The NRA, through its School Shield program, has awarded more than $600,000 in support of school security projects in 23 states.
The 54 grants have been awarded to public and private schools across the nation. The money will help finance infrastructure enhancements and renovation, access control and visitor management systems, security cameras, security tints for windows, improved communications systems, emergency medicals kits, perimeter fencing, and life-saving training. Part of the program allows the NRA to send experts to visit a community. There, they train law enforcement officers and others how to identify vulnerabilities on campuses.
Often, though, the school districts don’t have the funding to pay for all the necessary security improvements, which is where the School Shield program can also help.
“The NRA is proud to be at a forefront of providing meaningful solutions to safeguard our nation’s schools. Protecting our most precious resource—our children—with substantive measures that work should be the top priority for all Americans,” NRA President Oliver North said in a blog. “Thanks to NRA members who care about protecting our schoolchildren, NRA School Shield assistance is offered free of charge. No other political group, media conglomerate or the Hollywood crowd has ever offered anything like this.”
The NRA School Shield program was launched in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. It is funded by the NRA Foundation, which in turn gets money from NRA members through raffles, auctions and other fundraising events.
