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After the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, parents, experts and politicians started questioning whether the measures we are taking to keep students safe are working.
The big question: How can we prevent a future mass shooting in an American school? The answer, according to Maryland parent George Tunis, is bulletproof shields.
Tunis, CEO of Hardwire LCC and father of four, has already provided 258 schools on the eastern shore of Maryland with shotgun/handgun and assault rifle bulletproof armored shields of his own production, which he said will empower students and children in an active shooter situation to defend themselves.
"This shield would be hanged up on the wall, grabbed and turned on a shooter. If you look at that top grouping, it is a full clip from an AR," Tunis told KHOU-11, comparing the shield to a fire extinguisher.
"The shields need to be in the building. People need to understand that they are just like a fire extinguisher," he told the Houston local TV station.
On the company's website, Hardwire LCC explains how the shield could help students be safe during a mass shooting.
"In an active shooter situation, your school teaches to run, hide, or fight," reads a statement on Hardwire LCC's website. "In any of these cases, Hardwire security products give students, faculty, and School Resource Officers the confidence to defend themselves. And thus, turn the odds in their favor."
According to an illustration explaining how to use the shield, children and teachers should grab the shield, hold it against the active shooter, use it to protect others in the same room and maneuver it to disarm the gunman "until first responders arrive."
A video on Hardwire LCC illustrates how the shield could be use to stop an active shooter in a situation where a teacher has been already made aware of the presence of a gunman inside the school's halls (the video may be triggering for some).
"A school resource officer can't be everywhere at once. Our safety products can," reads the company's website.
In the case of Uvalde, nearly 400 law enforcement officers descended on the school as the mass shooting was unfolding, but due to "egregiously poor" decisions—according to a damning investigative report released in the aftermath of the tragedy—the gunman was taken down only after more than an hour of chaos inside the primary school.
The Robb Elementary School shooting inspired Tunis to create the bulletproof shields. "I have two little ones coming up through the school system as well and these things happen so quickly," he told KHOU-11.
"This latest shooting in Uvalde was sort of the last straw for me as a parent."
Newsweek has reached out to Hardwire LLC for comment.
The cost of providing enough shields for students and faculty goes from a minimum of $6,987 to $12,972 for 10 to 25 bulletproof whiteboards and three emergency-response shields for smaller schools to a maximum of $89,820 to $109,770 for 150 to 200 bulletproof whiteboards and 30 emergency response shields for bigger schools with over 800 students, 200 faculty and staff and over 300 classrooms.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more