# Do "hardened schools" prevent mass shootings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 22, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617 "2018-05-22T13:26:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/381 "2018-05-31T21:58:23Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > In your opinion, sure. > > It seems you think that people in other countries are not the same species, don’t have the same basic motives and drives. Sure and people who work for Google and Vilvaldi are “the same species, don’t have the same basic motives and drives.”. But the companies are vastly different. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/382 "2018-05-31T22:32:19Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Sure \*you \*can avoid using flamethrowers in \*your \*living room, but if you live in a nation where there are 300,000,000 flame throwers in OTHER people’s hands and your neighbors own some, you’d still want to fireproof your house. So I should live in a house made of asbestos instead of addressing the rampant abuse of flame throwers? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/383 "2018-05-31T22:39:06Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > So I should live in a house made of asbestos instead of addressing the rampant abuse of flame throwers? If you can’t get legislation passed to address the issue of flamethrowers in other people’s hands, then, yes, maybe your only alternative is to fireproof your house. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/384 "2018-05-31T22:50:09Z")
I don’t know if we’re riding the same analogy here. My underlying point is that it’s ridiculous to just give up on the very thing that is the problem and just curl up and play defense. In my, and your, analogy, a rational nation wouldn’t allow for all that flame-throwing destruction. So to just consider casualties of mass shootings as the collateral damage that comes with owning really cool guns - so let’s just armor plate everything - is a little absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/385 "2018-05-31T22:57:46Z")
Yes, but again, with 300 million guns, what are you going to do, short of a mass confiscation program? Restrictions on assault arms and background checks are just the top layer of a very thick cake of death. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/386 "2018-05-31T23:07:42Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I don’t know if we’re riding the same analogy here. > > My underlying point is that it’s ridiculous to just give up on the very thing that is the problem and just curl up and play defense… But we dont think guns are the problem. We think it’s social issues mostly, and of course publicity issues. And of course, altho not as easy, mass killers can kill in other ways than guns. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/387 "2018-06-01T00:02:44Z")
Who thinks that American guns being smuggled into Mexico is a big problem? The Republican party does, for one. Remember that? They complained about Obama not doing enough to stop smugglers from bringing guns from America to Mexico. Everyone agrees that guns are a problem. The only difference between the sides is that one side recognizes that they’re all a problem, and the other thinks that only other folks’ guns (like, say, brown peoples’) are a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/388 "2018-06-01T00:11:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Who thinks that American guns being smuggled into Mexico is a big problem? The Republican party does, for one. Remember that? They complained about Obama not doing enough to stop smugglers from bringing guns from America to Mexico. > > Everyone agrees that guns are a problem. The only difference between the sides is that one side recognizes that they’re all a problem, and the other thinks that only other folks’ guns (like, say, brown peoples’) are a problem. Cheap, bullshit attempt to make this about race. You should be ashamed. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617/389 "2018-06-01T01:09:20Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > If you can’t get legislation passed to address the issue of flamethrowers in other people’s hands, then, yes, maybe your only alternative is to fireproof your house. These analogies are getting me a little hot under the collar. But since we’ve apparently chosen “heat” to be our idiomatic lens for this discussion, I’ll just go with it. There are different ways to fireproof a house. You wouldn’t _use_ asbestos because there are better compromises between effectiveness and safety available. Different scenarios require different degrees of fireproofing. The best way to fireproof anything is to completely suck all the oxygen out of it, but that also makes it human-proof. So you go on down the line until you reach a method that offers an acceptable compromise of effectiveness and livability. Gun control may or may not get passed. Those who desire it should advocate it; those who don’t should advocate against it. _In the meantime,_ there is a threat from gun violence, which almost needs to be treated as a natural disaster. Like climate change, we can come up with long-term strategies and here-and-now defenses, simultaneously. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hardened-schools-prevent-mass-shootings/814617.md?page=19)