(NECN: Mike Cronin) - Larry Anderson is a certified National Rifle Association instructor.
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, he said it wouldn't hurt to have armed security guards in schools.
“Armed security guards in a school where the entrances to the school can’t be secured except for the single main entrance would be an ideal solution to this,” Anderson said.
It's an idea supported by the NRA. This week, Worcester School Committee Vice Chair Brian O’Connell said school security is being considered by the committee. It's still preliminary, but he said the committee is considering his idea of enhancing school security by hiring unemployed veterans.
“It could be something as simple as a veteran simply being in the school to help out on various projects, but to take a very active role in judging security and issues in the building, deciding whether structural changes should be made in schools,” O’Connell said.
He added that it could become a statewide model, but he suspects individual schools could decide whether veterans would be armed or not.
“In fact, the simple presence of veterans in the schools, monitoring what's taking place, could itself be a very beneficial protection and an assist to the school system in monitoring optimal security,” O’Connell said.
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But Anderson said it's not enough to hire veterans and not arm them.
“In effect, there's no reason that they couldn't have that right now, where you might have teachers, janitors, administrators, personnel, who are veterans and not armed,” Anderson said. “That certainly hasn't had much of an effect.”
Anderson agrees with the NRA, saying the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
“I just cannot for the life of me understand how the mainstream media and the general public as a whole cannot see the logic in that,” he said.
