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By Chase Kamp
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu echoed the calls for armed teachers and additional law enforcement presence in schools initially made by the National Rifle Association after the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings earlier this month.
In a statement released by PCSO, Babeu endorsed NRA proposals like training and arming administrators and teachers similar to that of commercial airline pilots.
He also agreed with placing armed officers in schools in hopes of preventing mass school shootings.
“The NRA is correct, we need a cop in every school,” Babeu wrote.
Like the NRA, Babeu argued that gun-free school zones make children vulnerable to attackers and dismissed the bolstering of gun control laws.
After 26 children and staff were killed in a mass shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school on Dec. 14, the NRA went into a media lockdown for several days as the group was highly criticized.
Several days after the tragedy, NRA executive vice president Wayne Lapierre held a press conference where he advocated for armed officers in every school and blamed a “blood-soaked culture” for contributing to gun violence.
Babeu concurred. “We have a people problem, not a gun problem,” he wrote.
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