Wild new way America is stopping school shooters
As America continues to be plagued by deadly school shootings, some experts believe a new piece of “killer drone” technology could be the solution.
Florida is sending armed robots to protect young students from mass shooters.
Governor Ron DeSantis has ordered rapid-reaction drones to be installed in three Florida school districts on a trial basis with a view to rolling out the program statewide.
He has cause to do so.
There have been more than 60 school shootings in his state since 2018. And parents and school staff have been demanding action.
But amid a national reluctance to restrict gun ownership and enforce existing limitations, one of the few remaining options is to shoot back.
A Texas-based start-up has risen to the need.
It has created an attack drone capable of activating within five seconds of the press of a “panic button”.
Speed is of the essence.
Studies of hundreds of shootings in US schools and universities have shown that most fatalities are inflicted in the first few minutes. This is when students and staff are surprised, shocked and confused, and security guards and police struggle to determine what is going on.
“We’re trying to buy the time that it takes for a human to get there,” Campus Guardian Angel’s chief tactical officer, Bill King, said. “No matter where I find the assailant, I want to have a box that can reach him within 15 seconds.”
Fighting fire with fire
Florida is one of the worst US states when it comes to school shootings.
Among its most tragic incidents was at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day, 2018. Gunman Nikolas Cruz, then aged 19, took a legally purchased AR-15 assault rifle into his former campus. He killed 17 people and wounded another 18.
Florida police were heavily criticised for hesitating. First responders gathered outside the school instead of immediately engaging Cruz in an attempt to halt the massacre.
The scandal prompted the resignations of several police officers. And politicians reacted by toughening shooter penalties, including easing the ability of a jury to impose the death sentence.
Limiting the population’s easy access to military-grade weapons, however, remains a political hot potato.
Instead, Florida is hiring heavily armed deputy sheriffs as permanent staff in all of its high schools. Their job is to confront any active shooters immediately.
Schools are also being fortified with extensive surveillance camera networks, weapon-detection scanners, bulletproof rooms and other passive support systems.
Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna told local media that this had caused the cost of securing schools to soar. So a centralised first-responder drone system has budgetary appeal.
“We have a weapons detection dog – that comes with the price tag,” he said. “We have AI software in our cameras. All that comes at a price point, and so it’s us managing that budget and trying to figure out where we’re getting the biggest bang for our buck.”
Eye in the sky
Dubbed The Campus Guardian Angel, up to six drones are pre-positioned around a school in secure support boxes.
Once activated, a team of ex-military personnel in Texas access a 3D digital twin of the campus and gain control of all live security video streams.
Pilots direct the quadcopters, tactical analysts guide their deployment, and liaison staff establish contact with police and the school.
“Currently, an officer’s job is to run toward gunfire, alone, with no support or intel – basically a standoff,” CEO Justin Marston told US media.
Tests and training suggest the deputy sheriff is generally able to identify and reach a shooter in about three minutes. But analysis of historical school shootings shows most fatalities occur within the first two minutes.
“With our drones, they’re not alone; they know what the suspect looks like, what they’re doing, and we take point around every corner,” Marston says.
Governor DeSantis was impressed by recent demonstrations of the system at a security centre and a public high school.
Live-streamed videos showed the drones forcing their way into buildings, identifying suspects and tracking their movements. They also fired nonlethal rounds and bowled over a dummy to demonstrate their ability to intervene directly.
“Drones are like mosquitoes – they are hard to shoot,” the company states. “Even if a shooter does manage to hit one drone, we are sending waves of multiple drones. And whatever time and bullets are being expended shooting at the drones are not being expended injuring or killing children and teachers.”
DeSantis has allocated $A867,000 to roll out the pilot program. The drones are due to be installed in September and October, with the service going online in January.
Rapid reaction
Each quadcopter, which is about the size of a basketball, can wind its way through corridors at up to 80km/h. It is armed with pepper pellets, which the company says are to distract a shooter and degrade their eyesight. And it carries a glass-breaking hammer that can also be used as a 160km/h battering ram.
“Our goal is to ensure that the shooter surrenders the ability to cause harm – one way or another,” the company’s website states.
CGA says the drones are not armed with guns due to the risk of accidentally killing students. And, as many shooters are also suicidal, their presence won’t attract anyone with a death wish.
The company claims a drone can reach a shooter within 15 seconds of an alarm. Its crew’s goal, Marston says, is to keep the target occupied until the school’s armed deputy sheriff arrives.
“We feed live video to police, show exactly what’s happening, where the suspect is, and even smash through windows with a glass punch to create distractions. This tactic, like during the SAS’s famous hostage rescue (at the London Iranian Embassy incident), can give officers a huge advantage,” Marston said.
The company says its goal is to enable a school’s deputy sheriff to “neutralise” a shooter threat within one minute of an alarm being activated.
The system has also been demonstrated to law enforcement and school authorities in Colorado and Utah.
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Originally published as Wild new way America is stopping school shooters
