atlanta — Georgia could become the first state to require every student to be screened for weapons when they arrive at a public school each day.
A bill is nearing passage that would require weapons detection systems in a further pushback to 2024 A shooting at a school left four dead.
“This gun would never have made it into our hallways,” said Daria Leszczynska, a student at Appalachian High School in Winder, where the shooting occurred. “Lives could have been saved. Families would not have been sad, and students like me would not have had to endure this trauma.”
Some schools have long used metal detectors or required students to carry clear backpacks to reduce the use of weapons. but A new generation of technology Combines computer analysis with cameras or the same electromagnetic fields as metal detectors to detect knives and guns. The systems spread quickly across schools, arenas, stadiums and hospitals.
“It’s very common for me to walk through a gun detection system when I walk into a courtroom,” said Chuck Efstration, the bill’s sponsor and Republican House Majority Leader who represents the Appalachian campus. “Georgia’s students and teachers deserve similar security with gun detection systems within every public school in Georgia.”
There is little rigorous nationwide research proving that gun detectors prevent school shootings. In Georgia, there are questions about who will pay what could amount to $10,000 or more per system. School personnel must set up checkpoints and search bags. Even supporters of the systems say researchers can become dulled by a large number of false alarms and miss the few actual weapons. Some question whether gun detectors are necessary in elementary schools, as Effustration’s bill states. And those who find Georgia Gun laws are very lax They say installing gun detectors everywhere is a form of surrender, accepting that society will be mired in guns and violence.
A Senate committee on Monday passed a revised version of the Efstration bill, meaning it needs a final vote in the Senate and House in the closing days of Georgia’s 2026 legislative session before it reaches Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature or veto.
It’s unclear how many schools nationwide use gun detectors. US Department of Education survey I found this out in the 2021-2022 school year6.2% of all schools and 14.2% of high schools nationwide require random metal detection checks. Only 2.4% of all schools and 6.2% of high schools require daily metal detection checks. More schools required clear book bags or restricted book bags than required daily metal detection checks. Checks were more likely to be required when the school was in a city, when the majority of students were nonwhite, and when a large majority of students were poor.
The Atlanta school district spent more than $4 million to roll out new systems in 2021 at middle and high schools, replacing outdated metal detectors. District Police Chief Ronald Ablin said officials want something students can move through more quickly, saying traditional detectors are “too cumbersome.”
Ablin said weapons found in Atlanta schools dropped from 32 the year before the new order 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 screening gates, with a computer screen telling staff whether a bag needs a secondary search.
“It’s not really aggressive at the metal detector,” said Meredith Littles, school resource officer. “A lot of people worry about the dynamics of what it’s like. But it’s not intrusive at all.”
One of the key questions is how sensitive the system is, said Nikita Ermolaev, a research engineer at IPVM, which tests and researches security technology. Very sensitive, and alarms go off for everything. Not sensitive enough, weapons sneak through it. Trying to stay sober is a challenge.
“You have 100 alarms and the first 99 of them are false alarms on laptops or folders, right? It’s normal to assume that the 100th alarm will also be about something benign,” Ermolaev said. “So sometimes weapons like guns or knives can get through the system.”
Then there is the cost. Georgia gives each public school campus $50,000 a year for school safety, but many districts already use that money to pay campus administrators’ salaries. The House budget writers proposed borrowing an additional $50 million for county grants.
“While we absolutely believe gun detection is imperative, it can only be achieved with proper funding,” said Gretchen Walton, assistant superintendent in Cobb County, which has 103,000 students, the second-largest school system in Georgia.
Others, including some Democrats, say the focus on gun disclosure is misplaced. They say Georgia should look to limit children’s access to guns.
“We have allowed firearms and weapons of war to become more available than a pack of gum in this state, and then act with confusion when people continue to die,” said Democratic state Rep. Bryce Perry, a public school teacher who voted against the bill in the House. “Let’s stop hiding behind procedures and politics and pretending that the threat our children face is a mysterious, inscrutable force.”