Blender Bluid and Amy Do are back on the podcast for a VERY absurd episode. We get into the down and dirty of the free market's response to the very USA-based problem of school-based gun violence. As far as the more grim episodes go, this is one that we tried to bring a lot of levity to (especially about 24 minutes in). First we take a look at the products, then the politics, then profit-based active shooter training programs. There's a lot of ways to make money off of national policy failure and consistent tragedy, apparently.

A little note I want to say to everyone: I think this episode is very important, but I beg of you to not inappropriately share this episode every time there is a mass shooting. It's a (relatively) funny one, and I don't think it's appropriate to plug it under inevitable tragedies. That already happened to my NFL episode in the wake of the Damar Hamlin injury, and I just want to say that it makes me really uncomfortable. I'm proud of my work and I'm SO happy people are spreading it, but I want to do my part in being an upstanding and thoughtful creator. XOXO.

SOURCES:

Methodologies for different school shooting tracking statistics:

1. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/methodology

2. https://rockinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Overview-American-School-Shooting-Study-TASSS.pdf (page 4)

3. https://www.chds.us/ssdb/methods/

Products/Industry Talk:

1. The Free Market Responds to America’s School Shootings, Ben Schott, Bloomberg, July 2022

2. https://fightingchancesolutions.com/

3. Armored school doors, bulletproof whiteboards, and secret snipers, John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich, Washington Post, 2018

4. Experts cast doubt on high-tech efforts to stop school shooters, Laura Meckler, Washington Post, May 2022

5. CMS staff warned security system didn’t work. The district expanded it anyway., Annie Ma and Fred Clasen-Kelly, The Charlotte Observer, January 2020

6. School security technology at center of fierce debate after Uvalde shooting, Max Zahn, ABC News, June 2022

7. Schools Are Spending Billions on High-Tech Defense for Mass Shootings, Natasha Singer,  New York Times, June 2022 (this is where I got the 3 billion number; the nonprofit is cited here)

8. These Businesses Say They've Got What You Need to Survive a Mass Shooting, Melissa Chan, Time Magazine, Oct 2019

9.