With more than 1,000 school shootings killing or wounding 800 victims in the last three years in the United States, parents, teachers, educators, law enforcement agencies, and legislators are desperately seeking ways to avert active shooter situations. One of the latest solutions is the use of drones.
Mithril Defense, a company in Austin, Texas, has started marketing a drone-based security platform to schools called Campus Guardian Angel. According to the Wall Street Journal, both Georgia and Florida have approved US$500,000 each for drone services in their schools, and a group of parents in Texas has raised $200,000 to deploy Guardian Angel in a high school near Houston.
The Journal also reported that the drone services are priced at 50 cents per square foot annually, or about $8 per child a month.
“Our vision is ultimately to be in every school in the nation and to eradicate mass shootings,” Mithril’s founder, Justin Marston, told the Journal.
Guardian Angel drones sit on charging pads in a school and are activated only when an active shooter situation arises. The drones are monitored and controlled from Mithril’s offices in Austin, and according to the company, can confront an active shooter in 15 seconds with a flying machine that screeches, flashes strobe lights, and shoots pepper spray.
