AR-15 semi-automatic rifles will now be “at the disposal” of Compton, California campus police officers. The keyword being “disposal.” The trained campus police officers at the K-12 Compton Unified School District will only have access to the semi-automatic rifles in case of emergency and must keep the AR-15s in their trunks until a situation warrants their use.
Compton Unified School District Police Chief William Wu confirmed that his officers will keep the “ assault rifles ” in their trunks solely for emergency use. “Our objective is quite simple, we want to save lives. These rifles give us greater flexibility in dealing with a person with bad intent who comes onto any of our campuses. The goal, as always, is ensuring safety and, as a department and as a school district, we are committed to achieving that goal,” Wu said.
Gun free zones, such as schools, make very soft targets for crazed gunman and even ISIS terrorists, as William Forstchen’s new book, Day of Wrath , so disturbingly points out.
The AR-15s given to the Compton campus police will only be useful and save lives if the officers can get to their vehicles and get back inside the building without getting shot themselves. The number of students and staff which could be killed while the dedicated campus officers run to fetch their semi-automatic rifles could quickly reach double digits.
Even though the AR-15s will not be packed around the school, there were still vocal critics of the rifle purchases. School officials said that the need to protect the lives of students and staffs trumps the “deeply disturbing militarization” of police forces claims.
A total of eight other California school districts already have AR-15 semi-automatic rifles on campus. The schools include campuses in Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Fontana, and Baldwin Park. Public school districts in Granite, Utah, Gainesville, Florida and Topeka, Kansas also permit campus police officers to have access to semi-automatic rifles.
Images and videos of Ferguson police officers on the street adorned in tactical gear and riding on MRAPs during the riots after the Michael Brown shooting, sparked a nationwide debate about the militarization of police in the United States. The military surplus program offered via the Pentagon is not new, but apparently many Americans have not paid enough attention to hard news over the past several years to notice. The program began not long after the 9/11 attacks as a homeland security enhancement for communities around the country.
What do you think about allowing AR-15s at school – but only in officer’s trunks?
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