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The statistical cost of providing new armed security for public schools
American Thinker ^ | 02/22/2018 | Andrew Solomon

Posted on 02/22/2018 9:23:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Surprisingly, no one has done this yet, so I did some Googling. Using statistics available from five years ago, there are 98,000 public elementary schools in the United States. There are an additional 26,400 public secondary (high) schools also. This does not include private schools or charter schools (however, one might want to classify those). For now, I will leave private schools out.

If you were to have at least two armed guards per school (some of these schools are quite large), and you account for population growth (these stats are five years old), you would get a new overnight federal employee head count higher than 250,000. That's five modest-sized cities.

If you pay them around $36,000 per year in salary, that yields a new annual cost of $9 billion. If you add in medical, dental, and pension, plus all the paid holidays, sick leave, and other miscellaneous time off, that raises your cost another $4 billion each year for a grand total of $13 billion per year.

There have been 138 shooting deaths since Sandy Hook in 2012, or 11.5 per year. Those shot but not killed were around 438, or 73. Depending on which math one chooses to use, if the new guard salaries remain constant (they won't) the ratio to procure school security per student death is $1.13 billion per child lost. The cost ratio is reduced to $178 million per kid shot, since there are more of those.

I should mention that the reporting on "school shooting" incidents is murky. Some of these are not mass school shootings. Some are accidental discharges by armed security already or police responding to a call. Some are from arguments in parking lots between grown men. Who knows how to factor that in,

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: armedguards; schools; security; shootings
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To: The Iceman Cometh

Here in Center my kids played in a HS stadium that was nicer than the stadium the college I went to had.


41 posted on 02/22/2018 10:02:26 AM PST by jospehm20
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To: The Iceman Cometh

Here in Center my kids played in a HS stadium that was nicer than the stadium the college I went to had.


42 posted on 02/22/2018 10:02:29 AM PST by jospehm20
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To: jospehm20

CenTex not Center.


43 posted on 02/22/2018 10:03:19 AM PST by jospehm20
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Just as an aside. Has anyone wondered why this stuff doesn’t happen on Friday nights every fall? I would think that would be prime time for these bad kids.

Well, I would suggest that every external gathering requires a police presence. Plus, there is always a gun or two in the crowd.

They don’t go there because people would shoot back.

Most schools already have security, like the assistant football coach. I wonder what it would cost to arm them?


44 posted on 02/22/2018 10:03:52 AM PST by Vermont Lt (Burn. It. Down.)
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To: Clutch Martin
That's what I hinted at. This security at school nonsense is just that. It will get to a point where it's a police state around here. Fine, create the army base. But the kids have to leave. What are they gonna do escort, the buses around... It never ends.
45 posted on 02/22/2018 10:04:25 AM PST by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
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To: ealgeone; The Iceman Cometh

A school system near me doesn’t have bus service to take kids to the high school, but you bet they have the latest and greatest when it comes to sports equipment, weight rooms, etc. Amazing.


46 posted on 02/22/2018 10:04:54 AM PST by day10 (You'll get nothing and like it!)
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To: Vermont Lt

I think any parent understands your sentiment!


47 posted on 02/22/2018 10:06:01 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Don’t forget the unarmed security and police already in many schools.


48 posted on 02/22/2018 10:08:32 AM PST by enduserindy ( I always smile when my competition doubles down on stupid.)
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To: SeekAndFind

That’s ridiculous. All that’s necessary is to allow properly qualified teachers who have CCW permits to carry on school premises. Jewelry stores have armed security in most cases because the owners and employees carry. Same thing for gun ranges. I’ve been to many and there are no regular armed guards. Rather, the employees and owners just carry and security takes of itself. Same thing would happen with schools.


49 posted on 02/22/2018 10:10:00 AM PST by libstripper
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Just exactly what kind of “vetting” are you looking for?

Past performance. Experience. Willingness to remain proficient, test scores on practicles. Physical performance.

Security at a school is a lot more than waltzing around strapped up while attending to your class.

There’s constant vigilance, there’s eyes and ears attuned to the physical security of the premises. You can’t do that unless they have been specifically trained to do that and remain able to do that as a primary function within that school. If it’s not a primary function it’s just going to be another add-on job, a collateral duty, and that’s when it fails to be effective.


50 posted on 02/22/2018 10:11:16 AM PST by Clutch Martin (Hot sauce aside, every culture has its pancakes, just as every culture has its noodle.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
“There are plenty of teachers with CCW permits already. They don’t have to hire armed guards. Just allow the teachers with CCW permits to carry.”

But Liberals will have a $hit fit” over that idea. (”They are not trained”)
The truth is that in their “heart of hearts,” Liberals love these school shootings, because it gives them yet another “bite at their real desire, a total gun ban!”
Dead children are just “broken eggs” in their “gun ban omelet!”

51 posted on 02/22/2018 10:14:14 AM PST by vette6387
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To: SeekAndFind

If we now need armed security guards at our schools, then we’re done as a first-world nation.


52 posted on 02/22/2018 10:15:20 AM PST by rivercat
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To: SeekAndFind

Stupid story. Relevant story is of Sheriff who offered 50 seats on gun safety to teachers and 250 applied.


53 posted on 02/22/2018 10:18:12 AM PST by RideForever
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To: 1Old Pro
For yourself, maybe, but have you thought this through? Would you want to have to take the responsibility for protecting your students also? As well as keeping one of them (who knows which) from tricking you out of possessing it and using it on you and others?

I carry concealed all the time, and there is a reason that I do not want the casual observer or contact to know of that fact. I am only interested in defending against someone attacking me, especially to gain possession of my protective device.

Do you want the burden of having to figure out where you can go with it and not be arrested because of personal, business, or governmental restrictions.

Apparently you do not have to face this every day. I was just recently threatened with a fine of $1,500 for just transporting my gun, locked in my car, and out of plain sight, whilst volunteering for charitable activity on a federal site. Now, I can't even protect myself while driving to and from that avocation.

You need to get your thinking cap on. Consider the unintended consequences of your naivete.

54 posted on 02/22/2018 10:18:45 AM PST by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: Clutch Martin

“Past performance. Experience. Willingness to remain proficient, test scores on practicles. Physical performance.”

We have a proxy for past performance. As I already said and you ignored, CCW-holders are the most law-abiding cross-section of the population you can find, more so than clergy or LEOs, and far less likely to shoot innocent bystanders than LEOs.

https://crimeresearch.org/2015/02/cprc-in-fox-news-police-are-extremely-law-abiding-but-concealed-handgun-permit-holders-are-even-more-so/

https://learnaboutguns.com/2009/02/17/fact-police-are-much-more-likely-to-shoot-the-wrong-person-than-armed-citizens/

You sound like a retired cop who wants to pad his pension with some more taxpayer loot and you don’t want any scabs lousing up your gravy train.


55 posted on 02/22/2018 10:21:44 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WukZwJP.gif" width=800>)
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To: SeekAndFind

I really don’t mind so much if my child is 18 and undereducated. I am not joking. But I do want him actually ALIVE at 18. His future looks a lot better that way.

There was a special about the Indiana high school called the most safe school in the country. Tim Conway had the audio on his show last night. It cost $400,000 and doesn’t involve armed guards. It’s foolproof security, very elaborate yet elegant. One big high school, $400k. If there are 4000 students, each parent would be responsible for only $100 and some could pay more.

I want my kid in a place as safe as an airport, as safe as the academy awards, as safe as a concert, at least.


56 posted on 02/22/2018 10:22:06 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: imardmd1

I would go with 13 billion divided by 55 million. So it is about 236 bucks per student per year. So the question that has to be asked of liberals is, is the protection of a student worth 236 dollars?

That would fry a liberals brain.


57 posted on 02/22/2018 10:22:44 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (What is a Blue City? First world cities run by third world politicians.)
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To: imardmd1
Apparently you do not have to face this every day. I was just recently threatened with a fine of $1,500 for just transporting my gun, locked in my car, and out of plain sight, whilst volunteering for charitable activity on a federal site. Now, I can't even protect myself while driving to and from that avocation.

Actually I do, here in NYS the restrictions are significant. there's a book related to where you can't carry, like many campgrounds for instance where you might be likely to have a bear run in - insane. In schools, I'd be for having fingerprint safes in every classroom - alarm goes off, those allowed would retrieve their firearm. I'd have big safes, as I'd want some scoped sniper rifles to be part of the mix.

58 posted on 02/22/2018 10:23:07 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: silverleaf

Ironically “ children of color” are probably safer in school guarded by cops on site than the white liberal upper middle class suburbanites who make their schools “ gun free zones”


Totally true. One son went to school in a mixed area very close to some urban areas. Much harder to get into that school. Now one of mine goes to school in a bucolic caucasian Hood in the hillside suburbs and anyone could walk right in, there aren’t even cameras that I know of. Scary. The school is pretty hidden but still.


59 posted on 02/22/2018 10:25:02 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: SeekAndFind

Use refundable tax credits to give parents the financial ability to send their daughters and sons to private schools with great security.


60 posted on 02/22/2018 10:29:53 AM PST by Architect of Avalon
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