Five years after NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre urged schools to increase security there has been a surge in those with armed police to nearly 50 percent of all primary and secondary schools in the nation.
According to the report from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 65 percent of secondary schools and 36 percent of primary schools have a “sworn law enforcement officer,” and most are armed.
A new Pew Research Center analysis of the data shows that despite some public outcry about stationing cops in schools, communities around the nation have been doing that for 10 years.
The analysis was released just before reports of a new school shooting Wednesday in Dixon, Ill. In that case, an armed officer stationed in the high school shot back and prevented a potential disaster.
The debate has been raging over armed police in schools for years. It kicked into high gear after the 2012 Newtown, Conn., slayings and LaPierre’s call and flared again when President Trump made a similar call after February’s school shooting rampage in Florida.
During that time, more and more schools have added armed police. Said Pew:
“An estimated 36 percent of U.S. public primary schools had sworn officers on site at least once a week in the 2015-16 school year, up from 21 percent a decade earlier, according to the report from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The share of primary schools with an officer present grew much faster during this period than the share of secondary schools with an officer on site, which increased from 58 percent to 65 percent.”
In addition, even more schools have prepared for a shooting, natural disaster or bomb threat, said Pew.
