Because a crazed gunman will (A) go through the scanner and (B) will not open fire when their weapon is detected.
Agreed that the usefulness against a crazed gunman is less clear, although crazies do not always have a rational plan. If the weapon was concealed in a backpack or something the security may be able to tackle them before they access it. If they’re carrying it in an easily accessible, concealed holster, that’s less effective and they might be able to draw and use it after being detected.
Which might be a reasonable thing to aim for? It was mentioned up thread there's >100 school shootings/yr. The vast, vast majority (>>90%) of those are not the "crazy person randomly shoots up school" type, but rather the "two people in a fight / two groups in a fight / targeted revenge on single person".
The former is tracked as an active shooting incident, by the FBI. In 2023 there were 3 such incidents: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/2023-active-shooter-repo... (10 year average is a bit higher).
Of course the downside with the latter is that simply weapons checking at the school won't stop it from happening right before / after school, or otherwise outside of school.
Luckily some venues are nice about checking it with security, but still a pain to have to remember to go back and pick it up when leaving.
Wouldn't it be nice of people would just quit shooting and stabbing each other at things like sporting events :(
I would never ever choose to be involved in an active shooter situation but if I were I’d surely want to be armed rather than not.
11:30am: First 911 call.
11:31am: Officer arrives at school.
One minute police response time, by your metric. ~80 minutes later, the ~400 very well armed cops on scene managed to finally go in.
A cop outside is not obligated or expected to put his own life at risk. He's expected to show up for work tomorrow.
I do not agree with the second at all. Law Enforcement are both obligated and expected to put their own life at risk protecting the public. That said they are also expected to show up for work tomorrow! It’s a sad day when they don’t.
A cop can be at the scene of you getting actively murdered and do nothing about it, and legally the cop is ok.
Morally, you could definitely argue they're not okay.
1981 Warren v. District of Columbia
2005 Castle Rock v. Gonzales