Despite the fact that handguns are the most common type of weapon used in mass shootings, many Democrats seem to believe (or at least want their supporters to believe) that a federal ban on AR-15-style weapons would lead to a significant reduction in mass shootings.
Authorities in Madison County, North Carolina, reject this notion. In fact, they believe the exact opposite — that AR-15s are actually the solution to America’s mass shooting problem.
According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, local officials are implementing a number of “beefed up security measures” in the county’s six local schools, “including putting AR-15 rifles in every school.”
The plan was crafted in response to the May 24 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, which claimed the lives of 21 elementary school children and teachers.
A number of extensive investigations and reports show that Uvalde school and law enforcement officials were ill-prepared to deal with the shooting, with many individuals in both groups making a series of failures throughout the events of that tragedy.
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Madison County doesn’t plan on making the same mistakes.
“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,” Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood said, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times. “I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared in the event that happens.”
“We were able to put an AR-15 rifle and safe in all of our schools in the county.”
Should more schools adopt these measures?
“We’ve also got breaching tools to go into those safes. We’ve got extra magazines with ammo in those safes.”
In addition, Harwood noted that the school resource officers in the county have all received thorough training.
Thanks to the AR-15 and “breaching tools,” these officers have easy, quick access to everything they need to take action to prevent another Uvalde shooting, Harwood explained.
“The reason we put the breaching tools in the safes is that in the event we have someone barricaded in a door, we won’t have to wait on the fire department to get there,” Harwood said.
“We’ll have those tools to be able to breach that door if needed. I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that’s time lost. Hopefully we’ll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be.”
“If my parents, as a whole, want me to stand at that door with that AR strapped around that officer’s neck, then I’m going to do whatever my parents want as a whole to keep our kids safe.”
This is the proper response to take to the current uptick in mass shootings.
Of course, banning AR-15 style weapons won’t do much to help — according to Statista, handguns and shotguns were used 177 times in mass shootings since 1982. In that same time period, rifles have only been used 60 times.
Even if they were banned, criminals will find a way to buy them. For obvious reasons, gun control laws don’t necessarily affect criminals willing to break the law as much as they affect law-abiding citizens.
In other words, gun bans don’t stop the people who are trying to take your life, but they may stop someone who might be willing to save it.
So, if Democrats truly want to lower the number of mass shooting deaths in the country, they should take some notes on Madison County’s approach.
Instead of demonizing AR-15s, let’s start using them to stop the bad guys.
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