One of the things that I believe should be uncontroversial is the idea of making schools terrible targets for would-be mass killers. Armed teachers, hardened schools, armed security- nothing should be off the table in making schools virtual fortresses that can be unwelcoming places for those who want to murder our children.
And yeah, I guess that includes pepper spray-wielding drones, as Cam talked about a couple of months back. Then, the drones were set to be tested in a Georgia high school.
Now, they’re being deployed elsewhere.
How do we combat the scourge of school shootings? The distinctly cyberpunk gamble that some places of learning are taking: rapid response drones.
Multiple schools across three states will soon have their own veritable platoons of pepper-spraying drones to hunt down active shooters, The Washington Post reports, waiting to spring into action the moment they’re called on.
Traveling at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour and capable of smashing through the windows, the so-called “Campus Guardian Angels” can reach a gunman within just fifteen seconds, the manufacturer Mithril Defense claims.
In addition to blasting a shooter with pepper spray, they can also distract them with loud sirens and flashing lights, and even ram into them at high speeds.
“Once I get the drones on you, you just can’t escape them,” Bill King, a Mithril cofounder and retired Navy SEAL, told WaPo.
It remains a fringe solution, but seems to be picking up steam. The state of Florida last year allocated more than $557,000 to a pilot program to deploy the drones at three different high schools. Georgia recently approved its own $500,000 pilot to test Mithril’s system at five public schools. And in Colorado, a new K-12 public charter school decided it would pay to use the drones on its own.
In his piece on the Georgia school, Cam asks an important question: “[I]f someone is murdering students and staff, is a less-than-lethal response really ideal?” I think that’s a fair inquiry, and I tend to think that the answer is “no.” Not everyone reacts to pepper spray. Extreme adrenaline, such as someone who is pumped up to murder people, can push through the pain. It’s not ideal.
But as part of a layered defense, it may have some benefits.
Unfortunately, the “journalist” of the above-linked piece has qualms.
But the efficacy of the drone defense systems remains a big question mark — and hopefully we’ll never have to know — as is whether these solutions distract from addressing the systemic causes of mass shootings, like weak gun control and poor mental health support services.
First, the idea that a lack of gun control is a “systemic cause” of mass shootings is anti-gun propaganda that, frankly, isn’t supported by the fact that they happen all over the world, even in very gun-controlled nations. Second, while I think that increased mental health support is a good thing and we should pursue it, I’m alarmed by the idea that anything other than a discussion of gun control is considered a distraction.
These are children’s lives. Personally, I’d rather these drones be armed with very lethal weapons, though I suspect that’s a harder sell for Mithril Defense. I’d rather have pepper spray than nothing at all, especially if it’s part of an overall strategy that turns schools into fortresses. You don’t need to make them into prisons, though, as some people have claimed.
It’s fine to have questions about the efficacy of drones like these. I have questions, too. I’d rather have armed teachers and staff rolling out of classrooms to pop would-be mass killers so full of lead that their graves become superfund sites. I think that would have a lasting impact and would ultimately end school massacres.
If possible, have both. Have hallways built to minimize lines of sight for mass killers; that includes places for students to hide and escape from them, making it a terrible place to rack up a high body count, then throw in armed teachers, armed security, and maybe some armed drones along with, say, an AI system that’s already notified the police.
All of that together would make schools safer, and not just from the casual mass killer, but from people like terrorists and even those who are just trying to hide from the police.
Gun control won’t do it, and pretending that this is a distraction from gun control really just says you’re afraid it would work.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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