I’ve always been a fan of Matthew McConaughey so naturally I was very interested to hear his opinions on gun safety and school shootings. When it comes to making schools safer, to me, it’s simple. As someone in the gun safety space this is a special topic to me. I spend most of my waking hours thinking about how to make constitutionally protected legal gun ownership safer.

Courthouses and government buildings tend to be visited upon by people who have grievances and grudges. And as such, these buildings employ human armed security, electronic security, and access / egress control. The last successful courtroom shooting to my knowledge was some 111 years ago known as the Hillview Massacre. Well before the technology to detect weapons walking through the door was available.

Why aren’t we using the money provided to schools to employ the same strategies we use to protect elected officials in government buildings as well as judges and court employees in courthouses? We know they work! And we also know the financial costs. Wouldn’t this be the first thing one would do if they truly wanted to protect children our in schools?

I know people have said they don’t want to expose their children to these measures because they believe it might make children “worry”. I would submit with all the coverage about school shootings, kids are already worried. Parents are buying bullet proof hoodies and backpacks with Body Armor inserts. How do you explain that to a child and not worry them?

Has anyone bothered to ask children if they had armed security guards and metal detectors to help prevent a school shooting in their school, would it make them feel safer? Not worried? We have a procedure and system that works. The bigger question is why we aren’t employing it? And, don’t tell me the cost is a deterrent. We just sent $75 Billion to Ukraine to help protect their people. Are US children not worth one of those billion?

Matthew this is the hill for you to die on. Right here. Get the US Government to fund the exact same methods they use to protect gigantic government buildings and courthouses to protect smaller schools and American children. Panic buttons are too late. As is therapy to deal with the mental effects and aftermath. Not allowing the shooter to get in and fire the first shot is the absolute minimum we should be doing with that money. And we have a blueprint for that already as I’ve discussed above. It works. So why aren’t we doing it?