WASHINGTON — A new emergency report has identified what researchers are calling a “severe and unevenly distributed freedom-bird infrastructure crisis” across the United States, warning that several states may not have enough bald eagles to adequately contextualize their school-shooting burden.
The report, titled “Aviary Deterrence and the Collapse of Freedom Infrastructure,” introduces a new national indicator known as BEPSS, or Bald Eagles Per School Shooting.
According to the report’s authors, BEPSS measures the number of bald-eagle proxy units available in each state for every school shooting recorded between 2020 and 2024. A low BEPSS score indicates that a state has too few bald eagles relative to its school-shooting exposure, creating what the report classifies as a “freedom-bird distribution crisis.”
The inverse of the BEPSS figure, known as the Freedom Bird Failure Rate, measures school shootings per 1,000 bald eagles.
“This is not merely a wildlife issue,” the report states. “It is a question of whether America’s national symbols are being deployed in proportion to America’s national emergencies.”
The findings are stark.
New Mexico was identified as the most severe case, with only two bald-eagle proxy units and two school shootings during the study period. This resulted in what the report describes as a “Constitutional Bird Collapse,” placing the state at the highest level of national symbolic exposure.
Utah, Illinois, Texas, and Tennessee were also flagged as states requiring immediate review.
Texas, in particular, received special attention from the report’s authors due to what they called a “high-profile contradiction between patriotic density and actual eagle capacity.”
“Texas possesses substantial symbolic patriotism in the form of flags, trucks, firearms, oil infrastructure, football culture, barbecue identity, and constitutional self-narration,” the report notes. “However, these assets do not appear to translate into sufficient bald-eagle coverage.”
The report concludes that Texas has “enough flags to cover the sky, but not enough eagles to patrol it.”
The report concludes that Texas has “enough flags to cover the sky, but not enough eagles to patrol it.”
Minnesota, by contrast, was identified as a national model. With one of the strongest eagle-to-incident ratios in the country, Minnesota’s BEPSS performance suggests the state maintains what the report calls “robust raptor redundancy.”
Policy analysts say the BEPSS framework could significantly alter how school safety, wildlife conservation, and patriotic symbolism are discussed at the federal level.
“Historically, school-safety conversations have focused on firearm access, mental-health systems, policing, school design, community intervention, poverty, social isolation, and youth-support networks,” said one senior fellow familiar with the report. “Those are obviously important. But until now, no one was asking whether each state had enough bald eagles to absorb the symbolic burden.”
The report does not claim that bald eagles literally prevent school shootings.
“They do not,” the Discussion section states. “Bald eagles are large birds of prey. They eat fish. They are not trained counselors, social workers, school-resource officers, emergency planners, family therapists, gun-policy analysts, or trauma-informed youth-intervention specialists.”
However, the report argues that because the United States frequently substitutes symbolism for policy, it is reasonable to ask whether the symbols are at least being distributed effectively.
“A flag alone cannot circle a school parking lot,” the report says. “An anthem cannot perch on a gym roof. A bumper sticker cannot scan the horizon for civic decay. Only a bald eagle can do that. And in too many states, there are simply not enough of them.”
The report recommends the immediate creation of a Department of Homeland Aviary Security, a proposed cabinet-level agency tasked with ensuring adequate patriotic raptor coverage across all states, territories, school districts, symbolic infrastructure zones, and “emotionally unstable parking lots.”
The proposed agency would include an Office of Eagle Deployment, a Bureau of Perch Construction, a Strategic Raptor Reserve, a School Screech Readiness Unit, and a Pigeon Interference Task Force.
The authors also recommend establishing a national minimum BEPSS standard, requiring states to maintain at least 200 bald-eagle proxy units per school shooting over a rolling five-year period.
States that fall below the proposed threshold would be required to submit a Raptor Corrective Action Plan within 90 days. States falling below 50 eagle units per school shooting would be placed under federal aviary supervision.
The recommendations further call for the installation of Patriotic Perches at vulnerable schools, the launch of a national No Eagle Left Behind initiative, and annual public reporting of state-level BEPSS scores.
While the report acknowledges several methodological limitations, including inconsistent bald-eagle reporting across states and the fact that bald eagles do not prevent crime, its authors argue that the BEPSS framework exposes a deeper national problem.
“The United States has spent generations elevating the bald eagle as a symbol of freedom,” the report concludes. “It has not ensured equitable eagle coverage where freedom is most visibly malfunctioning.”
Reaction to the report has been mixed.
Supporters say BEPSS provides a necessary corrective to the country’s traditional reliance on incomplete public-safety metrics.
Critics argue that measuring school shootings against bald-eagle availability may distract from more conventional solutions.
The report anticipates this objection directly.
“Current crime reporting fails to account for patriotic bird density,” it states. “This is a major statistical gap.”
The authors have called for Congress to convene emergency hearings on eagle-adjusted school-shooting exposure, with special attention to New Mexico, Utah, Illinois, Texas, and Tennessee.
They also recommend opening a separate inquiry into possible pigeon interference in urban areas, particularly in Illinois, where the report suggests bald eagles may be “institutionally outnumbered by lesser civic birds.”
Hawaii was excluded from the standard BEPSS ranking due to having both zero bald eagles and zero school shootings during the study window, producing what analysts described as a “division-by-zero sovereignty event.”
The report classifies Hawaii as “a non-eagle jurisdiction operating under alternative island-based symbolic safety architecture.”
Further study is expected.
For now, the report’s authors say the national priority is clear.
America must restore the freedom-bird grid.
It must protect schools, support communities, conserve habitats, and stop pretending that pigeons can do eagle work.
“The republic cannot soar on vibes alone,” the report concludes. “It needs wings. It needs talons. It needs wetland restoration. And above all, it needs enough bald eagles per school shooting to ensure that no single bird is left carrying the entire emotional burden of America.”