The majority of Anne Arundel County residents think metal detectors in schools are a good idea, according to a March survey by AACC. 

In a Center for the Study of Local Issues survey of 663 county residents, 69 percent said metal detectors should be installed at all Maryland public schools. 

The results agree with an informal Campus Current poll of 20 AACC students, which found 14—or 70 percent—favor metal detectors in schools.

But CSLI Director Dan Nataf said students and parents may feel differently about metal detectors. 

Nataf’s  survey included some students, but Campus Current’s informal poll was of students only.  

“From parents’ or maybe other adults’ point of view, they’re just worried about having their kids come home,” Nataf said. 

“So there’s very little that they’re not willing to do if they think it increases the chances of preventing some kind of mass killing.”

The students he talked to, on the other hand, seemed more hesitant to “militarize” their schools, he said. 

Some said metal detectors might make the school appear or feel less safe, while others said a truly determined armed killer would simply wait outside the school for students.

CSLI has conducted semi-annual surveys of the county since 1995.

AACC students intern and volunteer at the center to learn about conducting research and analyzing the data collected in surveys.