Parkland Shooting: Deputies will carry rifles on school grounds, Broward sheriff says

PARKLAND, FL. (NBC) -- A week after the massacre at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead, the sheriff in charge of investigating the shooting has ordered deputies to carry rifles on school grounds “from this point forward.”
"Our deputies who are qualified and trained will be carrying rifles on school grounds from this point forward,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said during a news conference Wednesday — one week after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Israel said the policy was implemented Wednesday morning and deputies will be required to keep their rifles locked in their police vehicle when they are not being carried.
“It will be done safely — only deputies that are trained and qualified will carry those rifles, but we need to be able to defeat any threat that comes onto campus,” he added.
The school district's superintendent, Robert Runcie, supported the decision, Israel added. Some of the deputies will be carrying single-shot AR-15s, he said.
There was an armed school resource deputy at the high school campus at the time of the Valentine’s Day shooting, but he never encountered accused gunman Nikolas Cruz, authorities have s


Source:  wsaz