MIAMI, FL – DECEMBER 18: In this photo illustration, a Rock River Arms AR-15 rifle is seen with ammunition on December 18, 2012 in Miami, Florida. (Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 12:30 PM PT – Saturday, August 6, 2022
A school district in North Carolina is making strides to ensure the safety of their students. The Madison County School District said it will begin storing AR-15 rifles in emergency safes at five of their schools.
“We were able to put an AR-15 rifle and safes in all of our schools in the county,” Sheriff Buddy Harwood told the Asheville Citizen-Times. “We’ve also got breaching tools to go into those safes. We’ve got extra magazines with ammo in those safes.”
The sheriff’s department believes the new measure will ensure responding officers will be more prepared in the event of a school shooting. This comes after the where Uvalde Police waited 77 minutes in the hallway.
“Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many kids,” said Harwood.
The schools where the safes will be located are Brush Creek Elementary, Hot Springs Elementary, Mars Hill Elementary, Madison Middle, Madison High and Madison Early College High. Madison County Schools Superintendent Will Hoffman said that the system’s administration has been in regular contact with Harwood and the rest of the police department about school security.
“I hate that we’ve come to a place in our nation where I’ve got to put a safe in our schools, and lock that safe up for my deputies to be able to acquire an AR-15. But, we can shut it off and say it won’t happen in Madison County, but we never know,” he said.
Madison County school district in North Carolina is putting AR-15 rifles in emergency safes in all of its schools for increased security in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead on a 4th grade classroom floor.
— Ryan Shead (@RyanShead) August 6, 2022
Gun violence overall spiked in 2020, but recent statistics indicate it is coming down this year in many cities.