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Gainesville schools' gun plan tabled until October
System, police would split cost; biometric safes would protect rifles
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Gainesville police Sgt. Jeff Bull displays the model school resource officers could have access to in city schools, the Colt 6920 M4 Carbine. The tactical rifle shoots a 5.56-caliber NATO round or the civilian .223-caliber in a 30-round clip, said Bull, the department’s armorer. The department would shoot a Hornady “Tactical Application for Police” bullet, he said. - photo by NAT GURLEY
A proposal to keep one rifle each at three Gainesville schools will cost approximately $6,000, a number to be evenly split between the Gainesville City School System and the Gainesville Police Department. The cost also includes a safe for each campus, at Gainesville High, Wood’s Mill Academy and Gainesville Middle.The initial proposal of placing these guns at Gainesville schools was originally discussed by the city’s Board of Education in April, shortly after an elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., when 26 students and adults lost their lives. Following an attempted school shooting in August at DeKalb County’s McNair Discovery Learning Academy, board member David Syfan requested the item be placed back on the agenda for discussion and a possible vote.