toward such reforms. Because public opinion shapes policy, the public is an important stakeholder in this debate. Thus, we investigated three questions. First, how supportive is the public of arming teachers? Second, what…

Weapons at school pose a danger to students as well as faculty. Educational administrators have attempted to reduce their prevalence by implementing random weapons searches in schools. This article examines the effectiveness of this approach using data from two geographically adjacent school districts in Florida (Miami-Dade and Broward). In the…

Using data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), this report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have implemented to promote school safety. SSOCS collects information from public school principals about the prevalence of violent and serious violent crimes…

This study provides a policy network analysis on the implications of HB 792 and HB 280 at urban two-year open campuses, with specific attention to Georgia Piedmont Technical College (GPTC), a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG). Georgia state legislators passed House Bills 792 and 280, which authorized any person 18 years of age…

On April 20, 1999, two Columbine High School students walked into their school midday and killed 12 students and one teacher. Twenty-one other students were injured. All that had been normal came to an abrupt end. Education leaders in Jefferson County, Colorado, quickly realized they were laying the groundwork for a new normal. Colorado's…

This manuscript consists of three sections. Section one provides historical data on some 310 documented shootings that have taken place on school property within the United States. Section two discusses numerous risk factors associated with school shooters. Section three discusses numerous strategies for creating safe schools.

In this article, the author shares his thoughts for district administrators regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy. Administrators heard a lot of potential solutions or attempts at solutions. However, these proposals raise lengthy lists of implementation questions and issues that illustrate a lack of understanding of school operations,…

As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan works with other Obama administration officials on policy responses to the shootings at a Connecticut elementary school, he brings a personal and professional history that has acquainted him with the impact of gun violence. As schools chief in Chicago from 2001 to 2008, he was affected by the gun deaths…

The question of whether guns should be permitted on college and university campuses in the United States reflects the tension between two competing perspectives. America has both a robust gun culture and an equally robust (if less well known) gun-control culture. The gun culture is as American as apple pie: There may be as many as 300 million…