Federal Way group pushing for armed volunteers in schools
Feb 18, 2013, 3:37 PM | Updated: 3:55 pm
A newly-formed group in Federal Way has a plan to put armed volunteers in each of the city's public schools. (AP Photo/file)
(AP Photo/file)
A newly-formed group in Federal Way has a plan to put armed volunteers in each of the city’s public schools.
The group, which will meet formally for the first time on Tuesday, calls itself the School Alliance for Every Student’s Tomorrow (SAFEST).
Mark Knapp, a firearm attorney who heads the group, said unpaid volunteers would be the most cost-effective way to prevent a mass shooting like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
He told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show that the volunteers would be trained to the same standards as law enforcement and would also undergo a psychological evaluation.
Knapp said that armed volunteers in plainclothes would be more effective than uniformed officers on campus.
“Because any active shooter has to reckon with the fact that he’s going to be met with deadly force if he goes into a school,” Knapp said. “He doesn’t know where, or when, or from whom that force is going to be applied.”
The Federal Way Police Department is opposed to the idea.
A police spokesperson tells KING 5 that it already has resource officers in each high school and is prepared to handle a mass shooting scenario.
