A sheriff in western North Carolina is providing county’s school resource officers with AR-15 variant patrol rifles.
Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood says the rifles, which will be locked in safes, are a response to the Uvalde attack. The safes will also contain breaching tools and extra loaded magazines.
"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."
According to Harwood, the county's school resource officers have been training with instructors from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
