Sandy Hook Elementary shooting: What happened? Before events at the school At some point before he went to the school, investigators believe Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother, Nancy Lanza. He grabbed three guns from the house -- a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle made by Bushmaster and pistols made by Glock and Sig Sauer -- and went to the elementary school wearing black fatigues and a military vest, according to a law enforcement official. The above weapons are similar to the ones found with the suspect: A Bushmaster rifle, a Glock handgun, and a Sig-Sauer handgun. Classes were under way at the school. Earlier this year, the school principal, Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, ordered a new security system installed that required visitors to be visibly identified and buzzed in. The door was locked when the gunman arrived. Authorities now know the gunman used "an assault weapon" to "literally (shoot) an entrance into the building," Connecticut Gov. A graphic depicting the site of the shooting. Inside the school Hochsprung heard loud pops.
ANGLE Can More Armed Guards Keep Our Schools Safe? Photo by KB35, via Flickr The debate over placing more armed guards in schools has turned the spotlight on school resource officers who comprise an increasing share of law enforcement personnel in schools—and who worry that their role is misunderstood. A point of view largely missing from the discussion is whether someone who is sworn to protect school safety should be armed, says Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) “When I first got started in this, I was a little concerned that kids were going to be focused on my gun,” adds Canady, a former police lieutenant who spent 12 of his 25 years as a school safety officer in Hoover, AL—where he still lives, and where the national association is based. “But they weren’t. Last month, the National Rifle Association triggered a heated back-and-forth about the role of guns in schools when it urged 40 to 60 hours of firearm training for teachers and other school staff who want to carry guns.
Armed guards in every Minn. school would cost $138 million Putting an armed guard in every Minnesota school would require the hiring of hundreds of police or security guards and could cost in the neighborhood of $138 million. "The cost would be just astronomical," said Scott Croonquist, executive director of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, who senses that opposition to the NRA's proposal from his 43 Twin Cities area districts goes beyond the cost factor. "They don't feel the answer would be to bring more guns into the schools," he said. A few districts already station armed police in schools. But those officers spend little of their time standing in the schoolhouse door to block intruders. That's a very small part of it," said Lt. Minneapolis schools spend close to $900,000 annually to station 16 officers in schools, along with the cost of a supervisor and school patrol officer. School groups contacted on Monday said they lack hard information about the number of schools currently with armed protection.
More schools bringing in armed security guards after Newtown shooting last December Wilfredo Lee/AP Dara Van Antwerp, the school resource officer at Panther Run Elementary School Pembroke Pines, Fla., sits in the classroom where she teaches a Gang Resistance And Drug Education (GRADE) program. MIAMI -- In the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Pembroke Pines, students returning to school this year are being greeted not only by their teachers and principal. They're also meeting the armed school resource officer who will be stationed permanently on campus. Crime in this middle-class community has been on a steady decline, but city officials decided to place a school police officer at every elementary, middle and high school after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., last year. "It is a relief to have them here," Lakeside Elementary School Principal Linda Pazos said Monday, the first day of school. An armed security presence is now standard in many of the nation's middle and high schools, but it has been rarity at elementary schools.
Arkansas Schools Train Teachers, Staff To Be Armed Guards TULSA, Oklahoma - Oklahoma lawmakers have introduced several bills that would enable teachers or school staff to be armed, as long as they have background checks, ongoing mental health evaluations and firearms training. But the legislation hasn't gone anywhere. In neighboring Arkansas, some teachers and school staff at several schools are packing heat. We talked to school leaders there to find out why they think it keeps students safer. At Arkansas Christian Academy, just outside Little Rock, 242 students are in Pre-K through 9th grade. "Yeah, sometimes the solution to guns is a gun. Pastor Black says they pray for the best, but plan for the worst. "We are willing to do what is necessary to slow them down, talk them down, or if we have to, we'll lay them down," Black said. The school took down "Gun-free Zone" signs, which Black said openly declare schools as soft targets, where a gunman could do the most damage with the least resistance.