Research

Abstract: School shootings are a regular occurrence in the United States, occupying the news cycle and American collective consciousness. While multiple preventative measures for these shootings have been propsed, an increasingly popular concept is the "good guy with a gun" who can apprehend and stop the "bad guy with a gun." These individuals often take the form of sworn school resource officers (SROs). Prior research shows SROs increase in-school arrest rates, but there is little research on the causal effect of SROs on school shootings. Using variation in the presence of SROs due to federal grants awarded specifically to pay the salaries of law enforcement officers in schools, I analyze the impact of SROs on school shootings using the method of instrumental variables (IV). I find that the grant program implemented by the U.S. Department of Justice increased the probability a school employed at least one SRO by 11%-75%. Although non-IV models indicate an insignificant positive correlation between employing SROs and a school shooting, bivariate probit models that account for selection in SRO employment indicate a moderate, significant positive effect of SROs on the incidence of school shootings. In particular, the presence of an SRO increases the likelihood of a shooting by 20%-23%.