Georgia could become the first state to require weapon detection in all public schools

ATLANTA — Georgia could become the first state to require every student to be checked for weapons when arriving at a public school each day.

A bill is nearing passage that would require weapon detection systems in a further reaction to a 2024 school shooting that killed four.

“That rifle would have never reached our hallways,” said Daria Lezczynska, a junior at Apalachee High School in Winder, where the shooting took place. “Lives would have been saved. Families would not be grieving. Students like me would not be carrying this trauma.”

Some schools have long used metal detectors or required students to carry clear backpacks to cut down on weapons. But a new generation of technology marries computer analysis with cameras or the same electromagnetic fields as metal detectors to detect knives and guns. The systems have spread rapidly through schools, arenas, stadiums and hospitals.

“It’s very commonplace for me to walk through a weapons detection system when I enter into a courthouse,” said Chuck Efstration, the bill’s Republican sponsor and Georgia House majority leader who represents the Apalachee campus. “Georgia’s students and educators deserve similar security with weapons detection systems inside of every Georgia public school.”

There’s little rigorous research nationwide proving that weapon detectors prevent school shootings. In Georgia, there are questions about who will pay what can be $10,000 or more per system. School employees must staff checkpoints and search bags. And even supporters of the systems say searchers can become dulled by a multitude of false alarms and miss the few actual weapons.

Some also question whether weapon detectors are necessary in elementary schools, as the bill mandates. And those who find Georgia’s gun laws too permissive say installing weapon detectors everywhere is a form of surrender, accepting that society will be awash in guns and violence.

If passed by lawmakers in the closing days of Georgia’s 2026 legislative session, it will go before Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto.

Few schools traditionally required weapon checks

It’s unclear how many schools nationwide use weapon detectors. A U.S. Department of Education survey found that in the 2021-22 school year, 6.2% of all schools and 14.2% of high schools nationwide required random metal detector checks. Only 2.4% of all schools and 6.2% of high schools required daily metal detector checks.

Nationwide, more schools required clear book bags or banned book bags than required daily metal detector checks. Checks were more likely to be required when a school was in a city, when the majority of students were nonwhite, and when large majorities of students were poor.

Los Angeles Unified ended its policy of randomly searching students with metal detectors during the school day in July 2020, a decades-old practice that a coalition of students and advocates has been trying to eliminate for years.

Atlanta’s school district spent more than $4 million to roll out new systems in 2021 in middle and high schools, replacing old-style metal detectors. District Police Chief Ronald Applin said officials wanted something that students could move through more quickly, saying traditional detectors were “too cumbersome.”

Applin said the number of guns found at Atlanta schools fell from 32 the year before the new system to four so far this year.

The 1,700 students at Midtown High School typically hold their laptops in the air as they pass through detection gates, with a computer screen telling employees whether a bag needs a secondary search.

“It’s not real adversarial at the metal detector,” said School Resource Officer Meredith Littles. “A lot of people get worried about the dynamics of what that looks like. But it’s very nonintrusive.”

False alarms can dull vigilance

One key question is how sensitive to make the system, said Nikita Ermolaev, a research engineer at IPVM, which tests and researches security technology. Too sensitive, and alarms go off for everything. Not sensitive enough, and weapons slip through. And trying to maintain vigilance is a challenge.

“You have 100 alarms and the first 99 of them are false alarms on laptops or binders, right? You’re naturally going to assume that the 100th alarm is also going to be on something benign,” Ermolaev said. “And that’s how sometimes weapons such as guns or knives can go through the system.”

Then there’s the cost. Georgia gives each public school campus $50,000 a year for school safety, but many districts are already using that money to pay on-campus officers. House budget writers have proposed borrowing an additional $50 million for grants to districts.

Others, including some Democrats, see the focus on weapon detection as misplaced. They say Georgia should be looking to limit children’s access to guns.

“We have allowed guns and weapons of war to become more available than a pack of gum in this state, then act confused when people keep dying,” said Democratic state Rep. Bryce Berry, a public school teacher who voted against the bill in the House. “Let’s stop hiding behind procedure and politics and pretending that the threat our children face is some vague, mysterious force.”

Amy writes for the Associated Press.