Security officers boost firepower across campuses
BOSTON — Once a rarity on campuses, semiautomatic rifles are becoming a standard part of the arsenal for college police forces — firepower they say could make a difference the next time a gunman goes on a rampage.
[...] federal data and Associated Press interviews and requests for records reveal that at least 100 U.S. college police forces, and probably many more, have added rifles over the past decade.
The arms buildup has raised tensions on campuses, with debates over the need for such weaponry flaring at schools like Boston’s Northeastern University, the University of Maryland and Florida State.
“A bad shot with a rifle is better than a good shot with a handgun,” said Skip Frost, who until February was deputy chief of police at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which offers a semiautomatic rifle to every officer.
“The reality is that these are not always handgun situations,” said FBI agent Katherine Schweit, the bureau’s senior executive in charge of active-shooter matters.