Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify how how weapons-detection systems work.
Lawmakers in at least three states are weighing legislation that would require all public schools to place weapons-detection systems at building entrances.
If those proposals pass, school safety experts predict other states may follow, ramping up the rapid adoption of the evolving technology.
In Georgia, a bill that has passed the House would allow schools to use traditional “airport style” metal detectors or wands to scan students for weapons, but most of lawmakers’ deliberations have focused on new artificial intelligence systems. Such systems—already in use in some of the state’s largest districts—employ a combination of AI software, cameras, and electromagnetic sensors to detect possible weapons as students walk past entrances or throughout school buildings. Sold by companies including Evolv, ZeroEyes, and Omnialert, the systems are commonly used at concerts and professional sporting events.
Lawmakers in South Carolina and Rhode Island have proposed similar bills that haven’t advanced to a full vote in either chamber. And a Tennessee legislator proposed a bill last year that would offer grants to districts to pilot weapons-detection systems.
“Every Georgia parent deserves to know when they drop their child off at school in the morning, they’re going to be able to pick them up safe at the end of the day,” said Georgia Rep. Chuck Efstration, the bill’s Republican sponsor, in a March 23 committee hearing.
Efstration’s district includes Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., where a 14-year-old student is accused of killing four people and injuring seven others in a September 2024 shooting, which spurred a wave of new school safety measures in the state.
Schools navigate false alarms from AI weapons detectors
Nationwide, 6.2% of high schools and 4.2% of middle schools reported daily metal detector checks on students during the 2021-22 school year, according to the most recent federal data. But no federal agency tracks the use of AI detection systems.
While supporters of the proposed mandates call them “common sense,” some school safety consultants and leaders that have used AI detection systems urge caution about their limitations.
Many districts that use the most popular systems report repeated false alarms on items like spiral-bound notebooks, musical instrument cases, and water bottles. Officials in districts including Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., instruct students to hold frequently flagged items like Chromebooks above their heads as they pass so staff monitoring the systems can more easily identify what items trigger the sensors.
School leaders can reduce false alarms by turning down the detectors’ sensitivity, but then they risk missing weapons like guns and knives they aim to detect, said Kenneth Trump, an Ohio-based consultant who works with districts to create safety plans and serves as an expert witness in trials related to school shootings.
While states may provide initial funding to purchase the systems, they fail to take into account the ongoing costs of software contracts, equipment upkeep, and staff to monitor their use, creating unfunded mandates, he said.
Georgia lawmakers said districts could use existing state school safety grants to purchase detectors. But many have already obligated those funds to contracts with school police, said Gretchen Walton, the assistant superintendent of the Cobb County district, which has 109 schools.
“The key thing to all of this stuff is the issue of fidelity of implementation,” Trump said. “Schools are not airports. They don’t have secure, sterile areas where they are running the weapons-detection system from the time they open to the end of the day or the last flight.”
Dallas school police blamed “human error” after a student walked through metal detectors at a school entrance in April 2024 before he shot a classmate in the thigh later that day, the Dallas Morning News reported. A year later, another student at the same school shot and wounded four people after a classmate let him in through a locked side door.
Police swarmed and handcuffed a Baltimore County, Md., high school student in October 2025 when a detection system mistook a crumpled Doritos bag he was holding for a possible firearm.
In November 26, Evolv announced a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations it had misrepresented the effectiveness of certain products marketed to K-12 schools. Without admitting wrongdoing, the company agreed to change its marketing practices. After the company offered 65 affected districts the option to terminate the contracts early, five asked to do so, Evolv later reported.
Mandate is ‘a really reasonable measure,’ lawmaker says
Administrators have also reported success stories. Nashville, Tenn., police arrested a 17-year-old high school student March 6 when an AI detector identified a loaded handgun in his backpack, local TV news station WSMV reported.
Efstration, the Georgia lawmaker, said at the hearing that the bill was a “really reasonable measure” and worth the expense, even if the systems have some limitations.
“We don’t say we’re not going to secure the courthouse because people may be at risk in other ways or because doors may be left open,” he said. “Why can’t we do that for public schools? It just makes sense to limit access and have these weapons detections at points of entry. It very easily can be done.”
Tearful students from Apalachee High School testified at the Georgia committee hearing that the installation of AI detection systems made them feel safe coming to school following the 2024 shooting.
“School, the place where we used to feel safe, turned into a place of nightmares,” an 11th grade student named Daria told lawmakers. “A student walked right through our front doors while concealing a weapon that should have never made it inside our school. There was nothing to stop him.”
Trump acknowledged the emotions that come with discussions of school safety, adding that even one gun making it into a school is “too many,” but he urged a “tactical pause” before states consider new mandates.
“It takes an enormous amount of manpower, consistency, staffing, training, and accountability to actually operate these systems in a school environment with fidelity,” Trump said.
