Column: Gun-free zones provide false sense of security

Killers aren't stopped by these policies.

"After a shooting spree," author William Burroughs once said, "they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it." Burroughs continued: ool"I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military."

Plenty of people — especially among America's political and journalistic classes — feel differently. They'd be much more comfortable seeing ordinary Americans disarmed. And whenever there is a mass shooting, or other gun incident that snags the headlines, they do their best to exploit the tragedy and push for laws that would, well, take the guns away from the people who didn't do it.

There are a lot of problems with this approach, but one of the most significant is this one: It doesn't work. One of the interesting characteristics of mass shootings is that they generally occur in places where firearms are banned: malls, schools, etc. That was the finding of a famous 1999 study by John Lott of the University of Maryland and William Landes of the University of Chicago, and it appears to have been borne out by experience since then as well. Read more

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Gun Control Advocates Predict Tougher Response to Shootings

Will stricter gun regulations make US schools safer? Or will they create a false sense of security and further encourage the black market sale of guns and ammunition?

News of Obama's election and the possibility of tighter gun controls prompted a surge in the purchase of guns and ammunition. Some gun enthusiasts went as far as to bury guns and ammunition in hidden caches out of fear that the federal government under stiffer regulations might seize them. Stricter gun regulations can be expected to produce this and other, unforeseen results. They will not keep those wishing to arm themselves from acquiring guns and ammunition.

What we do need to do is establish greater security in US schools. Visitors to schools should not be able to gain access to school buildings except through the school office and they should be carefully screened as to their business at the school. This includes family members and relatives of students and teachers.

Courts around the US have installed metal detectors at the entrance to the court building and routinely check those entering the building for weapons. School systems need to consider doing the same thing and to take other steps to secure school campuses against armed intruders.