Polk County Florida Sheriff Grady Judd didn’t mince his words when letting would-be school attackers know just what kind of response they would get from his deputies if they were to try a shooting like Tuesday’s Uvalde school shooting in Texas.

“If you come to a school in this county, armed, we’re going to do our best through either our guardians, our school resource officers, or our school resource deputy sheriffs to eliminate the threat outside of the school before they ever get to the children,” the fifth term sheriff said at a press conference on Friday. “We’re trained to do that.”

To illustrate his point and put it in “Polk County vernacular” he held up a photo with two deputies holding guns raised and ready to shoot.

“This is the last thing you’ll see before we put a bullet through your head if you’re trying to hurt our children. We are going to shoot you graveyard dead if you come onto a campus, with a gun, threatening our children or shooting at us,” Judd said.

Sheriff Judd mixes no words (Polk County vernacular) when it comes to letting you know how he feels about keeping kids safe. We’re praying for Uvalde. Have a safe and happy summer everyone. #PrayersForUvalde #UnitedWithUvalde pic.twitter.com/E7swt5oT55

— Polk County Sheriff 🚔 Grady Judd (@PolkCoSheriff) May 27, 2022

Judd said he was “mortified” and “heartbroken” by the response of deputies in the Uvalde shooting where it has been reported that deputies “held back” from entering the building because the “on-scene commander at the time believed it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject.”

“I think, but for the grace of God, it could have been any one of us and our children or our grandchildren,” Judd said. “When you take your children to school healthy and well in the morning, you have every right and expectation to receive them back in the afternoon in the same healthy state.”

His full remarks can be viewed below:

(Video Credit: Polk Sheriff)

The no-nonsense Polk County Sheriff has long supported having an armed officer assigned to each and every campus to deter such heinous crimes from being commited.

“The children are worth it,” Judd said in 2018 after a state law was passed in the Sunshine State to fund well-trained school resource officer. “We’re going to do everything we can to protect the children.”

Florida sheriff calls for armed guard in every school: ‘The talking is over’ https://t.co/d8CIMg02QB pic.twitter.com/h9lGIZcuZG

— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) May 22, 2018

The guardian or school resource officer would have 25 percent more training that even would be required to be a police officer.

This is action-Polk County Public Schools
We’re hiring school safety guardians for the 2022-23 school year.
Applicants will be expected to undergo an extensive screening process and complete a comprehensive firearms training course with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. pic.twitter.com/d4YD2iX9GT

— Nomore (@Lynette71189156) May 28, 2022

“When you look at the discipline of firearms, there’s 25 percent more training for the guardian than to even be a certified police officer,” Judd said. “And we’re arming them and coaching them and teaching them, but at the end of the day this is just one of many, many different layers.”

“You can take your existing resources on your campuses, give them detailed backgrounds, psychologicals, drug screens, ask for volunteers and give them the same training for approximately $1,500 to $2,500 a piece. So you can do it inexpensively. You have to quit talking and start acting that is  what we’re doing in Florida.”

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A. Johnson

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