35 advantages of metal detectors in schools

Ever since the horrible Columbine High School massacre in 1999 most schools in the United States were equipped with metal detectors with the intention of preventing any such terrible thing to happen again. Interestingly enough, the consequence was that the school shootings only increased, culminating in 2007 with the Virginia Tech massacre.
What do these metal detectors bring and what are the advantages of metal detectors in schools?
In New York City most public high schools nowadays have metal detectors. The gun incidents were reduced to approximately a half in the first couple of weeks of employment. After the Columbine shootings, the security got even tighter and the gun incidents in public high schools dropped even further. It is interesting to observe that there has never been a school shooting in New York City, which at least used to be one of the cities with most gun violence. Perhaps the kids just took it outside?
Nevertheless, the spur of the moment shootings can be eliminated by such precautions. The premeditated shootings, like the two worst ones mentioned above, could not be prevented by simple metal detectors. The perpetrators in both cases knew how to circumvent the security measures and although in the Columbine shooting, there were no metal detectors deployed, there were proper security measures active.
The main points of concern are the people who are apparently prepared to die, in order to create such mayhem and kill their fellow students. How do you stop such suicide killers?
It is now evident that metal detectors cannot stop such determined individuals from doing their ghastly deed. The metal detectors prevent people to bring weapons to the class room, but killers do not go to the school to attend a class. Shooters can just as easily either shoot kids as they are leaving the secure school, or simply not use the regular entrances secured by metal detectors. It is ludicrous to assume that a future serial killer and potential mass murderer will wait in line to pass through the metal detector. Many schools did have surveillance cameras all over the school, even Columbine did, but it did them no good.
It increasingly seems that all the measures, including the metal detectors, just serve to fight the final stage of a development that started long before. Recognizing the psychological development of such potential murderers would be a more important task, and this should start within the families at home. It is not possible for kids to amass assault weapons and bombs without the parents noticing, no matter what they profess later. Parent neglect is a much too soft term for such ignorant parents, who should be punished as if they perpetrated the deed themselves.

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