Arming teachers can protect kids
President Trump has called for teachers and other school staffers to be armed to defend themselves and their students; the idea has been met with fierce resistance. What Trump didn’t say is that some schools across the country already do exactly this. The laws of many states already provide that school boards or administrators may authorize specific staff members to be armed. In Colorado, we work to ensure such personnel are very well trained.
After the murder of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, the Buckeye Firearms Foundation in Ohio founded “FASTER Saves Lives,” a training program specifically designed for armed school staff. (That stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response.)
It has trained more than 1,300 Ohio school staffers in hundreds of schools in the past five years. In 2017, Coloradans for Civil Liberties brought FASTER training to their state. The Ohio and Colorado programs both raise private money to provide the school districts with training at no cost.
The Ohio and Colorado programs are taught by law enforcement officers, such as SWAT personnel, with experience responding to active shooters. Participants learn tactics, mobility, defensive cover and other lifesaving skills. Participants must pass a marksmanship test that exceeds the qualification course for some law enforcement officers.
The FASTER classes also contain a robust medical component. In mass-casualty events, medics have to wait to enter the school until after it has been cleared by law enforcement. Training school staff on site to stop the bleeding and stabilize the injured can save lives.
The FASTER program doesn’t make teachers into cops or doctors. The participants don’t learn about traffic enforcement, search and seizure, or the many diverse situations that law enforcement officers face. Instead, the participants are trained for the specific skills of stopping a killer on their campus and saving lives.
Of course, most teachers don’t want the extra responsibility of carrying a firearm. We agree that no one should be forced to do so. The FASTER program seeks volunteers only.
And there are plenty of them. More than half a million Ohioans have a permit to carry a concealed handgun for lawful self-defense. In Colorado, more than 6% of the adult population has such a permit. Plenty of them are teachers.
Licensed carriers are already responsibly carrying firearms almost everywhere they go. Increasingly, school districts are deciding that these employees should not be disarmed while they on the job. When the employees get high-quality training, so much the better.
The mass shootings at schools you never hear about are those that were stopped by prompt armed intervention.
At least six school shootings have been halted by swift armed defenders: Pearl, Miss. (1997, assistant principal); Edinboro, Pa. (1998, restaurant owner hosting junior high school dance); Santee High School, Calif. (2001, off-duty officer dropping his child off at school); Appalachian School of Law, Va. (2002, law students with law enforcement background); Sullivan Central High School, Tenn. (2010, law enforcement officer), and Arapahoe High School, Colo. (2013, sheriff’s deputy on duty at the school).
Rural schools are typically the first to arm staff. That makes sense. They may be a half an hour or more from any possible law enforcement response to campus, and in any defensive situation, seconds count.
According to an analysis by Ron Borsch of the Southeast Area Law Enforcement Task Force in Ohio, for mass-casualty events using a firearm, one person is shot on average every 17 seconds.
Most, though not all, mass shooters kill themselves the moment they are confronted by an armed defender; that’s according to a study reported by the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato. The difference between an armed response that takes 30 seconds and one that takes five minutes is a matter of life and death.
Recognition of the lifesaving importance of arming trained school staff doesn’t stop a person for advocating for laws to keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have them, or pushing for other important programs to improve mental health care and reduce crime.
It’s just good sense.