State PTA opposes NRA call for armed school guards

TACOMA — The Washington State PTA says it opposes the National Rifle Association’s proposal for having armed police in every school.

The gun-rights organization issued the call at a press conference Friday, breaking its silence on last week’s shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school.

PTA executive director Bill Williams said children need to feel safe to do well at school, and having armed guards would probably make them feel less safe.

He says it would also be a prohibitive drain on a school district’s or police department’s resources, leading to increased class sizes or cuts in other services — and it probably wouldn’t work.

Williams noted the slayings of four armed police officers in a Lakewood, Wash., coffee shop in 2009 in pointing out that being armed doesn’t prevent violence. He says, “The more people are armed, the more likely there are going to be gun deaths.”