The Club PUBlication 09/15/2025

​AI is an unused tool in curbing mass shootings
By STEPHEN CONTAG
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As a physician, I believe in prevention. As a parent, I believe in protection. And as a citizen, I believe we must use every tool available to safeguard our communities.
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As both a physician and a parent, I think every day about how to prevent harm before it occurs. Medicine has taught me that prevention is the most powerful tool we have. Yet nothing in my training prepared me for the epidemic that now claims the lives of more children and teens in America than any other preventable cause:

gun violence.
When 21 people were injured and two children were killed while attending church in Minneapolis, the sense of safety in a familiar space was shattered again. Mayor Jacob Frey asked the question that should trouble us all:

If people are not safe in church, where are they safe?
​It is a question that extends far beyond houses of worship. The same uncertainty now shadows schools, shopping malls, concerts, grocery stores, movie theaters and hospitals. In short, the very places where communities gather.

If we want to change that reality, we must start treating gun violence like the public health crisis it is. Prevention in medicine works through layers. Primary prevention aims to stop illness before it begins. Secondary prevention detects problems early. Tertiary prevention uses advanced measures when the risk is imminent. For heart disease, tertiary prevention might mean a defibrillator. For cancer, it might mean a transplant or advanced chemotherapy. For gun violence, it must mean technology that interrupts a weapon before it can be used against a crowd.

Artificial intelligence can provide this protection.
AI already operates quietly in many areas of life. It flags suspicious financial transactions before accounts are drained. It helps physicians detect strokes and sepsis minutes earlier than human judgment alone. It allows airports to identify security threats in real time. The same ability to scan, recognize and trigger an immediate response could be applied to firearms.

The concept is simple.
Firearms, whether newly manufactured or retrofitted, could contain embedded chips that communicate with perimeter sensors. Schools, churches, malls, hospitals, concert venues and other gathering places could install sensors that continuously and discreetly scan for unauthorized weapons. If a firearm crossed into a protected zone, the system would trigger an automatic alert to staff, law enforcement and first responders.

Instead of chaos erupting after the first shot, there would be a window of time to intervene before lives are lost. This is not speculative technology. It exists today.

Yes, building such a system would require resources and political will. But we have made similar choices before.
Cars once lacked seat belts and air bags, until we decided that preventable deaths on the road were unacceptable. Air travel once involved little screening, until 9/11 made us recognize the need for layered security. None of those measures eliminated accidents or attacks, but all of them reduced the risks. The same principle applies here: Prevention, not perfection, should be our standard.

The strength of AI lies in its speed and impartiality.
It does not depend on a teacher noticing a warning sign or a mall security guard spotting a hidden weapon. It does not pause to argue politics or wait for paperwork to be processed. It responds instantly. No system will prevent every tragedy, but when firearms are among the leading causes of death in this country, incremental progress must be embraced.

Critics may argue that such technology infringes on the Second Amendment.
Yet this approach does not ban firearms.
It sets clear boundaries between weapons and the spaces where communities gather. Just as responsible driving means wearing a seat belt and obeying traffic laws, responsible gun ownership should mean respecting digital safeguards in schools, malls, churches and hospitals. Carrying a firearm into a protected space would no longer be left to chance. It would be a violation with consequences.

Public health has always shown that layered strategies work. Vaccines reduce risks, screenings detect problems early and advanced therapies save lives when prevention fails. Gun violence demands the same approach. Artificial intelligence can provide that final layer of defense, the one that prevents a firearm from turning into another vigil, another headline, another community in mourning.

As a physician, I believe in prevention. As a parent, I believe in protection. And as a citizen, I believe we must use every tool available to safeguard our communities.

AI is not a cure for gun violence, but it can be a shield. It can restore a measure of safety in schools, churches, malls, hospitals and all the places where people come together.

We already have the technology.
What remains is the will to act. The choice is whether we continue to accept preventable loss, or whether we draw digital boundaries that protect lives.

Communities deserve to gather without fear. We owe them that much.
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Stephen Contag, MD, is a physician specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Minnesota. The views expressed here are his own and are not intended to reflect those of his employer.