School resource officers maybe toting AR-15s in Bismarck if the police department in North Dakota gets budget approval to purchase the rifles and related equipment that some other schools in the state already have.
The Bismarck Police Department and Bismarck Public Schools agreed to provide $27,740 to buy the AR-15s, gun safes, bulletproof vests and medical kits to treat shooting victims, The Bismarck Tribune reported last week.
The AR-15s would be purchased by the police department, which has requested additional funding for the weapons in the city's 2019 budget, the Tribune said, and the guns will be locked up in Bismarck's middle schools and high schools.
"I fully believe that we have some solid preventative measures in place (in Bismarck), and generally, our schools are safe, but we have to do everything we can to be prepared for something if it did happen," Bismarck Police Lt. Jason Stugelmeyer told the newspaper.
The decision to purchase the weapons was in response to the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Tribune said.
"I think we have to take any kind of threat to our kids seriously," Jim Haussler, interim superintendent for Bismarck Public Schools, told the Tribune. "I don't think (the police department's) request would've been made without them believing that (the rifles) will provide them with the tools necessary."
Other North Dakota schools already have AR-15s.
Grand Forks police said school resource officers there keep their AR-15 in their vehicles, but there had been some discussion on whether they still should because of the Parkland shooting, according to Valley News Live.
Fargo police said tactical gear is locked up on school grounds for its seven school resource officers who are spread through the high school and middle schools.
Stugelmeyer said the school resource officers are already trained to use AR-15s, and did additional training this past week with the rifles. He said the officers have had access to the rifles, but they were not "readily accessible," according to the Tribune.
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