Another day and another tragic random shooting with so many young innocent children and school personnel now gone. While much has been said about how to help children and others cope with such horrific news, how to manage post traumatic stress, and how to spot potential perpetrators few seem to thoughtfully comment on gun control and other social engineering efforts to minimize at risk people getting access to instruments of violence. Gun control is a very hot political potato in American and few seem to want to take the gun control issue on. However, social engineering may help us think through the behavior change that we need to make public places safer.
Sadly, with a large U.S. population of over 300 million Americans we will always have a segment of the population who at any one point in time are deeply distressed, suicidal, homicidal, and at risk of harming both themselves and others. Those who choose gun violence tend to be angry and disenfranchised young men. While there are occasional exceptions to this rule where women or older persons commit violence the vast majority are young men in their teens and 20s. All of the very careful efforts to provide mental health screening, treatment, and the like won’t change the odds that at least some members of our society are at risk of great harm. Sadly, we cannot predict very well who will and who will not commit gun violence. While there are risk factors that are known our prediction rates are pretty poor. Additionally, we can't just lock up young men who seem frustrated and angry either.
Yet, there are many social engineering methods that can be used to at least minimize the odds that harm can occur from gun violence. This is one of the reasons why airport security is tight in the United States after 9/11 and, in some countries around the world (such as Israel), the airport security is extremely tight. Other social engineering efforts can be found when you attend large athletic events such as baseball and football games. You go through security having your bags examined and there is a list of banned items not allowed in the stadium (e.g., guns and bottles) that can harm others.
Using social engineering approaches to minimize the odds of gun violence in schools, shopping malls, movie theaters, athletic events and everywhere else where people gather makes good sense. This also includes who gets access to fire arms. As long as we continue to live in a society with very easy access to firearms then we certainly can expect little decrease in shooting tragedies. An angry and homicidal person can only do so much damage with a knife, brick, or even a simple shotgun. They can do much more damage within a minimal amount of time with more serious and lethal firepower.
Although gun control has been a hot political issue for many years in the United States, perhaps we should consider this issue as a public health crisis and treat it as such using the best that science has to offer when it comes to social engineering and behavior change. Thankfully, violence in our society overall has decreased in recent decades but when it comes to random shootings in public areas too many lives have been lost to not use every available scientifically based prevention strategy to minimize future violence. Being very thoughtful about who has access to firearms is one of many social engineering approaches that could make our schools, malls, movie houses, and other public locations safer for all.
So, what do you think?