The Atlantic

The Next Parkland Could Happen Anywhere

Schools are trying to bolster security, but they can only do so much to prevent another mass shooting.
Source: Joe Skipper / Reuters

In the wake of a tragedy, there’s a race to understand exactly why it happened and what could have been done to prevent it. Maybe local law enforcement could have done more; maybe armed teachers would have helped; maybe the federal government should have been investigating the shooter as a terrorist. The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last Valentine’s Day, in which 17 people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured, was no different.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, an investigative panel convened by the state of Florida, was tasked with laying out the

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic4 min read
Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-war Fantasia
Once, in a windowless conference room, I got into an argument with a minor Japanese-government official about Hayao Miyazaki. This was in 2017, three years after the director had announced his latest retirement from filmmaking. His final project was
The Atlantic7 min readAmerican Government
The Americans Who Need Chaos
This is Work in Progress, a newsletter about work, technology, and how to solve some of America’s biggest problems. Sign up here. Several years ago, the political scientist Michael Bang Petersen, who is based in Denmark, wanted to understand why peop
The Atlantic4 min read
KitchenAid Did It Right 87 Years Ago
My KitchenAid stand mixer is older than I am. My dad bought the white-enameled machine 35 years ago, during a brief first marriage. The bits of batter crusted into its cracks could be from the pasta I made yesterday or from the bread he made then. I

Related Books & Audiobooks