Metal Detectors Stand in For Real Action on Gun Violence

By Mary Sanchez, Tribune Content Agency on Dec 20, 2015

You can't blame people for being scared. The sites of the most horrific gun attacks now form a grim shorthand: We speak of Columbine and Aurora and Virginia Tech, and now most recently San Bernardino. We continue to dicker about what qualifies as a mass shooting, but they are clearly in the news with regularity. There are so many that not all of them stick with us. Who remembers Red Lake (in Minnesota, nine killed) or Marysville (Washington, four dead)?

The third anniversary of the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., passed with little notice the same week Disney installed its new detectors. Sandy Hook -- where 20 schoolchildren died -- was the attack we all thought was so horrendous that it would spark movement for better forms of background checks for firearms purchases. Not so.

Instead, we've gone the other direction.

"It's a sign of the times," theme park analyst Dennis Speigel told the Tampa Bay Times. "Metal detectors are here to stay as part of society at schools, hospitals, theaters, at sporting events. You are going to see more and more of this type of security instituted because it's one of the first things they can do."

Note the last part of his statement. That's key.

Bracing with higher security is what societies do in lieu of the more difficult measures.

Poll after poll shows that Americans support expanding background checks for all gun purchases, and that they want to keep guns from the hands of people who are dangerously mentally ill.

Why don't we also expect our elected officials to do what they can to keep guns out of the hands of those who wish to cause harm?

Instead, we batten down the hatches, assume that everyone is carrying a gun, that a mass shooting can occur anywhere and it's up to businesses to protect their customers.

At this rate, people won't be able to enter a grocery, a school, a movie theater or anywhere in public without needing to pass through a metal detector.

It's doubtful that this is really what Americans want.

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(Mary Sanchez, an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star, is filling in for Mr. Page. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via e-mail at msanchez@kcstar.com.)