There are 67,000 public elementary schools in America as of 2010

[Fumesucker]

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=84

A Wild Ass Guess about how much it would take to make each of those schools reasonably secure against an Adam Lanza would be a million dollars each. That may sound like a lot but good security is expensive and would require considerable renovation of most schools. Renovation is more of a craft work than standard new construction and it takes more skills and tools to accomplish the job.

Also you really wouldn't want the resulting renovations to look like a prison or reform school setting, that's going to drive up the costs considerably.

That's 67 billion dollars, round it off to 70 billion and double it you get 150 billion more or less.

Now think of the budget for personnel. You're going to have high standards for anyone hired as a guard so it will be expensive, at least $70K year and bennies to drive it up closer to $100K and quite possibly over that depending on location. That's another $6.7 billion yearly just for one guard per grammar school, double that and round off to $15 billion/year.

That's a very rough estimate of the magnitude of the security problem in the grammar schools if we actually care enough about our kids to try to stop another the next Adam Lanza.

Wouldn't be too bad an economic stimulus as well.

[Turbineguy]

1. We can trade those costs off

by not teaching kids how to read and write. The GOP would buy in under those terms.

[ellisonz]

2. Or we could have progressive gun control reform...

And we can make it pay for itself

[Fumesucker]

3. I wasn't advocating anything, just trying to get a handle on what it would cost without gun control

[ellisonz]

4. Having gone to schools this high fences and security check points...

...they don't work. We can't even secure our prisons in this country!

[ellisonz]

6. Studying violence from a sociological/philosophical perspective is pretty complex

Millions of pages have been written trying to get to the "real root."

Man is free at the instant he wants to be. - Voltaire

[Fumesucker]

7. Oh yeah

Did you know Madeline Albright was born of Jewish parents?

[ellisonz]

9. I'm not quite sure the point you're trying to make with this post. n/t

[Fumesucker]

10. Of course you aren't, Jiminy n/t

[DevonRex]

12. WTF?

[CreekDog]

13. but the problem in the Connecticult shooting wasn't societal, it was one kid with an arsenal

that he killed so many in mere seconds is a technological issue that we're going to need to address.

[Lurks Often]

8. Funding

1. Eliminate foreign aid to Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan & Pakistan immediately, that'll raise $17 billion, I'm sure other countries can be added to the list.
2. Legalize and tax marijuana, use that money from that toward school security,
3. Release non violent criminals such as drug users, some white collar criminals, tax fraud, etc
4. Change laws so that use of a firearm in commission of a crime results in mandatory time that can not be plea bargained away or receive probation. Possession of a firearm = 5 years; brandishing or threatening = 10 years; firing it = 15 years; anyone injured by the firearm = 20 years; if someone dies = life without parole. The costs of this will be offset by the release of the people in #3 and we may even see a savings as career criminals stay locked up and others are discouraged by the long prison terms.
5. Installation of bullet proof glass on all exterior doors
6. Installation of bullet proof glass on all exterior windows as funding permits
7. Classroom doors reinforced

[Puzzledtraveller]

11. This thought has crossed my mind before, not in response to shootings but

just how we tend to over genaralize the prevalence schools based on our own biases as far as where we attended and the community we grew up in. Not thinking there are thousands of neighborhoods just like the ones we went to school in, each with their own schools. It is an astounding number which should be respected for several reasons, safety and security and the professionals that keep them running.