# Out-of-the-box idea to deal with school shootings **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 28, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363 "2018-03-28T16:43:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/21 "2018-03-28T18:31:10Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > That was part of my inspiration, but: > > (1) If he’s wearing a helmet and shatterproof goggles, they won’t do much, whereas paint would blind him; Only if you hit the eye pieces, with a weapon known to have high variability on projectile trajectory. And that only until he wipes the googles unless you invent a pain that instantly bonds with glass and plastic. Meanwhile he is shooting deadly bullets in your direction. Overwhelm him with multiple people shooting paintballs at him? Now he has more targets and can switch from aiming to “spray and pray”. > [@](#): > > (2) I don’t get how the whole class shares one bucket of rocks. > > But what about something that sprays the paint instead of shooting it? Yeah, you obviously really care about this paint idea, while I don’t care about either that idea or the bucket of rocks. I suggest you acquire a paintball gun and do some shooting practice and then come back with a more informed analysis. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/22 "2018-03-28T18:36:34Z")
I’ve moved on to the idea of a wide spray (not a thin stream, but like the setting on your hose when you spray a mist in a wide cone-shaped arc) of paint. You have that coming from many directions, you are not going to be able to see. Period. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/23 "2018-03-28T18:40:11Z")
Every school should employ a professional clown to hang around the premises during school hours. Firstly, this would deter any coulrophobic wannabe shooters from attacking the school in the first place; secondly, since school shooters are usually kids themselves, the sight of a smiling and waving clown on a unicycle might pacify the shooter and make them put down their weapon; thirdly, human nature being what it is, the shooter is going to be likely to want to take out the clown first, thus giving some kids a chance to escape. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/24 "2018-03-28T18:42:34Z")
Lot easier to snark from the sidelines than to try to come up with viable solutions. Let’s hear yours. (“Take away all the guns” is far more unrealistic than anything I’ve proposed: it’s like thinking you can control dog or cat populations through neutering males alone.) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/25 "2018-03-28T18:47:16Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Lot easier to snark from the sidelines than to try to come up with viable solutions. Let’s hear yours. To be fair, it had already got to the batshit-crazy level when TPTB suggested that teachers carry guns. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/26 "2018-03-28T18:51:01Z")
You may not be aware of this, but the standard procedures have already changed a lot since Sandy Hook. My wife is a public school teacher who taught second graders in one state and now teaches high school kids in a different (non-neighboring) one. In both places, after SH they started teaching them to train the kids to throw anything they can find at the assailant, rather than hiding. So all I’m suggesting is to try to make that more effective than throwing notebooks and pencils. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/27 "2018-03-28T18:54:30Z")
[Keeping door stops in student’s backpacks](http://wreg.com/2018/02/20/can-a-door-stops-stop-school-shootings/) was a cool “out-of-the box” idea. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/28 "2018-03-28T18:54:32Z")
> [@glee](#): > > - arm all teachers > - put in metal detectors in all entrances > - have armed guards outside (or inside) all schools. That’s not going far enough. We in America need to put up high walls outside the schools, with the armed guards in towers at the corners of each wall, and set up the doors so all of them can be shut and locked at the same time, on command from the main office. Visitors can be required to stay behind bulletproof glass. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@MonkeyCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyCat)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/29 "2018-03-28T19:02:46Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > You do realize that the class nerd would come home with a multi-colored back pretty much every day, right? :smack: > > School bullying is bad enough, this would only make it worse…far worse. Oh dang. This is so accurate. Bullying is such a horrible thing. I accidentally bullied someone once and didn’t realize it until I’d done the deed and only because of his reaction to the event. I chased a kid down (he said he was the fastest runner in school) to prove he was lying and put glitter goo in his hair. This was in ninth grade. As soon as I did it, the way he reacted made just a pit in my stomach. Unwittingly I had become just another person who made him feel inadequate. And, I’m a girl, too. Luckily, there weren’t many witnesses. But, he still had to go the day with glitter in his hair. Poor kid. It woke me up and I never did anything “playful” like that again. He didn’t react like a friend who had been pranked. He reacted with sheer hatred and silence. ---
**Author:** ![AlonzoSWhitebeard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71c47a/32.png) [@AlonzoSWhitebeard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlonzoSWhitebeard)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/30 "2018-03-28T19:04:55Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > What if all students (at least those beyond a certain age) kept paintball guns under their chairs, and were taught to aim them at an assailant’s face? And then when he (always a he) is blinded and disoriented, rush him and take away his guns. > > For younger grades or as an alternative, could something be made that a teacher could have in his/her desk that would shoot a LOT of paint with one shot? Heh. Yes. Pointed but effective sarcasm. Points earned. > [@](#): > > Lot easier to snark from the sidelines than to try to come up with viable solutions. Let’s hear yours. (“Take away all the guns” is far more unrealistic than anything I’ve proposed: it’s like thinking you can control dog or cat populations through neutering males alone.) > > Nevertheless, I’m well aware that the idea of getting rid of the 500 million guns in America is ludicrous. Sure, ban the bump stocks and high capacity cartridges. But you’re not going to get rid of all the guns that would allow school shooters to kill plenty of kids if we don’t take countermeasures. > > Also, it’s ludicrous to suggest that the likelihood of mass insurrection if we started “grabbing guns” (as my cousin always is paranoid is about to happen) should not influence our policy. Should it not matter when we’re deciding, say, where to put a U.S. embassy if experts believe it would be constantly overrun with guerilla fighters? Good Lord Beelzebub on a moped, you were serious. Registering on a US board and then seeing this sort of lunacy set out for real shouldn’t be jarring, but it is. You go on a safari, you know you’re going to see lions and giraffes, but still, fuck me, a lion. Look, a real giraffe! And here we are. In the wild, not in captivity. An Internet person saying that gun control would be impractical and silly, so let’s issue paintball kit instead. I’m taking photos excitedly, while the guide tries hard not to let his boredom show. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/31 "2018-03-28T19:11:57Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > [Keeping door stops in student’s backpacks](http://wreg.com/2018/02/20/can-a-door-stops-stop-school-shootings/) was a cool “out-of-the box” idea. Doesn’t the fire code require classroom doors to open outward? ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/32 "2018-03-28T19:16:12Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Doesn’t the fire code require classroom doors to open outward? Hmm, could end up something [like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR1XZMO5YeE&feature=youtu.be&t=54). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/33 "2018-03-28T19:25:46Z")
So you’re literally suggesting we send children with paintballs into a gunfight? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/34 "2018-03-28T19:28:49Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So you’re literally suggesting we send children with paintballs into a gunfight? That’s what it seems like to me. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/35 "2018-03-28T19:31:03Z")
> [@AlonzoSWhitebeard](#): > > And here we are. In the wild, not in captivity. An Internet person saying that gun control would be impractical and silly, so let’s issue paintball kit instead. Let’s hear your practical, non-silly plan for how to get rid of all 500 million guns without the gun owners hiding them, shooting them at you, etc. I won’t even ask you to explain how this would be politically possible. Let’s just pretend it is somehow and then you tell me how you would accomplish it practically. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So you’re literally suggesting we send children with paintballs into a gunfight? Did you just read the OP or did you read my most recent posts? Children are already being trained to take erasers and notebooks and ppencils into a gun fight. I’m wanting them to have something more effective. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![AlonzoSWhitebeard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71c47a/32.png) [@AlonzoSWhitebeard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlonzoSWhitebeard)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/36 "2018-03-28T19:39:39Z")
Close down gun ranges, gun stores, internet sites selling guns, send a copper out to nick anyone shooting a gun in public. Offer members of the public a small bounty for information that leads to the recovery of an illegally held gun, after the amnesty period expires. Deal with it like drug possession: it may not be a priority crime, but ensure that offenders are conscious that they risk a surprisingly harsh sentence. What’s practically tough about all of this? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/37 "2018-03-28T19:42:05Z")
I literally LOL’d at your last sentence. OK then! (Are you not familiar with what an abject failure the war on drugs was, despite billions spent?) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/38 "2018-03-28T19:43:24Z")
> [@AlonzoSWhitebeard](#): > > Close down gun ranges, gun stores, internet sites selling guns, send a copper out to nick anyone shooting a gun in public. Offer members of the public a small bounty for information that leads to the recovery of an illegally held gun, after the amnesty period expires. Deal with it like drug possession: it may not be a priority crime, but ensure that offenders are conscious that they risk a surprisingly harsh sentence. What’s practically tough about all of this? Convincing people a total ban like that is necessary when Australia, for example, had wonderful results with increased control, but no ban. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/39 "2018-03-28T19:45:44Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I literally LOL’d at your last sentence. OK then! > > (Are you not familiar with what an abject failure the war on drugs was, despite billions spent?) Are you trying to say that owning a gun is as addictive as drugs? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363/40 "2018-03-28T19:48:20Z")
> [@AlonzoSWhitebeard](#): > > Close down gun ranges, gun stores, internet sites selling guns, send a copper out to nick anyone shooting a gun in public. Offer members of the public a small bounty for information that leads to the recovery of an illegally held gun, after the amnesty period expires. Deal with it like drug possession: it may not be a priority crime, but ensure that offenders are conscious that they risk a surprisingly harsh sentence. What’s practically tough about all of this? The central point of all of these “out of the box” suggestions is they’re being offered as an alternative to regulating guns. Which pretty much reveals the true agenda behind them. They’re not concerned with the threat to children. They’re concerned with the threat to guns. These ideas are about protecting guns not children. You want my support for issuing paintball kits? Fine, make it part of an omnibus bill along with some real gun control. You think paintballs will stop school shooting. I think gun control will stop school shootings. So we’ll give both our ideas a try. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-the-box-idea-to-deal-with-school-shootings/811363.md?page=3)