Utah schools now guarded with police wielding AR-15 rifles

The Granite School District Police Department issued its officers AR-15 rifles to help protect students and staff in one Utah school district.

Police Chief Randy Johnson said the weapons would aid with “rapid response” emergency situations, NBC reported. He added to KSL, a local NBC affiliate: “If we don’t get in and stop the shooter, more people are going to die.”

Granite District schools were also outfitted with a new high-tech camera system that feeds into the police dispatch facility, NBC reported.

“Most shootings will be over very quickly and so if we arrive on the scene and we can hear gunshots, the officers are now being trained to go to the sound of the gunfire and stop the threat that is taking place,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune. “We know that we don’t have a lot of time to save people’s lives.”