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Montgomery Cracking Down On Copycats Who Threaten Schools

As lawmakers debate whether or not to tighten Arizona's gun laws, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery has confirmed Florida's deadly shooting has spawned more than a dozen different threats of campus violence at Valley schools.

Although none have followed through, Montgomery assured they're treating each threat as if they would.

"Unless and until the nature of a threat is investigated, there's no real way for law enforcement, thereby the public, to know if this just someone who is acting out or if this is someone who has really engaged in any type of preparation or planning," he said.

He warned those convicted face serious charges, including class 3 terrorist threats and even in minor cases, the full cost to track and prosecute.

His office will ask the judge to force the convicted, "to pay back the expenses for agencies that had to respond and then any expenses related to an investigation into the threat itself."

Beyond that, Montgomery said more needs to be done to intervene before a peer becomes violent, place police on campuses and arm some teachers — as a final line of defense.

Holliday Moore was a reporter at KJZZ from 2017 to 2020.