ch teachers were armed or how many but said they all received adequate training.
Harrold's school board decided last October to allow its employees to carry concealed handguns on campus when the 2008-09 school year began on Monday.
Mass murders at schools, college campuses, shopping malls and churches have claimed scores of lives across the United States in recent years.
Some, like Harrold's superintendent, blame the violence on federal legislation enacted in 1995 that made such areas "gun-free zones".
"That's the place people could go if they are feeling crazy or mad at the world and get a big body count," Thweatt said.
Thweatt says he studied the issue for two years while he filled his school with more than $US100,000 ($A117,000) in state-of-the-art security systems.
But even with the new keyless entry, camera system, lock-down buttons and classroom telephones, Thweatt said he still could not have prevented a mass murder like the one in an Amish one-room schoolhouse in Pennsylvania in 2006 that left five girls dead.
It also would not have been enough to deter the deranged student at Virginia Tech University, who killed 32 people and wounded 23 in 2007.
"They were like fish in a barrel," Thweatt said.
The Harrold policy requires that each teacher who carries a gun be approved by its school board, earn a concealed carry licence and complete training in crisis management and hostage situations.
Guns must be worn - not locked in
27/08/2008
Super Mario Galaxy
The computer allows you to make mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exception of the handgun