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Web Producer: Rikki Mitchell

PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) - Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in a statement Wednesday that he supports the National Rifle Association's proposal to assign a deputy or police officer to every school, and for designated teachers and administrators to be armed and trained.

Here is the statement from Sheriff Babeu, released Wednesday:

“Much the same way that commercial airline pilots have been trained and armed to
defend their aircraft, school administrators and designated teachers would be trained by local law
enforcement and armed to protect themselves, other staff and their students. Administrators and teachers are highly educated, they know their schools and love the children. Past efforts to protect innocent children and our schools have resulted in making them more vulnerable and more alluring as targets for mass killings. Restrictive gun laws, or even trying to take guns away from millions of law abiding citizens is unconstitutional and will NOT stop this violence. The immediate reality for every law enforcement leader is how do we best protect our schools, which are not fully protected and are not as safe as they should be in order to be called 'safe school zones?'

The NRA is correct, we need a Cop in every school. We also need to train and arm school administrators and designated teachers to protect themselves and our school children. Even with an officer on campus, some of these schools are quite large. The officer can't be everywhere on campus and having trained and armed administrators and designated teachers could help limit and contain the active shooter. The Deputy or Police Officer should not simply provide armed security, yet should be a School Resource Officer (SRO). SRO’s are carefully selected officers who are trained to teach classes, mentor students, building positive relationships with students and staff and are one of the best defenses against an active shooter in a school.”