Photo: CBS 12
A Florida sheriff has a message for any would-be school shooters.
"If they're coming at us with an AR-15, we're going to return with the same or greater firepower."
Eric Flowers from Indian River County tells CBS 12 News that each school keeps an AR-15 style rifle in a safe while school resource deputies are on campus.
"If something were to happen during that timeframe, they would have ready access to that AR-15 and their shield to be able to respond immediately."
If the deputy is not in his or her office at the time, they will respond using their handgun.
Sheriff Flowers says that having what some call an "assault rifle" on campus only makes schools safer.
"Our folks are there to protect the kids. Our folks are bringing guns, they're the good guys. When bad guys show up with guns they're gonna find our guns. They're gonna find out that we're well prepared and that we're prepared for that threat. We've seen what's happened in Parkland. We've seen what happened in Uvalde. Our folks are not gonna stand by and wait for something bad to happen to kids in Indian River County."
He says they haven't had to use the guns because there hasn't been a threat on campus since the safes were brought on campus.