Gun control extremists’ best plans for stopping school shootings proven a total failure in Russian attack

On Wednesday, October 18, an 18 year-old college student entered Kerch Polytechnic College in the city of Kerch (located in Russia-controlled Crimea) and began firing on fellow students and instructors.

When his attack was done 15 minutes later, at least 20 people were dead and 70 others wounded. The attacker then took his own life.

The American news media aren't giving wall-to-wall coverage on this attack, but it deserves the attention of the American public. Why? Because every law that gun control advocates claim will stop these attacks here in America is already in place in Russia, and the terrible results speak for themselves.

Gun control “school shooting solution” #1 – implement so-called “universal” background checks – FAIL

The Associated Press notes that Russian citizens must undergo significant background checks to own any firearm. They must also attend gun-safety classes and pass a federal test. Private transfers of firearms are illegal.

The attacker in this case had recently passed all Russian government background checks tests and received permission to own a firearm to use for hunting.

Gun control “school shooting solution” #2- ban so-called “assault” weapons- FAIL

Russia already bans civilian ownership of the kinds of rifles gun control extremists have incorrectly branded as “assault weapons.” The AP reports that guns are tightly restricted in Russia. Civilians can own only hunting rifles and smooth-bore shotguns.

The attacker in this case used a shotgun and an improvised explosive device.

Gun control “school shooting solution” #3 – ban so-called “high capacity” magazines – FAIL

Gun control extremists and their mainstream media cohorts have branded standard capacity magazines for modern sporting rifles and most semi-automatic handguns as “high-capacity” magazines, and claim that banning them will prevent school shootings.

Russian law bans magazines that hold more than ten rounds.

The attacker used a firearm that likely didn't even have a detachable magazine, let alone one that held more than ten rounds.

Gun control “school shooting solution” #4 – ban handguns – FAIL

Although they do everything they can to hide it these days, gun control extremists' ultimate goal is to ban ALL guns. In the 1970's and 1980's, they were much more open about this goal. Indeed, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was originally named Handgun Control, Inc.

The Brady bunch would fit in well in Russia, where the ownership of handguns is illegal. But again, the attacker in this case used a shotgun.

ALSO NOTE: according to the Law Library of Congress, there is a huge black market for weapons in Russia, and most weapons used by criminals are stolen military or police guns, guns sold by law enforcement personnel who seized illegal weapons from criminals and did not register the confiscation of those firearms, or firearms made from modified nonlethal guns. As such, even if every Russia-style gun control ban were to be implemented here, it wouldn't prevent criminals from gaining access to guns. We know this because it hasn't prevented it in Russia.

Gun control “school shooting solution” #5 – ban concealed carry – FAIL

Gun control extremists hate American concealed carry laws, especially when they allow citizens to carry schools. They routinely fight efforts to allow persons with concealed firearms to protect our students in schools.

Concealed carry is banned in Russia, as is carrying guns for self-defense.

The attacker in this case had unrestricted access for 15 minutes to carry out his attack, because no one was around who was allowed to carry a firearm and fight back.

Gun control “school shooting solution” #6 – implement so-called “red flags” laws – FAIL

Gun control extremists claim we can prevent school shootings by passing laws which violate Americans' constitutional right to due process of law by allowing police to take firearms from people who may be exhibiting certain “red-flags,” without respect for their Constitutional right to due process. Russia has taken it one step further, denying ANYone who is mentally ill or who has been treated for substance abuse the ability to own a firearm.

According to those who knew him, the attacker in this case “was not very sociable and often put gloomy posts on his social media page.” These red flags did not prevent the Russian government from giving him permission to own a firearm.

Gun control “school shooting solution” #7 – implement so-called “mandatory safe storage” laws – FAIL

Gun control advocates claim that we can prevent school shootings by passing laws that would blanketly mandate that firearms be stored in certain ways, often making them largely inaccessible when needed most – in an attack necessitating the need for self-defense.

Russia has strict procedures regulating the storage of firearms by private individuals, but the attacker in this case was not deterred.

Despite the fact that Russia has already tried LITERALLY EVERTHING gun control advocates claim will prevent school shootings here in America, don't be surprised when they are right back to suggesting these “solutions” the next time a high-profile attack occurs here. That's because their real goal ISN'T to prevent school shootings – it's to overturn the Second Amendment and bring Russian-style gun control to our shores.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.

Stop the Bleeding – School staff flock to trauma medical training

by Rob Morse

People are screaming and you’re looking at chaos. This is a medical training exercise with multiple injuries. It looks like there are, count them, four people injured in the parking lot in front of your local school. Some of the victims may be dead and some may be dying.

What are your going to do?

I watched two dozen teachers face that scenario during a training exercise. This is what they overcame.

  • Is the scene secure?
  • Is outside help on the way?
  • Are these all the injured, or are there more injured people inside the school or lying behind a car where you can’t see them?
  • Have the uninjured students been moved to safety?
  • Who can you use to help you?
  • What medical supplies do you have on hand right now, and how will you get more help until the EMTs arrive?
  • ..and why is everyone yelling?

The training program is called FASTER, for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. They taught school staff to stop a threat in their school. They also taught staff to treat the injured so the victims are alive when EMTs finally start treatment and evacuation.

This isn’t brain surgery. You make sure the injured can breathe and you stop massive bleeding. It takes practice to do even the simple things during such an emotional event.

A gunshot wound to the leg could be fatal if we left the person to bleed for the half hour it takes for the police to secure the scene. I got it wrong the first time. This scene was set up just outside a school. One of my tasks was to get medical resources moving toward the scene, and I blew it.

“You two, go tell “Ms Jones” that the scene is secure and to bring the medical kits from the office. I need the faculty here now. Bring the med kits back to me. Both of you, go now!”

I won’t make that mistake again.

That is why this training saves lives. Yes, you can invent tourniquets, chest seals, and pressure bandages from common items. Unfortunately, that takes time and creativity at a moment when those two items are in short supply. Since you’re grabbing every able-bodied bystander near you for help, it really is a better idea to have the medical supplies you need in your kit.

This training surprised me and I think it surprised many of the school staff who were in the exercise. These first responders had been authorized to carry a concealed weapon in their schools for several years. They might go to the shooting range to practice once a month, but they don’t get to practice their medical response nearly as often.

You could argue that medical training is more important than defensive training to keep our children safe at school. Most teachers will never have an armed attacker come to their campus. Arming school staff is also controversial and takes time to impliment. In contrast, their school will call EMTs for help. It could be for a drug overdose or for something as common as an accident in the parking lot. We can train many medical first responders for the cost of training a single armed defender.

We can have several medical responders on every hallway. And we should. We can give them medical training in an evening.

The FASTER program brings medical kits and training equipment to local schools. They train about 30 medical first responders at a time and put trauma-casualty kits in their hands as they leave the class. Better yet, we don’t need the sheriff’s approval to give medical training to school staff. Perhaps some of the local EMTs in your community could help.

The best news is that you can have medical training in your school even if state law doesn’t allow armed defenders. You could have this sort of training for your church and as well. Why don’t you?

Ask your school board and your church leaders if their safety plan included medical training for volunteer staff. School is about to start, so this is a good time to ask the question.

Asking the right question can save lives.. and it doesn’t cost you a thing.

Armed Defenders in the Classroom – Reality Replaces Myth

by Rob Morse

Arming teachers is more than a concept, an idea, or a theory. Armed school staff are now a well-worn reality. The FASTER program teaches school staff to stop a threat and to treat the injured. That program has been in place for the last five years and has trained over a thousand teachers. These first responders have many days of instruction. Once they are back home, these teachers apply what they learned as they protect their schools. We have thousands of man-years of experience with armed school staff. School is about to start in the fall, and we learn more every day.

We can invent all kinds of crazy fantasies about giving guns to teachers. Those fantasies aren’t real, but they do make sensational news stories and they sell advertising for the news media. In fact, no one rolls up with a wagon full of firearms and start handing out guns to school staff. That isn’t what responsible people do to protect students. I recently took a three-day training class for armed school staff. The teachers in my classes took school safety very seriously. I saw it written on their face. I heard it in their voice. They showed it by what they said and what they did.

This training course was both a review and an advancement from their previous instruction. Most of my fellow students were from Ohio, though some came from schools in other states. These teachers and school administrators were back in the roll of students as they went back to school to be first responders. These experienced defenders had already passed an earlier training course. Each of them had been authorized by their schoolboards to go armed for the last few years.

Even with their years of experience, we went back to review the basics of firearm safety. We advanced to stopping the threat and to medical care for the injured. My fellow students did just what I expected them to do.

We moved through reinforced buildings that were specially designed to stop our real bullets. In these “shoot-houses”, we defended paper-students and shot at paper-bad-guys. One teacher from Ohio was visibly upset with her performance. She said, ‘I can’t believe I missed that first shot. I feel like I should quit the program.’ Her first shot missed. The fraction of a second between her first and second shot might have let an attacker reach one of the pupils. That is how seriously these teachers took their training. Their level of excitement rose in these exercise as it would be in real life. The emotional pressure went up from there.

We went through dozens of exercises using simulated firearms. Teachers and school principals won the gun fights, but their struggle didn’t end there. I saw adults stumble over their words as they took charge of a simulated accident scene during a training exercise. That reaction seems odd since these teachers take charge of a classroom every day. They faltered as they took command while several “wounded” people lay on the ground needing first aid.

I know how they felt and I reacted the same way. My mouth went dry from anxiety and my heart rate jumped when it was my turn. All of us got better with practice. We learned how to manage the emergency and learned how to manage ourselves. We learned you can never have too many tourniquets, chest seals, and pressure bandages when you have multiple casualties. That is why these training courses are so valuable.

In theory, a mass murderer is reported and stopped by the FBI. In theory, school resource officers move toward the sound of gunfire and protect our students. Reality is something else. In theory, you could learn armed defense and trauma care from an online tutorial. In fact, it takes practice. We need to exercise these skills so that we can perform in the moment of need. My fellow students put themselves to the test. They practiced over and over in a training class so they would get it right if their kids needed them.

I saw these students struggle and criticize their own performance. They picked themselves up and grew to meet the challenge. That is exactly what we want them to do. Their performance matters to them, and it matters to everyone in their community. The lives of students and staff could hang in the balance.

Perfection isn’t one of the options. One teacher described his anxiety this way. “I know I could make a mistake or things could go wrong. I just hope my kids are safe by then.” That is the reality of a dangerous and chaotic emergency.

Teachers make a difference in their students’ lives every day. On some extraordinary day, these extraordinary defenders want to be the right person in the right place at the right time to protect their kids. That is all we can ask of them. That is the reason they train today and why I’m glad they are there.

Training Armed Teachers – This Isn’t the Classroom You Remember

by Rob Morse

Arming school teachers is a hard subject to discuss. Last [summer] I took a training class where school staff learned to protect students from an armed attacker. What these teachers did was extraordinary. As you would expect, school staff take their students safety very seriously. The teachers want to protect “their kids”. They worked hard to put their bodies between a bullet and someone else’s children. They did an amazing job. Those teachers are not the caricatures I remember from my childhood. Our distorted childhood memories are one of the largest issues we face when we talk about arming school staff.

This may come as a surprise, but the world has changed since we were kids. We have changed as well. Nowhere is that more apparent than when we visit our child’s school. We’ve grown up, and we don’t fit in those little desks anymore. We will also find that school teachers are remarkably articulate even though they once spoke to us in the short and simple sentences that a child can understand. We didn’t know this when we were young, but teachers have the full range of human reactions.

Let’s look at defending our kids from an adult perspective. We want school staff to protect our children. Lots of us have a gun so we can protect our kids when they are with us. Teachers feel the same way, and they want the same chance to survive that we have. Bring your adult experience and let’s look at what school staff do to protect our children.

-We can own a firearm if we’re not a felon or other prohibited person. It isn’t that hard to buy a gun. The kid behind the counter at your local sporting goods store knows how to process the paperwork. Fortunately, school staff are required to have FBI background checks since they are around children. That means we have certified good guys and good gals around our kids, so these teachers could probably buy a gun.

-In the training programs I’ve studied, armed school staff already have their concealed carry permits. Concealed carry training means you are safe enough to go armed in public. For the concealed carry holder, a gun is a defensive tool that allows them and their family to escape from a criminal.

-In the unlikely event that an armed teacher has to defend their kids, then they have to close with and stop the murderer before another child or staff member is hurt.

That isn’t how most of us are trained. The largest program for training armed school staff has a curriculum that bridges the gap between being a gun owner and being an armed defender. This is what these teachers had to do.

  • Pass the required background checks and buy a firearm that fit them.
  • Pass a concealed carry course to receive their state carry license.
  • Take a class to review firearms safety and learn to present a gun from a concealed holster.
  • Learn to be effective with a firearm. Qualify for speed and accuracy in shooting tests that exceed the state requirements for law enforcement officers. Learn tactical casualty care. Pass force-on-force exercises where you are defending other people.
  • Attend a refresher course that develops consistent responses to stressful situations. This includes more firearms handling, more hand-to-hand defense, and more emergency medical care.
  • Some of these teachers also conduct practice drills in their schools with local deputies and medical responders.

I watched my classmates work their way through these difficult exercises. These are not the teachers I remembered from when I was a child. These teachers are both reticent to use violence and committed to the safety of their students. They practiced that delicate balance and are exactly the people I want to protect my children.

If there is a test, I’m betting on them to pass.

Who Says We Should Arm School Staff to Protect Our Children?

by Rob Morse

Solid facts are rare in the ocean of opinion about arming teachers. Allowing armed defenders in school is a polarized issue with plenty of passion. The legacy news media feeds us lots of emotion but they have relatively little data and analysis. I asked the best sources I could find if school staff should be armed to protect our students. Their answer was clear.

I spoke to the brain trust at Tactical Defense Institute (TDI). These men and women built the training curriculum recommended for school resource officers (SROs) across the country. These analysts and instructors also provided regional training for SWAT officers. They took their classes across the US and train local law enforcement instructors. They train the trainers.

The instructors at TDI examine police reports to uncover what works and what doesn’t work. It is their job to study new threats on the street and then recommend changes in the way law enforcement officers are trained. They looked at the attacks on our schools and said that school resource officers alone were not enough to protect our students.

For one thing, there were too many times when SROs were not on campus. In addition, the SROs were an obvious target during an attack. The SROs were also spread too thin to respond quickly. Protecting our students from a murderer is a battle against time.

The sooner the murderer is stopped, the fewer students will be injured. The sooner the murderer is stopped, the faster we can treat the injured and save lives. One of the largest teacher training programs is called FASTER, though the acronym stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. FASTER trains first responders to stop the killer and stop the bleeding until help arrives.

What we’ve done in the past isn’t working any longer. A uniformed school resource officer is a visible sign of authority on campus. That is an effective deterrent most of the time. That deterrent works right up until the time it doesn’t. We have many examples when attackers either waited for the uniformed officers to leave the school, or when murderers began their attack by killing the uniformed officer or driving him away from the school. Sadly, we have also seen recent examples of police officers who hid outside the school while our children died.

One dedicated officer ran toward the sound of gunfire and arrived too late. Yes, he responded as fast as he could, but he also saw a student who was horribly wounded in the attack. That student would die a short time later at the hospital. This long serving police officer and SWAT cop knows that a few seconds make the difference between life and death. Given his experience, this officer wants armed school staff to protect students. He knows that teachers are closer to the students than he is. Therefore, teachers can respond faster to an attack on their school.

That isn’t a feeling or an opinion. That is the hard lesson this officer learned from an actual attack on a Colorado high school. Today, this officer instructs selected school staff on how to carry loaded firearm on campus. We might want to listen to him.

Lots of sheriffs will give you their opinion. It is more credible to ask sheriffs who have actual experience with armed staff in their county schools. I went to Ohio where the FASTER program has trained over a thousand school staff members. Ohio sheriffs have seen the programs from beginning to end. Sheriffs are an active part of the screening and the training process for armed school staff.

Some of these sheriffs ran side-by-side tests comparing school staff and police officers in the same exercise. They looked at who got to the scene first. It usually takes officers a few extra minutes to arrive on scene. The sheriffs also looked at what the responders did once they arrived. I spoke with a deputy who started out opposed to armed school staff but became an advocate. He said, “I hope sheriffs look at this with an open mind.” Many have. 82 of 88 Ohio sheriffs approve armed school staff in their counties.

While I was in Ohio, I participated in a refresher training class for school staff who are already protecting their students. These teachers were honest with me about the problems of being an armed defender and medical first responder. They said, “Of course, things could go wrong. I could get shot by the attacker, but it would be worse to do nothing and see my kids killed.” They take their responsibility seriously.

I was honored to be a student alongside these teachers and administrators. I’ve never carried a gun and bandages to save our students. I’m glad to learn from those who have. If you want to know if school staff should be armed, then you might want to learn from the cafeteria workers, custodians, teachers, principals, and school superintendents who volunteered to put their body between our kids and a bullet. They weighed the costs if they were armed and the costs if they were unarmed. They make the decision to be an armed protector every day.

Before and After Bang: Treatment and prevention of celebrity violence in our schools

by Rob Morse

The school safety movement is growing. Parents, school staff, and law enforcement officers are working together. They are slowly solving the complex and interrelated issues of protecting our students from armed murderers in our schools. We see varied solutions from school to school and from state to state. There is much to learn as we protect our children.

The “solutions” to school safety aren’t simple, but they are achievable.

Whether simple or complex, whether easy or difficult, as parents, we demand that the school protect our children when we can’t.

“We want our kids back the same way we gave them to you.” only slightly smarter each day.

There are overlapping layers of protection for our schools the same way we protect our homes. To start, some safety programs try to prevent mass murderers before they reach the schoolhouse door. Other programs try to reduce the damage an attack can cause by changing the physical features and procedures at school. Still others try to quickly stop the attacks, and then to save the lives of those who are injured. Each approach brings important benefits, though some are easier to appreciate than others.

Our view of “school safety” is distorted by the news media. Many of the plans to kill our kids are uncovered and stopped without loss of life. School security gets better every day as more of us see something and say something. Fortunately, local officials often do something when they receive a tip. School districts across the country now have plans to not only report both bullying and threats, but also to act on these reports. Those preventative actions are great news and seldom gets the credit they deserve. These murderers leave clues, and we often detect them.

A mass murderer isn’t born overnight. A violent attack on our schools or churches is the end of a long chain of events. As we work back to the beginning, we find a regular pattern of what we do right and what we sometimes do wrong. We see a number of causative factors in a series. A person doesn’t become a mass murderer for a single reason. That means each factor contributes to the problem, or the solution, depending on your perspective.

You’ve seen relationships like this before. Lots of things have “causative factors.” Not everyone who smokes develops lung cancer, but smoking is still a strong contributor to cancer. Not everyone who is overweight develops heart disease and diabetes, though obesity is a significant factor in both diseases. We see many factors that contribute to celebrity violence.

  • Keep your marriage intact because most mass murderers come from a broken home.
  • Be an engaged parent and monitor what your child sees and the games they play. Violent entertainment normalizes aggression.
  • Therapists and teachers should report individuals who are obviously disturbed.
  • The media should stop breeding the next generation of celebrity murderers. Our kids and their friends watched the media turn murderers into rock-stars.
  • Report bullying and threats to local officials.
  • Schools, therapists and law enforcement should act on threats to students and the school.
  • Make our schools as secure as our homes and businesses.
  • Harden our classrooms the way we harden our bedrooms and offices. This doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.
  • Train and equip school staff to stop a physical threat at their school until police arrive.
  • Train school staff to treat the injured until EMTs arrive.
  • Your local school should conduct a safety audit to see if they live up to their safety plan.

Those well accepted recommendations are easy to say, but take effort to accomplish. A frequent objection to each school safety plan is that the proposed plan is imperfect. There is always more we could do to protect our kids. We can always study more options…forever.

Too often, a plan’s limitations are used as an excuse for inaction. A more realistic approach is to start simply and then improve the plan over time. Adopt a security plan your school can implement in 3 months, then in 6 months, and then revise the plan again each year. Responsible administrators made our schools safer year after year.

Looking back at the list of safety recommendations, we’ve made progress across these all of these areas.. with one exception. When it comes to school safety, we’ve largely ignored the murderers' motives and rewards.

Many disturbed men and women murder our children to receive a billion-dollar media publicity campaign. These murderers may have been anonymous nobodies a few days ago. They may have been disliked and shunned, but once they kill our kids, then everyone knows their name.

Fortunately, we can put that news media celebrity-genie back into the bottle. We have done so several times before. (with a second source here) Our news media is the first to report headline news, but they are the last to learn from these attacks.

Let’s send the media back to school until they get it right.

Guns and Bandages- the changing face of first responders

by Rob Morse

School is about to start. Does your local school have trained first responders? Does your state allow selected and trained school staff to go armed in order to protect your children? I study those trends across the country. One thing I can tell you for sure is that my observations today will be inaccurate next month. I’ve revised this map several times this year. While I can find public announcements in most cases, some states do not require the public to be notified if school staff are armed. That uncertainty skews my research, but too bad. There are excellent reasons not to publicize school security plans. I’ll gladly accept that uncertainty even if the resulting data underestimates the number of states and schools with armed staff.

Some states allow armed school staff and some state governments clearly deny it. The issue of legal permission or prohibition becomes more complex as we look closer. The line is blurred rather than clear-cut. Some states allow armed staff for private schools but deny it to public schools. In addition, some sheriffs go to great lengths to enable selected school staff to be armed.

While that is a good thing, it means it may take extraordinary legal efforts by a sheriff and a local school board to have armed first responders defending their students. That level of effort may not be available to every school board in the state.

Where are we today?
Ohio allows armed school staff at the discretion of local school boards. Most, if not all, of these school boards use the FASTER training program. I contacted the volunteers at FASTER to get a feel of the size of their activities to date. FASTER has trained more than 1000 school staff members to be armed first responder. About a hundred more have been trained in Colorado.

The movement to arm school staff went into high gear after the murder of our students in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The program has been ongoing for 5 years, and that is long enough for some of the trained staff to retire or change schools. We’ve gained a lot of experience even with those losses from the program. The FASTER program has accumulated thousands of man-years of experience with trained first responders in the classroom. That underestimates what we know. Several states, like Utah and Colorado, allowed armed school staff for years before the attack at Sandy Hook. Utah does not require the concealed carriers who work at schools to notify the school administration if they are carrying.

Looking at the numbers, 82 of the 88 counties in Ohio have programs with armed school staff. 20 percent of the staff in some rural Ohio schools are trained to be armed defenders and medical first responders. We call them “teachers”, but classroom instructors only make up 40 percent of the school staff trained by faster. Those teachers protect our kids even if the teacher in your child’s classroom isn’t armed. A murderer never knows which district, which school building, and which classroom is ready to stop him.

A known product
Districts used to investigate the FASTER program by sending a teacher and an administrator to take the training. These staff members would report back to the school board with their evaluation. We see less of that today. FASTER is now a recognized program and a known commodity. School districts adopt the plan after talking with superintendents and sheriffs from other counties. Today, districts adopt the plan by sending dozens of staff members for training.

FASTER used to collect private funding to pay for the first trained teachers and administrators. That is less common, although it still happens. Districts now budget for and pay to send a full complement of staff. Some districts fill an entire training class; usually two dozen students a time. The program is popular. When new training dates become available, class registration with openings for 24 trainees typically fill up in a day.

That describes the training in Ohio. Statistics from other states are harder to find. FASTER Colorado brought their training program to that state two years ago. 30 out of 181 school districts have a program for armed staff in Colorado today.

School staff come from other states to attend the FASTER classes offered in Ohio and Colorado. I know there are plans to start training classes in other states next year, but that has not happened yet.

The perception of armed staff has changed among school boards and teachers. Volunteers used to be selected from the staff who already had their concealed carry permits. Today, we’re seeing more teachers who will get their carry permits specifically so they may become armed school staff. That was unheard of a few years ago.

Medical first responders
The decision to arm school staff may make it into the local news. In contrast, the decision to train and equip school staff to perform emergency trauma care often goes unreported. School districts usually wait for summer vacation to train teachers to go armed. Rather than taking months, school districts can train medical first responders by next week.

A growing trend in the last few years is for districts to sponsor local medical training classes. That way, many staff members are available to treat the injured in an emergency. State government in Ohio provided matching funds for medical first responder training and for trauma kits. The goal was to have several trauma kits along every hallway.

Programs in churches
The progress in church security is several years behind what we see in schools. Fortunately, there are fewer legal restrictions on religious institutions. Church governing boards have greater latitude in adopting a first responder program. That freedom is both a blessing and a curse. There is a trend for churches to over-customize their security plans whereas most schools tend to adopt existing plans with a minimum of changes.

Disturbing issues
Political concerns are always with us. We see this in schools, churches and hospitals. Politicians and administrators reinvent the first responder training curriculum for their own political purposes. Administrators signal their virtue by demanding higher training standards for their staff. This reduces the number of first responders who are available and drives up costs. More importantly, it drives up the response time until a good guy can stop a bad buy. When seconds count, the injured will have to wait longer to receive treatment.

We’ve run enough exercises to separate fact from theory. It is better to have 10 staff members who each have 10 hours of medical training than to have a single responder who has 100 hours of training.

Some school administrators approved an armed responder program but dictated that firearms must be kept in a locked safe located in the classroom. That raises several questions. Why should students be unprotected in the parking lot, the amphitheater, the cafeteria, the gymnasium or the administrative offices? If a locked safe is a bad solution for police and uniformed school resource officers, then why is it a good solution for teachers? The experts say that on-body carry is best. If school staff must keep their guns in a school safe, then give them a carbine and body armor as well.

Political concerns are real. Maybe an incremental approach is all that the community will tolerate today.

Trends
Very few parents had ever heard of a school safety plan five years ago. Today, more parents are attending school board meetings and asking if their school safety plan is up to date. They ask when their school had their last safety audit and if the audit recommendations were fully implemented. I expect that trend to continue.

Community involvement is a driving force to make our schools and churches safer. More parents, teachers, administrators and sheriffs are determined to protect our children. More ministers say, “I will protect my flock.”

Through the miracle of this American experiment, these concerned people find each other and act. I’ve seen these citizen-volunteers collect the best solutions from around the world. That fills me with hope and with pride. I expect that trend to continue.

I hope you are part of it.

The Unconventional First Responder: The Ins and Outs of Arming Educators

Detective Jenny Schiff will be presenting at the National School Safety Conference and Exhibition hosted by the School Safety Advocacy Council. The conference runs July 23 – 27, 2018 at the Omni Champions Gate Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida

From their brochure:

The 2018 National School Safety Conference and Exposition is the largest and most comprehensive conference focused on all the aspects of school safety and security. The conference is the only one in the world focused on school and student safety from Kindergarten through college. Centered on national best practices and proven localized programs and efforts, this conference brings together the most knowledgeable and internationally renowned keynote presenters into one forum to provide the highest quality professional development possible in one conference. In addition to our exceptional keynote presenters, you will be able to take advantage of complimentary pre-conference trainings and over 40 breakout sessions by current professionals in the fields of education and school safety addressing the most pressing issues facing our schools today.

Session Description:

Addressing this controversial topic, Det. Schiff presents a little of the history and more importantly current information about our nation's recent debate about arming educators as one solution to stopping school attacks quickly.  She will examine with participants the pros and cons of this approach, as well as detailing model policies and training currently available to prepare educators who are serving in this role in their districts.  Her presentation includes comprehensive, immediately useful resources for you if your district is implementing this strategy.  Det. Schiff's passion is helping law enforcement and educators work together to prevent the tragedies happening all too often in our schools, a goal which she hopes to further with this session.

Detective Jenny Schiff is a certified LEO instructor and a teacher.  She studies school attacks and has trained in active shooter response in schools – including arming teachers.  Sharing her unique combination of policing and teaching, she regularly presents at national school safety conferences.

Det. Schiff is sure to have one of the most talked about presentations at the conference. Her presentation is Thursday at 4:00 pm in National Ballroom D. She has the unique perspective of both a police officer and a school teacher.

If you are an educator or a law enforcement professional, this looks like a great conference. With a renewed interest in school safety, this conference should be a must attend event for your school and police leaders.

COMMENTARY: Arming teachers is smart, safe, necessary

The following op-ed was originally published in the Dayton Daily News. Republished with permission of the author.

Re: Lance Salyers’ April 1 guest column, “We need a debate before we arm teachers.” It was well written and thought-provoking.

In Ohio, the time for debate was over five years ago. That is when the FASTER (Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response) was born. Since then, this program has trained more than 1,300 school staff from 225 school districts across 12 states. Most of the armed school districts are here in Ohio. I have been an instructor in this program since its inception and am proud to serve for the safety of our children.

Public discussion gets derailed by only talking about arming teachers. The FASTER program is about armed school staff, not just teachers but administration, food service workers, maintenance personnel, etc. These are school personnel not locked down to just 25 children in a classroom. Many are free to move about the school at a moment’s notice to respond to an attack. They will do that today with or without a way to survive.

The program in Ohio is all volunteer, without pay. Their status as armed staff only comes into play when there is an attack. Otherwise, they go about their daily chores like any other day.

Many in the media have criticized the idea of armed staff confronting a school shooter armed with a rifle. The principal at Sandy Hook, armed with nothing, attacked the shooter. The football coach at Parkland, armed with nothing, confronted the shooter. So, what is the media’s point?

Mr. Salyers addresses the decision that an armed teacher must make during an attack. Do I stay with my children or do I leave to find the shooter? The FASTER training addresses that very question. It is a decision that only the teacher can make and cannot be set in policy. We train them to think about that decision now before they have to make it.

Mr. Salyers also comments that the teacher accesses her firearm from a “secure safe that can only be opened by her fingerprint.” While this may be desirable if the safe is in the teacher’s classroom, it becomes a remote firearm storage device when the teacher leaves the room for any reason. We have shown that the practice of remote storage of the defensive firearm can lead to increased victims because it increases the time to bring the defensive firearm to bear on the problem. I see this as no different from having a police officer store his sidearm in the cruiser until he needs it.

Another complaint about armed school staff is that law enforcement will not know who the attacker is when they arrive. FASTER trains the armed staff in how to interact with law enforcement. Above all, they are trained to “do exactly what the responding officers tell them to do.”

When the armed staff complete training, they must pass a shooting qualification. FASTER students shoot a 28-round qualification from four to 50 feet and must get 26 hits on target. This is a higher standard than we hold Ohio police to.

Finally, FASTER trains the armed staff how to treat the wounded once the attack is over. This way when the professionals show up you have live patients instead of victims to transfer to them.

We have nearly doubled this year’s number of FASTER classes and still the demand is overwhelming. If you add school resource officers, the ALICE program (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evade) and an armed school staff to all the other layers of protection, then you have the makings of a robust safety and security plan.

Gary Hoff, of Middletown, is an instructor in the Ohio armed school staff program.

Another Ohio school district incorporates armed, trained staff members into safety plan

The (Hamilton) Journal-News is reporting that the Madison Local School District in Middletown, OH has joined school districts across the state by implementing a comprehensive safety that includes an armed response team inside the school.

From the article:

This resolution is part of the district’s participation in the FASTER Saves Lives program, school officials said today.

The FASTER program — Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response — consists of a 26-hour training focused on armed response, crisis management, and emergency medical aid, the district said.

Staff participation in the FASTER program will be voluntary, Madison school board president Dave French said.

Staff who do choose to participate will be trained in the early identification of at-risk students, armed response, crisis management and emergency medical aid, he said.

“I hope our community understands that the FASTER program is so much more than just about arming staff in our schools,” French said in a statement. “The training that is part of the program will make our district more safe and our staff better prepared to handle an emergency situation.”

The Board of Education approved the meadsure, saying the safety of each and every child in Madison Twp. has to be the “district’s highest priority.”

According to coverage by WCPO (ABC Cincinnati), school officials in some districts still have their heads stuck in the sand.

“Teachers are inherently coached to be nurturers, and when you have more guns in schools that can be a difficult situation — doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong,” [Ludlow Independent Schools Superintendent Mike] Borchers said. “I think it’s something we all have to look at from our own situations.”

Dawn Laber, principal of Moyer Elementary School, said school officials need to arm themselves with the right tools in terms of preparation, not with weapons.

Security-minded parents who live in places with differing philosophies at area schools may want to keep this in mind and consider open-enrolling in a school that is capable of providing immediate protection for their children.

In response to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed the lives of 20 children and 6 adult staff members, Buckeye Firearms Foundation launched an emergency response training program here in Ohio for teachers, administrators, and other school staff.

Called FASTER Saves Lives (Faculty/Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response), the nonprofit program has to date provide high-level training to nearly 1300 teachers and staff members from 226 school districts in 12 states. This includes teachers and staff in 76 of Ohio's 88 counties.

“The response from Ohio educators has been more enthusiastic than we could have ever imagined,” said Joe Eaton, FASTER Program Director.

“When we first announced that we planned to train teachers in armed response and emergency medical aid,” Eaton continued, “some people said teachers would never sign up. But within days of announcing the program, we had 600 apply for training. In weeks, it soared to over 1,000. Today we have nearly 2,000 faculty members from all over Ohio waiting in line for a chance to get this training. And more are contacting us every day.”

The enthusiasm for this program has gone far beyond Ohio. School staff from six other states have attended FASTER training. In addition, instructors from as far away as Colorado have traveled to Ohio to see how the program works and take the idea back to their home state.

Created by concerned parents, law enforcement, and nationally-recognized safety and medical experts, FASTER is a groundbreaking, nonprofit program that gives educators practical violence response training.

The program is funded by thousands of small, individual donations to Buckeye Firearms Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable educational organization based in Ohio and the sister organization to Buckeye Firearms Association. Classes can be provided at NO COST to school personnel or school districts.

The program presents a carefully-structured curriculum with over 30 hours of hands-on training over a 3-day class that exceeds the requirements of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.

The purpose is not to replace police and EMT, but to allow teachers, administrators, and other personnel on-site to stop school violence rapidly and render medical aid immediately. It is a well-established fact that faster response to school shootings and other violence results in fewer lives lost.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.