Charlotte, state North Carolina: Last News

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - The Madison County school system in North Carolina says it plans to put AR-15 rifles in emergency safes in all of its six schools as part of a new incentive for increased security in the wake of the deadly Uvalde, Texas, school shooting earlier this year when 19 children and two teachers were killed in a fourth-grade classroom. "We were able to put an AR-15 rifle and safes in all of our schools in the county," Sheriff Buddy Harwood told the Asheville Citizen-Times.

"We’ve also got breaching tools to go into those safes. We’ve got extra magazines with ammo in those safes."Harwood said the rifles will ideally allow police to quickly defend against a school shooting.

Harwood criticized the police that responded to the Uvalde shooting saying the time they took to respond to the shooting cost lives. "Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many kids," said Harwood."I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that’s time lost. Hopefully we’ll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be," he added.Gun makers have taken in more than $1 billion from selling AR-15-style guns over the past decade, according to a House investigation unveiled last month. The weapons have been used in massacres that have horrified the nation, including one that left 10 people dead at a grocery store in Buffalo and another where 19 children and two teachers were shot to death in Uvalde, Texas.The Committee on Oversight and Reform said some ads mimic popular first-person shooter video games or tout the weapons' military pedigree while others claim the guns will put buyers "at the top of the