Arizona plan would arm principals
updated 7:02 PM EST, Wed December 26, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Arming principals is "next best solution" to police in schools, Attorney General Tom Horne says
- Schools could send the principal or a designee to gun, emergency training
- Those schools could keep on firearm "locked in a secure place" for when needed
(CNN) -- Arizona's attorney general proposed arming one principal or employee at each school to defend against attacks such as the recent Connecticut school massacre.
"The ideal solution would be to have an armed police officer in each school," Attorney General Tom Horne said in a news release Wednesday. But budget cuts have limited the number of Arizona schools with "school resource officers" on campus, he said.
The "next best solution," Horne said, "is to have one person in the school trained to handle firearms, to handle emergency situations, and possessing a firearm in a secure location."
A shooter, armed with a semiautomatic rifle and two other guns, on December 14 killed 26 people -- including six faculty members and 20 young students -- at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown.
Horne compared the plan to the FAA's program adopted after the