Gun Free School Zones: Are They Coming To An End, Let's Take a Look

Following the recent shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which resulted in two children dead and 17 others injured, a U.S. congressman is proposing to abolish the law that allows only criminals to be armed near public schools.

On August 29, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, introduced the “Safe Students Act,” H.R. 5066, which would repeal the “Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990,” (GFSZA) and eliminate that law’s one-size-fits-all federal ban on guns in school zones. 

According to Rep. Massie, enactment of the “Safe Students Act” would make it easier for state and local governments and school boards to set their own firearms policies unambiguously. 

“Gun-free zones are ineffective and make our schools less safe,” Rep. Massie said in a news release announcing the measure. “Since 1950, 94% of mass public shootings have occurred in places where citizens are banned from having guns. Banks, churches, sports stadiums and many of my colleagues in Congress are protected with firearms. Yet children inside the classroom are too frequently left vulnerable.”

In fact, statistics support Rep. Massie’s argument. Recent data shows a 200% increase in targeted school shootings in the United States since the act was enacted, and a 327% rise in shootings on or near school campuses during the same period.

Rep. Massie’s bill, originally introduced by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, in 2007, repeals GFSZA, a law that makes it “unlawful for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.” In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court held the GFSZA unconstitutional, which prompted Congress to amend the bill in 1996. The Supreme Court has not ruled on the constitutionality of the amended act.