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US School Installs 'Shooter Detection' System
An anonymous reader writes: A school in Methuen, Massachusetts has demonstrated the first installation of an automated detection system for active gunmen. Sensors placed throughout the building are activated by the sounds of gunfire. The sensors relay data on the shooter's real-time location directly to police, who can then track and subdue their target. The system was developed for the military to detect the location of enemy fire. It will cost school districts between $20,000 and $100,000 to equip each school with the gunfire-detecting sensors. Methuen's police chief said, "It's amazing, the short, split-second amount of time from identification of the shot to transmission of the message. It changes the whole game. Without that shot detection system, we wouldn't know what was going on in the school ... Valuable, valuable time can be lost. Unfortunately, with school crisis situations, it's about mitigating loss."
Just remember, whatever you do, don't ever drop your books in the hallway.
Trust me. Don't do it.
3 - 2 - 1 .. Some kid brings a speaker plugged in to a cellphone/whatever plays gunfire gets school shut down for the day...
It'll be the new pulling the fire alarm/calling in bomb threat (taken way too seriously these days) =)
One problem was solved. Now the other problem needs to be solved. Namely, what causes students to snap and to do that in the first place.
Yep, when is the last time the police actually confronted and stopped the shooter?
Yea, it happens... but just as often, if not more often, some teacher tackles the kid, or as you say, he runs out of bullets, or he shoots himself so he doesn't have to live with what he just did...
Something worth considering... When is the last time a school shooter was a girl? Why is that? No one wants to talk about gender roles anymore, we're all the "same".
That is silly, we CLEARLY aren't the same, yet we keep saying, "no, no, everyone can do everything and both genders are equal".
Of course, the REAL issue isn't even guns, it is mental health. We have kids who are unstable, unbalanced, and unloved, and the system does nothing for them. There is no way to identify problem or challenged kids and get them some help before they go off the deep end.
This isn't limited to kids, we have the same problem with adults. The mental health care system in this county is sad, we don't offer help early enough to those who need it and as a result, we have people who go crazy and do stupid stuff.
Because indeed we are dealing with a mental health issue. In particular we are dealing with two mental health issues that are widespread in our country:
Until we address those issues we will still have these problems. It doesn't matter where you put guns, detectors, or anything else. All you can do is move the problem around. To make matters worse the 2010 health care bill was more about rewarding terrible insurance companies than it was actually about helping people get access to care that they need.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
spree shooters are also rare. this is an over reaction to a small problem
That equates to something like $2B to $10B to equip all the public schools in the US to stop a very small number of deaths. Such a system would have done nothing for the kids in the school in Washington State a few weeks back. I think very few of these school shootings last long enough for a system like this to make a real difference. But it makes people feel safer to think their kids are protected. I just wonder how much more effective that money could be at helping the potential perpetrators and preventing the shootings in the first place. It's amazing to me how stupid we are in this country that $20K+ per school to react faster to a catastrophe is so much more palatable than helping distressed kids and preventing the catastrophe in the first place.
The big assumption is that the gunman is continually firing shots that will allow the system to work. Alternatively, off the shelf wi-fi enabled cameras could be purchased that would provide real-time video feeds throughout the school allowing law enforcement to not only "hear" where the gunman is but to be able to actually see the gunman and potential victims as they move (or hide). Estimated cost: $5,000 - $10,000 depending on how many cameras are installed. (The prices are retail so I bet the schools can get an additional 30% off as they would probably be considered a wholesale customer.)
Sure the technology is cool but it doesn't make it the best choice for taxpayer dollars especially given the relative rarity of school shootings. During the 2009 - 2010 school year there were 98,817 public schools. Let's say they were all equipped with this system at $50,000 / school it would cost $4,940,850,000 to retrofit all the schools. I wonder what else can be done with 5 billion dollars... Perhaps some significant development work in vaccines? Perhaps cancer? Heck, I bet more lives would be saved simply choosing random people that need medical care and making sure they get the very best treatment possible.
From TFA:
Yes, we're at a point where the level of violent crime is at its lowest in 40 years but apparently a crazy response is needed regardless.
Needless to say, there's no discussion in this article. Simply a visit to the school for the demonstration, a quick chat with the cops, and a thoughtless quote from the neighbor.
I have a kid in school and frankly I think all this pseudo "security" is more dangerous for shaping future civic involvement than the anhistorical gibberish in the history books.
The problem with schools is that they are a factory for mental illness. The schools put up a front of being "zero tolerance" for bullies, but what it comes down to is that the bullies are protected by the system and the people they bully are punished for standing up to them or fighting back. My best friend and I both have "snapped" at some point and attacked our bullies back and we were both punished for it. I received corporal punishment and he was expelled. I can cite dozens of examples from among my peers where they eventually got fed up and fought back, and were punished for it. The only difference between me and Columbine is the scale. But the message is the same. The people that get picked on year after year and finally stand up to the bullys are the bad guys and the bullys are the martyrs.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Amazing how much the pro-gun lobby wants to waste on expensive crap like this, rather than simply allowing for effective laws. Hell, for most of what we need, we don't even need to create new laws, just start enforcing the current ones - in part by firing idiotic state government employees that refuse to comply with with federal reporting requirments
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
You are so right - it is LACK OF WEAPONS that is causing all these shootings. So, instead of installing security systems, let's install automatic rocket launchers in all schools, and while we're at it, why not put something like VX gas or anthrax in the little perfume dispensers in the toilets?
But ... but ... if even *one* live is saved, it is totally worth it! Why won't you think of the children?
What are there, maybe 4 school shootings per year in the US ? And 98,000 public schools. What does that make the odds of a school actually having a shooting, about 1 in 25,000 ?
Call me when a system like that is allowed by the local fire safety code.
No, you didn't get to take your gun INTO the school. You left it in the truck or it was locked up. Even in Texas, we weren't allowed to bring guns inside the building without supervision (bringing them into metal shop for example). Besides, what you are talking about is teenagers with pistols of various flavors wandering around a building full of teenaged angst and hormones. It might work in place like Israel where kids aged 14 start getting military training (firearm control, discipline, discipline, discipline) but in LA? Not so much.
And, as you point out, the real issue isn't guns. It's better mental health. The problem is something of this magnitude is going to cost much more than the four billion dollars estimated by pollarda. And even access to mental health isn't going to solve the issue of teenage nervous breakdown.
You're still better off fixing school and church buses so they don't kill the dozen or so people every year.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!