The role and value of private security officers has always been clear to those in the security business. But “guard jokes,” from cartoons to movies are taking a back seat to reality as Newtown and other (now routine) mass shootings awakened the general public’s consciousness to the value and need for trained, professional security officers.
The 26 murdered in a Newtown, Connecticut, school join a tragic list of 151 mass shooting victims in 2012. A recent report by Mother Jones, “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America,” identified 62 mass shootings since 1982, including 25 since 2006. The guns used in 49 of those incidents were obtained legally. The NRA has promoted the use of armed guards in every school after Newtown (calculated to cost $5.4 billion) as the solution: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” says the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre. But addressing the active shooter threat requires more than a “fight fire with fire” discussion.