Armed Officers in Every School: Huge Tab
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Creatas/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — In response to the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association called on Congress to pass legislation to put an armed officer in every school in the country by January.
The proposal was made at a press conference in Washington, D.C., the organization’s first since the shooting a week ago.
LaPierre, who was joined by NRA President David Keene, and former Arkansas House Rep. Asa Hutchinson, did not take questions, so details of this proposal were not specified, but how much would such a move cost?
The National Center for Education Statistics calculates that in the 2009-2010 school year (the most recent years available) there were just under 99,000 public schools in America. If you paid these armed officers an average of $50,000 a year, that’s an annual cost of $4.95 billion, not including benefits and other costs.
The numbers are likely a moot point, however. Legislation to pay for the armed guards is not likely to pass Congress. Even if it passed the Republican controlled House, it would be unlikely to pass the Democratically controlled Senate.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio