Some parents of Shawnee Mission School District students in eastern Kansas aren’t happy to learn the public school district has bought eight semi-automatic rifles for its school resource officers.

The Kansas City Star reports (http://bit.ly/2sRjtXo) the rifles were bought in 2015, but that parents only recently learned of them.

Some parents, like Lisa Veglahn, were unnerved by the discovery. Veglahn says she questions the effectiveness of such high-powered weaponry in the face of an active shooter in the school.

Other parents, like Melissa Patt, say the nearly $6,000 purchase was excessive at a time when school budgets are tight.

But John Douglass, the district’s director of safety and security, and some other parents say a rising threat of active shooter situations in schools makes the high-powered guns necessary.

—
Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com.