In March 1998, the U.S. Department of Education released a report showing that 47 percent of public schools reported at least one serious or nonviolent crime during the 1996–97 school year. Another 10 percent reported at least one serious violent crime. The problem of school violence persists, as indicated by a string of fatal shootings that took place during the 1997–98 school year. In all, over a dozen people were shot to death and more than forty people were wounded. Of the suspects in the shootings, almost all were teenagers, while one was an eleven- year-old.

The deadly attacks have prompted many people to wonder if and how schools can be made safer. Some observers assert that the answer is in limiting the access these teenagers and preteens have to guns. In an editorial in USA Today following the Arkansas...