Leave your guns, knifes and weapons at home.
Baltimore City Council Member Belinda Conaway aims to make that a reality after introducing legislation Monday that would put metal detectors in all city-owned buildings.
The bill would authorize not only metal detectors for schools, but any city facilities that have significant public traffic. Conaway said the measure is long overdue.
“There have been a lot of violent acts committed in city buildings ? disgruntled employees who have a grudge and come back with a gun,” Conaway said.
Conaway, D-7th District, said the recent school violence ? including the shootings at an Amish school in Pennsylvania ? are examples of why the city should take every possible precaution to prevent violence.
“Some people say it?s not going to help, but look at that 8-year-old boy that brought the gun to school, it was only a blessing that nobody was hurt,” she said, referring to a gun going off in a desk on Oct. 12 at Grove Park Elementary after a third-grader brought the weapon to school.
Kurt Kooker, spokesman for the city Department of Public Works, the agency that manages all city government buildings, said the key to the bill will be establishing parameters for both the types of metal detector, and where they should be installed.
“It?s a matter of both the capabilities of the metaldetectors, and the criteria for where you put them,” he said.
“There are a lot of buildings managed by the city, from tiny to large, so it?s a matter of planning.”
Police headquarters and City Hall are among the city buildings that currently have metal detectors.
Antonio Williams, police chief of the Baltimore City Public School System, said that while he is not opposed to metal detectors, allocating resources for security in schools requires a balanced approached.
“I?m a proponent of doing qualitative analysis. You don?t go out and buy metal detectors based on one or two situations,” he said.
“I?d rather have more police officers than metal detectors,” he added, noting that so far this year, two guns have been recovered from Baltimore schools.
