John Oliver details the problems with putting cops in schools, America's only answer to school shootings

The main story on Sunday's Last Week Tonight involved the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, but only as an entry point. "Look, we all know what the key problem is here: it's guns," John Oliver began. "The vast majority of mass shooters, including the shooters at Uvalde and Parkland, obtained the weapons they used through legal purchases. So we know what the answer to this problem is, too: It's gun control. It's meaningful, effective gun laws. But that hasn't stopped some from desperately pitching absolutely anything other than that as a solution."

A lot of the ideas "are clearly ridiculous," but "hardening our schools often comes up as an alternative to gun control," Oliver said. The idea of putting "police, or school resource officers — or SROs, as they're sometimes called — into schools" seems "to come up in the wake of every big school shooting, and crucially, it's then the thing that we always do," he added. "A recent report found 14 million students go to a school with police but without a counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.