The local school district had no metal detectors at their high schools. The school board made a big deal about how they weren't a high-risk school, how perceptions would be adversely affected and that the idea of metal detectors at school entrances would be an insult to their fine, upstanding student body.
Two weeks later a kid was killed in the school lobby just outside the cafeteria.
An emergency board meeting that week reversed their "good decision" and placed "humiliating and insulting" metal detectors in schools. The public outcry was incredible.
But in true "Just don't sit there, do something" however stupid and unrelated to the problem--do something to be seen to be doing something for political reasons, not logical or relevant reasons--nobody on the board, nobody in the audience, few in the press bothered to notice a fact that was there at the beginning of the news stories but quickly vanished. The killing wasn't just a stabbing death, it was done by a ceramic knife. A shitload of ceramic knives could be carried through one of those metal detectors intended to prevent a recurrence of that killing without an alarm going off.
The fact-deficient public was duly mollified by the fact-ignoring school board. Most of the members were re-elected the following year, in part for their prompt response in (doing nothing that would lead to) preventing such a heinous act's repetition.
Honestly, dentists must make a fortune from this kind of thing. The knee-jerk reaction is so violent that it must break thousands of teeth on a daily basis. You're just sitting there, you hear something, BAM! you need to have cracked teeth mended and your jaw wired because you just kneed your face.
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