America's gun epidemic is pummeling schools — here's one security feature that could help

In the wake of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting that shocked the nation and led to the first major federal gun law reform in 30 years, Republicans have sought to shift the blame from guns to the existence of too many doors into the school. In reality, the evidence that a proliferation of guns and permissive laws on buying them have made the U.S. more dangerous is indisputable and the most serious problem.

But on Tuesday, writing for NBC News, Suzy Khimm, Jon Schuppe and Mike Hixenbaugh revealed there is an entirely separate door-related issue in thousands of schools around the country — including Robb Elementary School in Uvalde — that could make it at least somewhat harder for mass shooters in schools to rack up high body counts. Specifically, installing classroom doors that can lock from the inside.

One teacher during the shooting, the report noted, "stepped into the hall, praying that the shooter wouldn’t see her. Moving toward gunfire was the only way she could be certain that her students were safe, the teacher said. That’s because Robb Elementary is among thousands of schools across the country lacking a basic safety feature that experts have recommended for decades: classroom doors that lock from the inside."

"Despite billions of dollars that have been poured into hardening schools nationally, 1 in 4 U.S. public schools lack classroom doors that can be locked from the inside, according to a survey conducted two years ago by the National Center on Education Statistics, a federal research office," said the report. "The safety feature is missing in much of Texas: 36% of the state’s schools said they did not have interior-locking doors in the majority of their classrooms, according to a 2018 survey commissioned by Gov. Greg Abbott. Outdated locks are especially common in older school buildings that haven’t been renovated, industry representatives said."

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Older schools that weren't designed with mass shootings in mind tend to only have classroom doors that lock from the outside, as the only consideration designers were thinking of was preventing burglaries. Now, shooting safety commissions, fire experts, and both pro- and anti-gun groups advocate fixing this problem.

"The upgrade doesn’t come cheap — installing a Columbine lock can cost between $200 and $900 per door, according to one industry estimate, though some older locks can be modified for less," said the report. "But there is a broad consensus among experts and school safety advocates that this is a simple and effective measure that some school districts have left by the wayside even as they’ve spent millions on new security. Amid the pressure to 'harden' schools, and in the absence of state or local requirements to upgrade locks, districts have bought everything from bulletproof whiteboards to artificial intelligence-powered gun detection devices, despite scant evidence that such products prevent shootings."

"'Instead of giving the money to all these security companies, why not use it to change the locks on the doors?' said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the leading labor union for educators," said the report. "While restricting access to firearms is still their top priority, the groups said that interior locks are critical to deterring shooters who make it into a school. 'That’s less invasive than virtually any other kind of security measure,' Weingarten said."

You can read more here.