Colorado school district arms security guards with rifles
Source: Associated Press
Colorado school district arms security guards with rifles
Sadie Gurman and Donna Bryson, Associated Press
Updated 9:09 pm, Tuesday, April 19, 2016
DENVER (AP) A suburban Denver school district is arming its security staff with military-style semiautomatic rifles in case of a school shooting or other violent attack, a move that appears unprecedented even as more schools arm employees in response to mass violence elsewhere.
The Douglas County School District guards are former law enforcement officers and already carry handguns.
District security director Richard Payne said he decided to spend more than $12,000 on the Bushmaster brand rifles for the district's eight armed officers to give them the same tools as law enforcement, including the sheriff's deputies they train with. Payne said the rifles will be kept locked in patrol cars, not in the schools.
Payne said he made the decision to buy assault rifles himself and the school board has not discussed it. The superintendent approved the purchase after lengthy discussion, district spokeswoman Paula Hans said.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Douglas-County-schools-to-issue-rifles-to-security-7256856.php
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Weapon of choice in the Douglas County School District, Denver. [/center]
Goblor
(163 posts)to do with easy access to guns ...
trailmonkee
(2,681 posts)I live across the street from one of the biggest HS in county - Daughter says the guards don't always seem compatant - yikes
Esse Quam Videri
(685 posts)We're on the other side of the spectrum (with a 3 year old) and are having serious reservations on sending her into the DougCo School system. What the "reformer" school board has done to this system borders on criminal.
fullautohotdog
(90 posts)Part of Littleton. Columbine High School is 3 miles past the Douglas County line.
No judgement one way or the other. Just a fact for consideration.
csziggy
(34,136 posts)So not in the same county or school district. The shootings at Columbine happened seventeen years ago today.
I don't see any connection other than the guy that bought the guns is a fearful fool. The money he spent on putting guns in the schools would have been better spent on mental health treatments for troubled students.
keithbvadu2
(36,829 posts)Wait a minute bad guys!
I've got to go out to the parking lot.
mark67
(196 posts)...this wouldn't have stopped Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Their initial plan was to go out in a blaze of glory during a gun battle with the police/SWAT Team etc...but no one came into the school during the attack. (I think based on ROE but inconceivable today.)
With the lift of the assault weapons ban both would be armed with AR-15s with extended magazines today...weapons that have no place in society...
Turbineguy
(37,345 posts)and mow 'em down!
Kids need to be trained to be model prisoners.