Doctors host forum on school shooting prevention, gun violence

(WNDU) - A nonprofit news service for scientists and journalists based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science held a forum today on school shootings in the U.S.

The topics discussed at the SciLine media briefing by three experts included gun violence statistics nationwide and ways communities can prevent these tragedies.

According to researchers at Columbia University, more than 357,000 children K-12 have experienced gun violence in the United States since the Columbine school shooting in 1999.

Preventative measures that have been shown to help are holding active shooter drills, youth empowerment programs, and antibullying campaigns, where the research regarding actions like adding school resource officers, metal detectors, and arming teachers is inconclusive.

“There are all these underlying factors that lead to somebody bringing a weapon or a knife or a gun to a school. Whether that’s for protection, for getting even, or for whatever reason,” said Dr. Marc Zimmerman, Professor of Health Behavior and Co-Director of the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention at the University of Michigan. “We often say here at the National Center for School Safety that a lot of the strategies designed to capture those guns before they come into the school, you’ve already lost because it’s rare that someone walks up in the morning and decides to bring a gun to school, there’s usually precipitating events.”

Researchers tell us that we should not only be trying to avoid making children feel like criminals in a learning environment by implementing harsh reactive measures like metal detectors but also by working with gun owners who have children.

“We should be working with gun owners on how to keep all of our communities safe, whether it’s in or outside of school. That is a no-brainer, and there’s lots of really rigorous research that has shown the benefits of those partnerships,” said Dr. Sonali Rajan, an associate professor of health and behavior studies at the Teachers College Columbia University. “We live in a country with more than 400 million firearms that are in circulation, so we have to figure out how to coexist safely with them. One easy example is school nurses who are working on firearm education with families who are firearm owners or normalizing firearm safety practices when kids and their parents go visit their pediatricians during their annual wellness visits. So, how are we thinking about firearm safety and storage as part and parcel of this issue? It’s so critical.”

The major takeaways from the briefing were that gun violence is a community issue, and schools should work with community partners to help reduce gun violence by providing resources for families and students, implementing preventative measures, and ensuring children do not feel powerless based on background, race, or economic status.

“Gun violence is a solvable problem,” Dr. Rajan said. “School shootings are a fixable problem. We know a lot; we just need the courage to implement a lot of the solutions we know work.”

Dr. Amanda Nickerson, a Professor at the University of Buffalo SUNY and the Dr. Jean M. Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention Director, also spoke at the briefing.

“The impact of youth exposure to violence; this exposure could be a direct victim, also witnessing it, or violence in the home, school, or community, we definitely see higher PTSD symptoms in these youth, as well as anxiety and depressive symptoms,” Dr. Nickerson said.

Dr. Rajan also works with the Columbia Scientific Union for the Reduction of Gun Violence, or SURGE, to research solutions to gun violence.