Two schools in Los Alamos, N.M., are taking steps to better prepare for the possibility of a school shooting. On Thursday, the school board unanimously voted to place gun safes owned by the police department in the city’s public middle and high school.
Both schools currently have an officer with a standard-issue sidearm permanently stationed at them. But according to Police Chief Dino Sgambellone, the safes will provide an added layer of security in an active shooter situation.
“It will be stocked with shotguns and AR-15s,” Sgambellone told board members at Thursday’s meeting. “In some layouts of schools, a pistol is not an appropriate weapon because of the long hallways. Also, a pistol does not always appropriately counter what is brought to these types of situations.”
In an interview with the Los Alamos Monitor, Sgambellone stressed the safes—which are slated for installation prior to the end of the school year—would only be opened in the event of an emergency.
