North Carolina sheriff stocking schools with AR-15 rifles

MARSHALL, N.C. (AP) — When schools in one North Carolina county reopen later this month, new security measures will include stocking AR-15 rifles for school resource officers to use in the event of an active shooter. School officials and Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood have placed one semiautomatic rifle in each of the county’s six schools. Each of the guns will be locked inside a safe. The action was spurred by the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead in May. The idea of having AR-15s in schools does not sit well with Dorothy Espelage, a UNC Chapel Hill professor who’s conducted decades of research on school safety. Espelage predicted there will be accidents with the AR-15s and said placing them in schools “doesn’t make any sense.”