A New Jersey mayor whose town voted to place armed guards in every school defended that decision yesterday, after critics spoke out against the plan.
Residents of Marlboro Township, NJ voted for the armed security in the wake of the Newtown school massacre earlier this month, and the decision came on the heels of NRA head Wayne LaPierre's much-criticized speech calling for armed guards at schools nationwide. But Mayor Jonathan Hornik, who told WSJ he doesn't support the NRA, says the town majority vote simply came down to keeping kids safe. "This is strictly a security measure to protect our 8,000 students," Hornik said. "My first choice is to get rid of all the guns and all the bad people, but that's not happening with a stroke of the pen."
New York politicians and NJ Gov. Chris Christie have spoken out against armed guards at schools, and Mayor Bloomberg described LaPierre's press conference as a call for a "dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe." Meanwhile, Marlboro's school board has approved the school security boost for a 3-month trial period, and it will be implemented starting sometime next month.
