Gun reform advocates have decried as “absolute insanity” a move by a North Carolina sheriff to arm his school resource officers with assault rifles on campus – in addition to their service issue handguns.

Madison county sheriff Buddy Harwood says he felt obliged to act in hope of preventing another massacre such as at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in May that killed 19 students and two teachers…

“Having just a deputy armed with a handgun isn’t enough to stop these animals,” Harwood said in a video statement he posted to Facebook in June.

“My school resource officers will not have to wait, retreat, or have to leave the situation to get the weaponry to deal with that threat.”

A subsequent report by WLOS News claimed Harwood received “mostly positive feedback” from the public for his stance, which will see the military-style weapons locked in undisclosed locations in each of the county’s three elementary, one middle and two high schools.