Florida School Hires Combat Vets Armed to the Teeth to 'Dissuade' Active Shooters

Tired of the empty rhetoric about school safety, one charter school in Florida has decided it's time to bring in the big guns, literally, to protect its students from threats. Palmetto's Manatee School for Arts has just hired two combat veterans — whom they've armed with semi-automatic rifles and handguns — to, as the principal put it, "put down" anyone who comes on campus intending to do harm.

In a move reported by the Bradenton Herald, Manatee School for Arts Principal Bill Jones explained that his school is not interested in trying to "talk" or "negotiate" with potential threats — they're just going to take them out.

"If someone walks onto this campus, they’re going to be shot and killed," Jones told the paper. "We’re not going to talk with them. We’re not going to negotiate. We are going to put them down, as quickly as possible."

The Herald notes that the Public Safety Act enacted in 2018 in response to the horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School requires all public schools in the state to have armed security personnel on campus. While many schools have lawmen assigned to the schools as resource officers, the new law allows for some alternatives. Being a charter school, Manatee has even more leeway for who it uses for security — and how it chooses to arm them.