“Metal detectors. Bulletproof backpacks. School resource officers.

These are technical solutions given to an adaptive challenge: gun violence.

But adaptive challenges need adaptive solutions, not technical fixes, according to William Woodward, director of training at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The center has created a model to improve school safety using adaptive leadership and solutions, and it has analyzed programs to discover what would work to reduce violence overall, which would also reduce gun violence. If those kinds of programs were put in place, violence would decrease by 20% to 30%, according to Beverly Kingston, director of the center.

Still, the violence continues. Just this past weekend, at least 22 people were shot to death Saturday at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas and nine people were shot to death Sunday in a nightclub district of Dayton, Ohio. There have been 253 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an online archive that collects data on gun violence.

Researchers need to bridge the gap between the research itself and putting it into practice to start making progress, Kingston said.

The answer to the problem doesn’t rely on a “silver bullet,” she said. While better mental health services, gun control and things like metal detectors could be part of the solution, larger cultural and climate changes need to happen to effectively address violence, she said.

Leadership failures

Woodward trains schools on how to use the center’s model, Safe Communities Safe Schools, to change their climates to prevent and reduce violence.

This model is being used in 44 schools across the state as part of a study on its effectiveness. The study will end in the next school year, and so far the data shows it improves schools’ motivation and capacity to address safety issues, Kingston said. They’ll know whether it reduced violence when the study is complete.

The center wrote the Colorado Safety Guide for the Attorney General’s Office and found out of 2,000 school programs, about 80 were proved to be effective.

Some of the programs include LifeSkills Training, Olweus Bullying Prevention and Sources of Strength for Suicide Prevention.”

Read full article: CU Boulder center knows how to prevent violence, but it’s not simple