Madison County in North Carolina will equip all public schools with AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, in what they describe as an attempt to increase security following the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre.
The weapons will be placed in locked cabinets at all six Madison County schools before school starts this month.
Ammunition for rifles and tools to force locked doors will also be stored, after Uvalde agents received harsh criticism for waiting 77 minutes to enter the room where the 18-year-old armed attacker who killed 19 children and two teachers.
AR-15-type rifles in a store in Burbank, California, on June 23, 2022. Jae C. Hong / AP
Sheriff Buddy Harwood stated that the delay in the response of the Uvalde police was one of the reasons they decided to implement the measure.
"Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate the building and injure and kill so many children," Harwood said in an interview with the Asheville Citizen-Times.
"I just want to make sure my agents are prepared in case that happens," he added.
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Former Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was suspended pending an investigation into his performance on the day of the Robb Elementary shooting, cited a lack of long guns and tactical gear as one of the main reasons his admission to police was delayed. the two classrooms where the killer had barricaded himself.
Although the state authorities of Texas have assured that the Uvalde police had enough elements and equipment to confront the attacker from three minutes after entering the school.
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However, gun control experts and activists have criticized Madison County's decision.
Allison Anderman, senior counsel and director of local policy for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, called the response to an "epidemic of gun violence" unique in the country "terrible."
“
Where there are more guns, there is more gun violence
,” Anderman said in an interview with USA Today.
The proposal to bring more guns into schools distracts from the real problem, he said.
“We need to make it much more difficult for people who intend to do harm and commit violence to access guns in the first place,” she said.
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Students, he explained, face the daily risk of dying from gun violence, whether in trouble at home, in the community, suicide or shootings.
"If they want their students to be safer, they should advocate for solutions that we know work, like expanded background checks, extreme risk protection order laws, waiting periods, secure storage, etc," she said.
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For his part, Andy Pelosi, co-founder and CEO of the Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus, told USA TODAY that he doesn't think adding high-powered firearms to campuses will make a difference at the time of a shooting.
"We saw the firepower law enforcement had in response on Uvalde, and they still didn't break the door for over an hour," Pelosi said.