Md. Bill Would Put Armed Police Officer In Every School

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ)—A bill to put armed guards in Maryland schools has been controversial. The bill proposes to protect students from school shootings by giving guns to school officers.

The question being asked is whether the benefits outweigh the risk of having a gun in school.

Pat Warren reports on the reasons for and against.

There was a time when the thinking was it can't happen here and then it did.

A 15-year-old Perry Hall High School student opened fire in the cafeteria, seriously wounding a 17-year old boy.

"The worst thing goes thru your mind you automatically assume your child is hurt," said one woman.

Baltimore County Delegate John Cluster aims to ease parent's minds, with armed officers in public schools. The shootings at Sandy Hook in Connecticut come to mind.

"What we don't want is we don't want another Connecticut happening because it took 7.5 minutes for the first officer to arrive at the Connecticut scene, 23-24 people, kids got killed," said Delegate John Cluster.

But a state mandate arming School Resource Officers (SRO), also raises objections.

"The Maryland Association of Boards of Education testified that this should be something left to the local jurisdictions," Sarah Love, ACLU Policy Director.

Delegate Cluster is familiar with the arguments.

"The other end of it is what happens if a bad guy gets into that school with a gun," said Cluster.

The discussion continues.

The proposal would cost the state nearly $100 million dollars.

This is the third year the bill has been introduced.