Dogs Are Being Trained To Stop School Shooters

These dogs are trained to smell ammo and attack in the event of a school shooting

As long as politicians fail to enact sensible gun control reform, we will be trying to keep our kids safe. There have been a number of alternatives implemented in schools around the country — ALICE training, Run Hide Fight, and of course, arming our teachers. Now, some companies are training attack dogs to place in schools in the event a gunman enters.

Real Deal Dog Training in Norco, California, and Active Shooter K9 of Chariton, Iowa are just two of the companies training dogs to take down active shooters. “Dogs are being trained to intervene in school shootings,” Cheddar posted on Twitter along with a chilling video of what that would look like.

Of course, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. The number of mass shootings around the country has risen above 300 so far in 2018 according to data from the Gun Violence Archive since mid November. So, what is our country to do if no one will address gun control? Apparently, we train dogs to attack.

“The best-trained dogs have an accuracy rate of 85 to 90 percent,” James Greco, head trainer for Long Island K-9 told the New York Times reported. “This sniffing ability means K-9s could help detect the tens of thousands of guns that are brought to school by students across the country each year.”

According to WCPO, a Cincinnati high school hired a “safety dog” as early as 2014, so this isn’t new. But it speaks to the money and effort being spent to try to fix an actually solvable problem.

Some feel these dogs could be the difference between life and death in schools. After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman high school, the Sun Sentinel reported many in the community advocated for these dogs to be placed in the district’s schools.

It makes sense. People are (rightly) terrified that this will happen next in their kids’ schools and any additional safety measures that can be put in place would make anyone feel a little bit better. But it continues to speak to the fact that we, as a country, are trying to solve the symptoms — not the cause.

But at the end of the day, a dog can take someone down, but they can’t stop a bullet, and this is merely a (likely ineffective) bandaid for a much bigger problem. We shouldn’t be finding ways to remain safe during a shooting; we should be focusing on preventing shootings in the first place. We need common sense gun control laws, and we need them now.