Parents Split On NRA's Suggestion To Have Armed Guards At Schools
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - For the first time since the mass shooting in Connecticut, the National Rifle Association is weighing in on what it thinks should be America's next move.
"The only way to protect from a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a press conference.
The NRA, the nation's largest gun lobby, is calling for more guns right in the middle of a push to restrict which guns are sold.
Their safety measure is to put an armed guard in every school in the country. It's an idea that, just like gun control, has parents split.
"I'd rather not go down that route, personally," said one father.
"It'd make us feel safer as parents," said one mother.
Sacramento City Unified Schools spends close to $1 million a year for nine officers, but to have one in all 80 district schools would cost nearly $9 million. It's not likely to happen in any cash-strapped school district.
"I think that would be great if there was funding for that," parent Daniel Petty said. "I think it would be a great deterrent."
But the NRA says the guards don't need to be cops, suggesting armed volunteers to fill the role. It's an idea that doesn't sit well with the parents at David Lubin Elementary in east Sacramento.
"Isn't that the whole point of this, that they're trying to reduce the amount of weapons being handed out," said one concerned mother.
For now, the NRA isn't backing down, claiming an armed guard would have stopped the Connecticut shootings.
Having an armed guard at every school is a step some parents are not willing to take.
"You can't scare children like that; you can't install fear in them," one mother said.
California Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg responded to the NRA's suggestion with this statement: "The predicted Mayan apocalypse apparently materialized today in the form of the NRA's vision for America...What next? Armed guards at Starbucks and little league games?"
