Cincinnati news station given extensive access to FASTER class

WLWT (NBC Cincinnati) was given access to a FASTER class this summer, and the resulting coverage has been given nationwide attention.

In the report, entitled “Confronting deadly school violence: Teaching teachers how to shoot back,” WLWT News 5 investigative reporter Todd Dykes provides an extensive look at Buckeye Firearms Foundation’s Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response, or FASTER, program.

Part one of the video coverage can be viewed here. Part two can be viewed here.

The WLWT report was also picked up nationally by Breitbart News.

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

Keeping Kids Safe In A Broken World

Editor’s Note: The following article has been featured at TheBlaze.com. Republished with permission of the author.

by Laura Carno

Children are being murdered in their schools while politicians trade talking points and campaign promises about school safety. Our children are neither partisans nor political chess pieces. What can we do to keep our children safe while politicians jockey for position in back rooms? I met some heroes who found a solution that saves lives.

On Dec. 14, 2012, a shooter entered Sandy Hook Elementary School. In only 10 minutes, the murderer killed 20 young children and six adults. The 911 calls were heartbreaking.

Two school administrators ran toward the sound of gunfire empty handed. Both of them were murdered. Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old first grade teacher, died while physically shielding her students from the murderer. All she had to protect and defend her students from a madman was her body. These teachers risked their lives for our kids. What can we do to help these heroes as they protect and defend our children?

The day of the Sandy Hook Murders, some of the board members from Buckeye Firearms Association (BFA) had a conference call to discuss the tragedy. One said, “All those teachers had to defend their children were their bodies, and they sacrificed their lives to save those kids. We have to do better.”

That night, the idea of FASTER was born.

FASTER stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. The program calls itself, “…a carefully-structured curriculum offering over 26 hours of hands-on training over a three-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.”

When BFA founded Buckeye Firearms Foundation(BFF), ordinary citizens across the country gave their hard earned money to help teachers defend kids. When FASTER offered their first class for 24 students in 2013, 2,500 teachers and administrators signed up. One BFF board member described the reverence he has for the teachers who volunteer.

He said, “These are teachers will stand between a murderer and your kids.”

That was three years ago.

Although the FASTER and BFF teams are all volunteers, the money they raise goes to the remarkable trainers at the Tactical Defense Institute and the Cerino Training Group. Both are world-class tactical training organizations that adapted their training to fit a teacher’s specific needs.

Most of the trainers have backgrounds as police, SWAT and federal law enforcement officers. They take this training seriously, as do the teachers. With each exercise, they know that this one skill taught to this one teacher may make the difference between people living or dying. It’s evident in everything they do.

My friend Rob Morse attended Faster Level 1 in June of this year as an observer. He documented his experiences in his blog Armed Heroes In Teachers Clothing.

To take the FASTER training, the volunteers must already have their state concealed carry license. School boards in Ohio retain full authority to allow or reject having armed teachers in their schools. Some states prohibit school districts from making that decision.

All the armed defenders are volunteers. In Rob’s article, you can see his deep respect for these teachers. They know that they may be called upon to defend their students. It’s a heavy burden that they take very seriously.

CONTRIBUTION

Keeping Kids Safe In A Broken World

Aug. 8, 2016 9:04am

By Laura Carno, for TheBlaze

[Contributor]

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.

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By Laura Carno, for TheBlaze

Children are being murdered in their schools while politicians trade talking points and campaign promises about school safety. Our children are neither partisans nor political chess pieces. What can we do to keep our children safe while politicians jockey for position in back rooms? I met some heroes who found a solution that saves lives.

On Dec. 14, 2012, a shooter entered Sandy Hook Elementary School. In only 10 minutes, the murderer killed 20 young children and six adults. The 911 calls were heartbreaking.

Two school administrators ran toward the sound of gunfire empty handed. Both of them were murdered. Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old first grade teacher, died while physically shielding her students from the murderer. All she had to protect and defend her students from a madman was her body. These teachers risked their lives for our kids. What can we do to help these heroes as they protect and defend ourchildren?

[Getty Images.]

Getty Images.

The day of the Sandy Hook Murders, some of the board members from Buckeye Firearms Association(BFA) had a conference call to discuss the tragedy. One said, “All those teachers had to defend their children were their bodies, and they sacrificed their lives to save those kids. We have to do better.”

That night, the idea of FASTER was born.

FASTER stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. The program calls itself, “…a carefully-structured curriculum offering over 26 hours of hands-on training over a three-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.”

When BFA founded Buckeye Firearms Foundation(BFF), ordinary citizens across the country gave their hard earned money to help teachers defend kids. When FASTER offered their first class for 24 students in 2013, 2,500 teachers and administrators signed up. One BFF board member described the reverence he has for the teachers who volunteer.

He said, “These are teachers will stand between a murderer and your kids.”

That was three years ago.

Although the FASTER and BFF teams are all volunteers, the money they raise goes to the remarkable trainers at the Tactical Defense Institute and the Cerino Training Group. Both are world-class tactical training organizations that adapted their training to fit a teacher’s specific needs.

Most of the trainers have backgrounds as police, SWAT and federal law enforcement officers. They take this training seriously, as do the teachers. With each exercise, they know that this one skill taught to this one teacher may make the difference between people living or dying. It’s evident in everything they do.

My friend Rob Morse attended Faster Level 1 in June of this year as an observer. He documented his experiences in his blog Armed Heroes In Teachers Clothing.

To take the FASTER training, the volunteers must already have their state concealed carry license. School boards in Ohio retain full authority to allow or reject having armed teachers in their schools. Some states prohibit school districts from making that decision.

All the armed defenders are volunteers. In Rob’s article, you can see his deep respect for these teachers. They know that they may be called upon to defend their students. It’s a heavy burden that they take very seriously.

[Image source: Twitter/YinonMagal]

Image source: Twitter/YinonMagal

I was invited to attend FASTER Level 2 as an observer. The Level 2 training is for teachers and administrators who have already been through Level 1, and have typically been a first responder in their school for a year.

The training includes live fire exercises. That meant time at the pistol range on a sweltering 95-degree day with a heat index of 120. The range exercises were brutal in that heat. With an instructor to student ratio on the range of 2:1, there was a lot of coaching going on: tweaking a grip here, adjusting a stance there. Time and again, the trainers told students that, “You don’t rise to the occasion, but you fall to the level of your continued training.”

The second and third day had some work on the range, but also included advanced skills. Students learned hand-to-hand non-lethal techniques, and some added complexities that taxed their decision-making skills. Tiny nuances made the difference between stopping a threat and not stopping a threat.

One trainer put it this way, “Yes, it’s hard. AND your students’ lives depend on it. Why die to protect your kids when you can protect them and live?”

Said another trainer, “This attacker wants to kill you to get to the kids. You can’t let that happen. You have to protect the kids and you can’t do that if you’re dead. We have to win.

There has been research and reporting on the optimum number of armed defenders in a school. The bottom line, one per building per floor is seen as a standard.

Quickly stopping the threat opens the way for “second responders” who have medical trauma training but who are not armed. Many in the media miss this fact. FASTER isn’t about guns in schools, but about stopping a threat so first responders can save lives. These teachers added even more emergency trauma training in addition to what they had in their first FASTER class.

Bringing FASTER To Your State

CONTRIBUTION

Keeping Kids Safe In A Broken World

Aug. 8, 2016 9:04am

By Laura Carno, for TheBlaze

[Contributor]

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.

140

SHARES

Share This
Tweet This

By Laura Carno, for TheBlaze

Children are being murdered in their schools while politicians trade talking points and campaign promises about school safety. Our children are neither partisans nor political chess pieces. What can we do to keep our children safe while politicians jockey for position in back rooms? I met some heroes who found a solution that saves lives.

On Dec. 14, 2012, a shooter entered Sandy Hook Elementary School. In only 10 minutes, the murderer killed 20 young children and six adults. The 911 calls were heartbreaking.

Two school administrators ran toward the sound of gunfire empty handed. Both of them were murdered. Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old first grade teacher, died while physically shielding her students from the murderer. All she had to protect and defend her students from a madman was her body. These teachers risked their lives for our kids. What can we do to help these heroes as they protect and defend ourchildren?

[Getty Images.]

Getty Images.

The day of the Sandy Hook Murders, some of the board members from Buckeye Firearms Association(BFA) had a conference call to discuss the tragedy. One said, “All those teachers had to defend their children were their bodies, and they sacrificed their lives to save those kids. We have to do better.”

That night, the idea of FASTER was born.

FASTER stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. The program calls itself, “…a carefully-structured curriculum offering over 26 hours of hands-on training over a three-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.”

When BFA founded Buckeye Firearms Foundation(BFF), ordinary citizens across the country gave their hard earned money to help teachers defend kids. When FASTER offered their first class for 24 students in 2013, 2,500 teachers and administrators signed up. One BFF board member described the reverence he has for the teachers who volunteer.

He said, “These are teachers will stand between a murderer and your kids.”

That was three years ago.

Although the FASTER and BFF teams are all volunteers, the money they raise goes to the remarkable trainers at the Tactical Defense Institute and the Cerino Training Group. Both are world-class tactical training organizations that adapted their training to fit a teacher’s specific needs.

Most of the trainers have backgrounds as police, SWAT and federal law enforcement officers. They take this training seriously, as do the teachers. With each exercise, they know that this one skill taught to this one teacher may make the difference between people living or dying. It’s evident in everything they do.

My friend Rob Morse attended Faster Level 1 in June of this year as an observer. He documented his experiences in his blog Armed Heroes In Teachers Clothing.

To take the FASTER training, the volunteers must already have their state concealed carry license. School boards in Ohio retain full authority to allow or reject having armed teachers in their schools. Some states prohibit school districts from making that decision.

All the armed defenders are volunteers. In Rob’s article, you can see his deep respect for these teachers. They know that they may be called upon to defend their students. It’s a heavy burden that they take very seriously.

[Image source: Twitter/YinonMagal]

Image source: Twitter/YinonMagal

I was invited to attend FASTER Level 2 as an observer. The Level 2 training is for teachers and administrators who have already been through Level 1, and have typically been a first responder in their school for a year.

The training includes live fire exercises. That meant time at the pistol range on a sweltering 95-degree day with a heat index of 120. The range exercises were brutal in that heat. With an instructor to student ratio on the range of 2:1, there was a lot of coaching going on: tweaking a grip here, adjusting a stance there. Time and again, the trainers told students that, “You don’t rise to the occasion, but you fall to the level of your continued training.”

The second and third day had some work on the range, but also included advanced skills. Students learned hand-to-hand non-lethal techniques, and some added complexities that taxed their decision-making skills. Tiny nuances made the difference between stopping a threat and not stopping a threat.

One trainer put it this way, “Yes, it’s hard. AND your students’ lives depend on it. Why die to protect your kids when you can protect them and live?”

Said another trainer, “This attacker wants to kill you to get to the kids. You can’t let that happen. You have to protect the kids and you can’t do that if you’re dead. We have to win.

There has been research and reporting on the optimum number of armed defenders in a school. The bottom line, one per building per floor is seen as a standard.

Quickly stopping the threat opens the way for “second responders” who have medical trauma training but who are not armed. Many in the media miss this fact. FASTER isn’t about guns in schools, but about stopping a threat so first responders can save lives. These teachers added even more emergency trauma training in addition to what they had in their first FASTER class.

Bringing FASTER To Your State

I was beyond impressed by this training and the teacher volunteers. I was in awe of their commitment. What has to happen before this training could come to your state? First, check your local laws to see if armed defenders in schools are already legal, or if there are roadblocks in the way. Contact your state legislators and demand that they pass legislation to allow teachers and administrators to defend your kids in school.

Second, once the laws in your state support it, or if it is already legal, reach out to the folks at BFF and FASTER. Every situation is different, and they want to help. They will also know if someone from your state has already contacted them.

This Shouldn’t Be Political

Our children are not partisans; they are not political chess pieces. Politicians promote the fantasy that guns should never be allowed in schools. But those same politicians need to face the reality that disturbed or evil people do bring guns in to schools. Experts have shown us what will actually work to save lives. While politicians argue policy, kids are dying. Let us do something that actually make kids safer today.

One teacher said, “We live in a broken world. Hoping that killers won’t go on rampages doesn’t stop them. Only a competent, trained, armed defender can deal with the reality that bad people are out there in our broken world. It’s our job to stop them.”

It is our job too.

An expanded version of this article is available here.

Laura Carno is a blogger, media strategist and the author of Government Ruins Nearly Everything. Contact her at LauraCarno@gmail.com. Her blogs are available at LauraCarno.com.

Boy Scout Eagle Project seeks to put a trauma kit in every classroom

In 2014, Buckeye Firearms Foundation announced an initiative to put a trauma kit in every school building in Ohio. Now, one Boy Scout from northwest Ohio is seeking to further that goal by providing kits and medical training to his local school as an Eagle project.

CLICK HERE to contribute to this project.

Most school buildings have a first aid kit and an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) with personnel trained to use them. On the other hand, few schools have a trauma kit with the supplies needed to deal with trauma injuries, such as those that can occur after a parking lot or shop class accident, severe cuts, a bleacher collapse, a weather catastrophe or a violent attack. Schools should be equipped to respond immediately and care for such injuries.

Levi Baus, a 14-year-old Life Scout from rural Archbold, Ohio, has announced his goal to put a trauma kit in every Archbold Area Schools classroom, and to provide medical training to school staff so that they can be prepared to use the kits effectively. These are the same kits that are provided to faculty and administrators who complete the FASTER Saves Lives Program training.

According to Baus, “The trauma kits are more advanced first aid kits; they include items such as chest seals, compression bandages, tourniquets and more. The kits are intended to treat life-threatening injuries such as puncture or bullet wounds.

“When this type of injury occurs,” Baus adds, “someone may lose their life before help arrives. These kits are made to provide immediate treatment to someone in a critical situation.”

Although, because he is home-educated, Baus does not attend classes at Archbold, he is excited that his Eagle project is helping his local school system.

“Many of the boys in my Troop attend classes at Archbold, and I have other friends who attend there. The school is part of my community and I saw the need to help it be a safer place.”

Each kit costs $65. Baus says that in order to assemble and install a kit in all 76 of Archbold’s classrooms (and a few common areas), provide the medical training and complete this project, he needs to raise a total of $5,400. He has set up a collection point at Plumfund.com for those wishing to contribute to the project.

Following is a video Baus has posted to explain more about the program:

CLICK HERE to contribute to this project.

FASTER Saves Lives: Who Will Protect Your Children at School?

by Michelle Cerino

Not a month goes by without a news report of an active shooter situation somewhere in the United States. If you look at the FBI statistics (which have only been updated to 2013), they are constantly on the rise. If only the police could get there faster, to protect our children at school.

I spent many years substitute teaching while my boys were in grade school. Eventually I earned my teaching license and taught for 2 years in long-term sub positions. Why do I mention this? My background is somewhat diverse, allowing me to bring a well-rounded view to the important topic of having armed faculty in the schools. Oh, you weren’t aware there are school districts in the U.S. where some of the faculty is armed? There are many, including those in my home state of Ohio. You see, some school districts out in the country may have up to a 40-minute wait for law enforcement to arrive after a distress call. They know their only hope to stop a killing is to take matters into their own hands. Other districts with faster police arrival times know that when seconds count, law enforcement is only minutes away. Many school districts in Ohio send their staff to Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response (FASTER) Training, a course I’m proud to be a part of.

The FASTER program began as a vision of John Benner, owner of Tactical Defense Institute in Ohio. Although he had been working on the concept for a while, it wasn’t until the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy in Newtown, Conn., that schools were ready to listen. Through the support of Buckeye Firearms Foundation, this nonprofit program arose, giving educators practical violence response training.

Classes are provided at no cost to the school districts.

In March of 2013, I was part of the two dozen school staff members (out of 1,400 applicants) attending the first FASTER course. The 27 hours of training over 3 days was very intense. Since then, more classes are held every year; Level 2 and 3 courses have been added. So far, more than 500 staff members have been trained, hailing from 152 school districts in 63 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

This summer, my firearms consulting business, Cerino Consulting and Training Group, held 2 FASTER courses. A few of the students sent me e-mails after the course, giving some insight into their experiences.

Faster-Shoot-house

Student 1:

I am not an educator, but I am a concealed-carry permit holder and a proud supporter of the 2nd Amendment. I am a business professional and the same threat of an active shooter exists in the workplace as in schools.

We spent 2 days outside on the range. It was hot. It was dirty. And it was intense. This was tactical training focusing on accuracy, speed and technique. We learned to shoot from a holster, on the move and under pressure. In order to achieve certification, we needed to pass a shooting qualification test—a test demanding better performance than what is expected from local law enforcement. This was serious stuff.

But the most stressful part of the program was the active shooter simulation. The simulation occurred at the end of the course in a nearby high school, and was designed to look and feel like a real active shooter scenario. Volunteer kids and adults were on site to serve as actors. The facilitators used guns firing blank ammunition, and we used airsoft guns for the simulation.FASTER-Retention 

Anxiety levels were high. The simulation began: Gunshots were firing, kids were screaming, men were yelling…and it suddenly felt very real. As each of us waited for his or her turn in the the simulation, the stress grew. One woman thought she might be sick. My heart was beating fast. I felt the same fear and anxiety as my fellow students.

I was the last to go during one of the simulations. Shots were firing over and over upstairs. Wearing the protective mask, I could hear my own breathing loud in my ears as I made my way up the stairs. I came around the corner, and serpentined down the hallway, clearing doorways along my way like we had been trained. As I came around another corner, I saw our volunteer “shooter”—a teenage boy wearing a hoodie. He was backing out of a classroom after having just shot several victims…and he was laughing. I can still hear that laugh in my mind. I didn’t hesitate. I raised my gun, put my sights on the shooter, and fired twice. They were good hits and he went down. The threat was over.

That night I shared the story with my husband. He asked if it bothered me. I was confused and asked him what he meant. He asked, “Did it bother you to shoot a kid?” I thought about it, and realized that until he asked me that question, I had never thought of the shooter as a kid. He was a bad guy with a gun out to hurt people—out to hurt children. I was trained to stop him, and that’s exactly what I did.

I am proud of the teachers in our class. Not only do these teachers dedicate their lives to educating our children, but now these men and women are willing to put their lives on the line—literally—in order to save our children. What a gift.FASTER-one-hand-shooting

Student 2:

The biggest thing I learned from the course is that every district needs to have this training. This class far exceeded my expectations by putting the trainees in real-life scenarios and providing them with the training needed to handle those situations. As a U.S. Army veteran, I put this training right up there with my military instruction and consider it to be pivotal, life-changing and excellent.FASTER-Live-fire-Shoot-house

Student 3:

When I came I had no idea what to expect, but I will say I was very nervous. As an administrator at a school, my plan was that if I couldn’t handle it in training, I didn’t want to be the one to handle it when it’s the real thing. This class totally changed my thought process.

The training I received does not just apply to our school, but it applies to everyday life. I learned how to be alert and see things around me. I learned how to move swiftly and effectively through my school and how to handle the situation with a level head.FASTER-School

Carrying a firearm in school is not for everyone. This person must have the proper mindset and shooting ability. The purpose of having armed staff is not to replace police and EMT, but to allow on-site personnel to stop school violence rapidly and render medical aid immediately. It is a well-established fact that a faster response to school shootings and other violence results in fewer lives lost. How does your child’s school plan to respond to an active killer situation?

Michelle Cerino is the managing editor at www.WomensOutdoorNews.com. She also is the author of the column “She Shoots 2,” sponsored by Crossbreed Holsters. A mother of 2 teenage boys, Michelle has been right there beside them hunting youth deer seasons, plinking pop cans with .22s and being involved in Boy Scouts since 2004. Michelle is the president of Cerino Consulting and Training Group, LLC, a firearms training company she built with her husband Chris in 2011. Her path in the firearms and outdoors industries is ever progressing. She is writing, hunting, competing and doing contract work for major manufacturers. When not working, Michelle competes in prestigious shooting events, such as the Bianchi Cup in Missouri, and major 3-Gun matches nationwide.

Armed Heroes in Teacher’s Clothing

by Rob Morse

They don’t look like heroes, but they are. I spent several days with a group of Ohio teachers who want to protect their students. Most teachers feel the same way, but these extraordinary individuals did something about it. They took a training course. They learned to stop an armed attack in their schools. They learned to treat the injured. Rather than shelter in place and wait for the police and EMTs to save them, these teachers became the good guy with a gun and bandages. The training program is a success. The volunteer organization that trains teachers doesn’t have enough money to train everyone who wants instruction. These men and women do it for love and they need our help.

 “I’m a teacher.  Parents trust me with their children’s lives.  I can’t hide behind a locked door and let these kids die.”

Most of us would risk our lives to protect our own family. These teachers go the extra mile: they risk their lives for someone else’s children.  They train now, on their own time, so they are ready to be an anonymous protector when they are needed.  The training course I took was full of exactly the people we want to defend our children.  They were school board members, police officers and janitors.  I saw school administrators, teachers and staff from both public and private schools.  Now they are the first responders when a murderous mad man tries to hurt our children.

“My kids used to go to the school where I teach today.”

It costs the teachers time and money.  Before they are accepted into the program, the teachers and staff usually get their concealed carry permits on their own.  The teachers also buy their own firearms and holsters.  The Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response program (FASTER) from Buckeye Firearms Foundation in Ohio pays for their advanced training.  That advanced training is usually a prerequisite to carry a loaded firearm on campus.  Those are the least of the costs, because you can’t buy dedication like this.

They do it for love.  Only love would make you stand in the heat and the rain for a three-day firearms class when you could be home with your family.  Only love would make you beat your hands up by working so hard.  The bruises, blisters and bandages attest that these dedicated men and women have some their own blood and skin in the project.  Only love could make them shake with emotion during a mock exercise in a high school.  Their hands go where their heart leads.

“Is this the day I have to use bare hands and improvised weapons to stop an armed murderer in my school?”

We need these armed teachers.  24 percent of active shooter incidents are in schools.  60 percent of the active shooters die or are killed before police arrive.  For bad reasons, we deny people at schools the right to protect the children entrusted to their care.  Murderers don’t belong on campus, but we attract them to schools by making schools into so-called “gun free zones”.  Fires don’t belong on campus, but we have fire extinguishers and fire drills.  Cuts and bruises don’t belong on campus, but we keep first aid supplies at hand.  Trained responders belong on campus so our children and teachers are protected and rescued when murderers attack them.  It really is that simple.

“Would you rather the murderer shoot students or engage a defender?”

Emergency Medical Technicians taught the class about emergency trauma care.  Adults can bleed-out from a treatable injury in seconds.  We have a minute to restore breathing.  Children have less.  Seconds count, and the reality is that police and EMTs are many minutes away.  The more time the killer has, the more people he will kill.  Trained responders can stop the killing and save the injured.  The sooner the attacker is stopped the more people are saved.  Time is everything.

“Paramedics didn’t treat the injured at the Sandy Hook Elementary School for 45 minutes.  It took them over three hours to deliver aid after the Orlando nightclub murders.”

FASTER training is world class.  About 600 teachers and staff have already taken this training.  Today, most Ohio counties have some armed volunteers in their schools.  We’ve accumulated thousands of man-years of real world experience with armed staff so we know the program is safe and effective.  That is where the program ran into a new problem.

“FASTER isn’t about guns in schools.  FASTER is about saving lives.”

Dedicated volunteers run the FASTER program to train teachers.  The Buckeye Firearms Foundation pays for the training classes.  They pay for the ammunition in the basic classes.  They pay for lodging away from home. They pay for the trauma kits that teachers take back to school.  Today, the donations aren’t coming in fast enough to meet the demand for training.  Isn’t that a good problem to have?

For obvious reasons, the Buckeye Firearms Foundation is reluctant to take government funds.  Their teacher training program needs help from each of us today. Buckeye Firearms Foundation is a non-profit organization. They need help from corporate, industry and civic sponsors.  These teachers will save lives and we all want to do that.  Here is our chance.  Make a donation.  Here are the links where you can learn about the FASTER program and donate.  After you donate, ask your company and your civic clubs to become regular donors too.

“If not me, then who?  If not now, then when?”

These school teachers are willing to pay with their lives to protect our children.  You can afford a few bucks a month to train them.

Do it for love.

Republished from Rob Morse’s SlowFacts blog.

10 key factors to keep active-killer response on the cutting edge

Reprinted with permission from the Force Science Institute http://www.forcescience.org

10 key factors to keep active-killer response on the cutting edge

Dr. Mike Clumpner brings a multi-faceted perspective to the many challenges of active-killer emergencies.

Among other roles, he holds a PhD in homeland security policy, with dissertation research on coordinated public safety responses to active shooters…has logged 24 years in urban fire services, 21 years as a paramedic, and seven years in law enforcement, assigned to SWAT special ops…and he’s a curriculum developer/instructor with the Dept. of Homeland Security. In addition he has trained more than 40,000 first responders across three continents regarding active-killer suppression.

In a special seminar earlier this year, hosted at the Force Science Training Center in Chicago, Clumpner shared what he considers current “best practices” for successfully mitigating active-killer events. His fast-paced, daylong session before a packed crowd was sponsored by the Cook County (IL) Dept. of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Illinois Tactical Officers Assn.

Drawn from his riveting presentation and an interview afterward with Force Science News, here are 10 critical factors Clumpner considers essential for keeping an agency’s active-killer protocol on the cutting edge.

1. Know your opponent.

“If our police officers knew as much about active killers as they do about the National Football League, we would have tens of thousands of active-killer experts,” Clumpner says. “An abundance of after-action reports and other comprehensive response analyses are just a Google away, but most police trainers, leaders, and emergency responders haven’t taken the time to study them.

“Many of the lessons learned are consistent across incidents–communication problems, command and control failures, equipment failures, and delays in providing medical care for the critically injured. Without knowing the consistent shortcomings, officers and leaders are simply doomed to repeat the same mistakes.

“Active shooters, on the other hand, do study and learn from past events to make their event deadlier and more sensational. Many are infatuated with previous killers. The perpetrator at Sandy Hook, for example, had a 6X4-ft. spreadsheet on his wall, detailing the tactics of 500 spree killings around the world, learning what worked and what didn’t.”

2. Know your limitations.

“Ninety-eight per cent of all active shooter events occur in jurisdictions with 100 police officers or less,” Clumpner says. “Most school shootings are in rural or affluent residential areas.

“You likely won’t have immediate access to big-city resources. You need to know what your agency can bring to the event and what other nearby agencies can–and how you’re going to fill the gaps.

“You may not know you have problems until they surface in full-scale exercises. Repeated exercises before there’s a crisis are essential. That’s when you find surprises like which buildings in your area won’t accommodate radio or cell phone traffic. What you think is an asset may turn out to be an Achilles’ heel.

“And you have to solve the problems–you. If you think the FBI hostage rescue team or military special forces are going to sweep in and save the day, you’re probably sadly mistaken.”

3. Understand the complexity of active-killer events.

So far in the US, Clumpner points out, roughly 40% of active killings have been “basic” events: one perpetrator, armed with a handgun, attempting to kill in one location.

About 60% of active-shooter events have been “moderately complex.” Such an incident has one or more of the following: multiple perpetrators, explosives, chemical/smoke munitions, denial-of-entry tactics, ballistic armor, or long guns.

“What is absolutely coming to this country,” he insists, “are ‘highly complex’ events, in which teams of highly trained perpetrators simultaneously attack multiple locations in one city. We are simply not prepared for these events.”

These will be mass casualty incidents, potentially involving heavy weapons, incendiaries, explosives, and other haz/mat components. “Understand the multiple moving parts required both of the perpetrators and the responders,” Clumpner urges. “Understand the training and rehearsal necessary to counter this threat. The incident command strategies and tasks will be as complex as the incidents themselves.

“As of now, when active shootings in progress have been stopped by police intervention, 70% of the events have been halted by a single officer, Clumpner says. “If you are not training personnel for solo-entry tactics, you are missing an essential component of counter-action.

“But with an eye to the inevitable future, broad-based, multi-agency planning and training for large-scale operations is now also mandatory for every jurisdiction, regardless of size.”

4. Understand that “running to guns” is just part of a good response.

“Of course, stopping an active killer is the top priority,” Clumpner says. “If the perpetrator hasn’t taken his own life already, officers generally neutralize him in the first four to six minutes after arriving.

“Police understand the importance of running to guns; that’s often the easiest part of active-shooter response. But after the threat is neutralized, these incidents often enter a period of chaos and confusion that can last an hour or more as officers search for additional actual or perceived threats and search for and treat numerous victims.

“By focusing predominately on methodically searching for additional suspects, officers may forget about wounded victims who desperately need help. After a shooter in a Los Angeles airport was in custody, a severely wounded TSA employee was left unattended where he had fallen for 33 minutes before receiving medical attention.

“Hundred of officers responded to that incident; paramedics were waiting outside, a mere 100 yards away. Yet no one tended to this bleeding victim for an appalling length of time.”

Clumpner suggests, “Try starting some of your training exercises with the suspect already dead or in custody. Practice managing all the other things that come into an event. He says this should include a rapid sweep through the building looking for victims, before launching a slow, thorough back-clearing.

“This exercise can also include real-world complications most agencies never train for, like hordes of frightened parents breaking through or circumventing your perimeter control looking for their kids, opportunistic looters at a shopping mall that’s under siege, intrusive media, and dispatch centers overwhelmed to the point of paralysis.”

5. Train to move and clear in large structures and outdoor locations.

“Active-shooter training has focused so long on close-quarters tactics, moving in hallways, and clearing small rooms that preparing for encounters outdoors or in large buildings often gets short shrift,” Clumpner notes. “Many patrol officers lack training moving in extensive malls, warehouse or manufacturing floors that cover city blocks, or even large church sanctuaries that seat several thousand people. In some of these sites, threats can be coming from 720 degrees around you.

Clumpner had hands-on experience with one reported active-shooter incident at a commercial mall with numerous separate entrances, multiple inside levels that could have provided perpetrators a high-ground advantage from multiple angles, and 18,000 people inside for holiday shopping.

“Tactical officers maybe have trained in such environments–maybe,” Clumpner says. “But probably few patrol officers have–and they are most likely to be first on the scene at any killing spree.”

6. Prepare for “transitions” in the active-shooter threat.

An offender who transitions from actively killing into a barricade mode with prisoners should not be regarded as the usual hostage-taker, Clumpner believes. “What he has, most likely, are doomed captives. He’s just fortifying his location. Once he has demonstrated homicidal behavior, statistics show that the captives have small chance of surviving.

“Time is not on your side, as it would be in an ordinary barricade standoff. Rather than fall back and wait for crisis negotiators, continue to drive into the threat,” Clumpner advises. “Do whatever you can to keep the perpetrator in a problem-solving mode.

“Continue to try to gain access to him, even if you have to breach through walls. As lifesavers, you want him to focus his weapon and attention on your efforts instead of on his captives.”

7. Anticipate “non-standard” offender tactics.

“The biggest failure of 9/11 was a failure of imagination,” Clumpner declares. “We failed to imagine how creative and unpredictable evil people can be.”

As a vital part of training, he recommends brainstorming what atypical obstacles you could face, and how to respond. An up-armored vehicle turned into a “mowing machine” that plows into crowds? Attackers dressed as cops? Canisters of chlorine gas deployed in school hallways? Plywood sheets nailed over windows and doors? A killer moving down the aisle of a school bus, shooting kids right and left? An active killer who goes mobile into a hospital?

“Some of these have already happened here in the US and all have happened somewhere in the world. Yet few departments have trained for asymmetrical and unconventional assaults,” Clumpner says.

“Do not let the day it happens be the first time you’ve considered this type of event. That’s not the time to be seeking answers.”

8. Develop response protocols for fire as a weapon.

In 600 BC, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War references the use of fire as a weapon, and offenders in modern times continue to employ this tactic, Clumpner says.

Traditionally, Clumpner says, firefighters have been reluctant to move in to fight a fire when a hostile suspect is uncontrolled, and “police officers are not trained to work in the fire or smoke environment. In the resulting impasse, innocent lives can be lost as the police look to the fire department to control the fire and firefighters look to the police to control the threat.”

Clumpner and a research team have spent hundreds of hours conducting controlled-structure burns to determine the best methods for officers to rapidly search a burning house and conduct a hasty rescue operation. These experiments have confirmed how far officers can penetrate into a burning structure without special fire gear, what kind of portable fire extinguisher from a patrol car works best, and so on.

Clumpner says he has trained hundreds of federal tactical personnel to sweep and clear a residence with a room on fire and get out safely in two minutes. Now he and his team teach a three-day course for officers on responding to fire as a weapon with an armed perpetrator present.

The course includes how to defend against Molotov cocktails and hand-thrown napalm. “Recipes for making napalm are readily accessible on the internet,” he warns, “and for the first time in almost 40 years in the US, we saw Molotov cocktails thrown at officers at Ferguson. It’s perfectly reasonable to include these elements in your when-then planning.”

9. Train responders on the Rescue Task Force concept.

The Rescue Task Force (RTF) concept is unfamiliar to many LEOs, Clumpner says. The idea is to deploy teams of medical providers into certain areas of an active-shooter site early on, accompanied by one or more officers for force protection. These RTFs provide immediate point-of-wounding care for victims, followed by rapid extraction to awaiting ambulances.

Clumpner points out that half the victims at an active-shooter scene typically “will have moderate to severe gunshot wounds. If they are not to a hospital within 30 minutes, you’ll have a mortality rate of nearly 70%. But with early medical intervention–within 20 minutes–the survival rate nearly doubles.”

When sufficient personnel are available, Clumpner recommends a division of forces. A primary law enforcement “contact” team or teams pursue the perpetrator(s) with the goal of locating, containing, and neutralizing the threat. These teams perform in the “hot zone,” an area with an obvious and imminent threat.

Concurrently, teams of medical providers with law enforcement protection follow behind the contact team(s) to deploy in the “warm zone,” an area without an obvious threat, to treat and extract the injured.

“In practice, officers often find this is harder than they think,” Clumpner says. “There can be problems of rescuers maintaining stamina while moving unconscious victims, reliably marking areas that have been canvassed, maintaining protection for unarmed responders, and so on.

“It’s not a simple process. But done right, it will save lives.”

10. Integrate fire and EMS agencies into protocol development and training.

A “silo” response–police, fire, and EMS operating independently in their own worlds–is yesterday’s ballgame in active-killer strategizing, Clumpner emphasizes. “An active-killer event really can be four distinct incidents rolled into one: a law enforcement incident, an EMS mass-casualty incident, a fire suppression and rescue incident, and an explosives/haz mat incident.

“Today’s strongly favored approach is to integrate the roles and responsibilities of each public safety branch into coordinated planning, training, command, and performance.”

The two greatest challenges he has observed, Clumpner says, are: 1) convincing law enforcement that these events require fire and EMS integration for successful mitigation with a minimal loss of life, and 2) convincing fire and EMS providers to operate forward into the event, instead of staging blocks away for the all-clear signal, often hours after the event began.

In winning cooperation, he called to mind a comment from a London fire brigade special operations manager who noted that the brigade faces a huge reputational risk if they are seen standing idly by doing nothing.

Even with a good integrated plan on paper, Clumpner says, “there tends to be a lot of role creep and role confusion. It takes a lot of planning and rehearsal to make a joint response effective.”

Dr. Clumpner, president of Threat Suppression, Inc., is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. He can be reached at: mclumpner@ThreatSuppression.com or at: 800-231-9106.His firm’s website is: www.ThreatSuppression.com.

Another school shooting ended with low casualties thanks to immediate armed response

On Saturday, April 23, an 18 year-old coward opened fire with a rifle on students leaving prom at his high school alma mater in Antigo, Wisconsin. Two victims sustained non-life threatening injuries.

The media initially ran with the typical articles about how the attacker had been bullied, etc. (his mother told the Associated Press that she hopes the tragedy “shines light on bullying and how deeply it affects people.”), but the national conversation died out pretty quickly, mainly because the attacker only managed to cause the death of one person – himself.

The coward didn’t achieve the “high score” he likely desired, or the notoriety these cowards so often crave, thanks to the quick response of a law enforcement officer who was already on scene. The officer engaged the attacker and stopped the threat.

This incident proves, just as did the Arapahoe High School shooting in Centennial, Colorado in 2013 and the Madison Jr./Sr. High School shooting in Butler Co., Ohio earlier this year, having an armed presence on the scene when the attack begins can drastically reduce the attacker’s ability to carry out his plans.

Not every school district can afford to employ officers at every event. But let’s not let money be a barrier that keeps us from protecting our kids.

Click here to visit the website of Buckeye Firearms Foundation’s FASTER Saves Lives program – the groundbreaking, nonprofit program that gives educators practical violence response training. Classes are provided at NO COST to your school district.

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

School “Active Killer” Training Offered to Ohio Law Enforcement

COLUMBUS, OH – The Buckeye Firearms Foundation has announced its first Law Enforcement only “active killer” training class to be held on June 25 and 26, 2016, hosted by a west central Ohio school district.

The additional of this new class highlights the significant growth of the FASTER Saves Lives program just since the start of 2016. This training is being offered at no cost to any law enforcement officer, school resource officer, sheriff or other first responder who wants to attend.

“If an active killer event occurs in a school, business or church, the one thing we know for certain is that police response is coming. We are offering this entire weekend of training to give these outside first responders access to the best training available.” said Brad Birchfield, FASTER Program Director.

“Many law enforcement departments simply cannot afford to provide specific active killer training to a large part of their officers. The Buckeye Firearms Foundation wants to make sure that any officer who wants this training has the opportunity to get it.”

This weekend-long training event will be conducted by John Benner’s instructors from Tactical Defense Institute, based in West Union, Ohio. The training will cover details on the history of past active killer events; tactics for effectively, quickly and safely stopping active killers; emergency trauma self-care and buddy-care; and hours of force-on-force decision-making practice in a school environment.

Interested first responders should email or phone FASTER Program Director Joe Eaton to reserve their spot in this training class. Email: Joe@FASTERSavesLives.org or Phone: 513-267-6088.

The FASTER Saves Lives program ended 2015 having trained more than 450 school teachers and administrators from over 150 Ohio districts in just 3 years. Less than three months into 2016, demand for this training has been so intense, the Buckeye Firearms Foundation has been forced to grow the program and budget by 60%.

FASTER Saves Lives now has six Level 1 classes and one Level 2 class scheduled for 2016 with four of these six classes already filled.

FASTER Program Director Joe Eaton said, “We are seeing entire counties getting involved in this program. In February, we had one Ohio sheriff department inform us they have four additional school districts from their county who are authorizing staff to carry in their school and need to start the FASTER training program.”

Before the end of 2016, this program will have trained almost 700 school staff from over 7 different states. In 2016, FASTER has school personnel traveling from as far away as Oklahoma to participate.

Any school or police department wanting to ensure a place in any of the 2016 classes needs to act now before all the current spots are filled. More information is available at www.FASTERSavesLives.org.

Headline: “Columbine survivor, now a lawmaker, pushes to legalize guns in schools”

USA Today reported recently that Colorado State Rep. Patrick Neville, a survivor of the Columbine High School shooting, has introduced a bill that would allow guns in Colorado schools.

According to the article, Neville was a student at Columbine on April 20, 1999, when two peers opened fire, killing 13 people.

From the article:

“The only thing that is going to stop murderers intent on doing harm is to give good people the legal authority to carry a gun to protect themselves and our children,” Neville said in a statement, according to The Hill.

“More of my friends would still be alive today.”

The bill put forward by Neville, a Republican, would let teachers with concealed weapons permits carry guns at the state's schools in an attempt to halt future shootings.

“Unfortunately, the current system continues to leave our children as sitting targets for criminals intent on doing harm,” he said.

As my friend Ron Borsch observes, “law enforcement is handicapped by “delayed notification time, call taking time, officer response time, entry time, locating the killer time in a typically huge facility, and dealing with the killer time.” 

At Columbine, the killers enjoyed more than three-quarters of an hour to conduct their murderous rampage. State Rep. Neville knows all too well that the when violence strikes and students’ lives are on the line, every second matters. Faster response is better response.

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

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones calls on people to demand armed presence in schools

Less than 24 hours after shots rang out in the cafeteria of Madison Jr./Sr. High School, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones took to the airwaves to discuss the events that transpired, and called upon parents and teachers to demand armed school resource officers or teachers.

During the interview, Jones said he that the school employs one uniformed school resource officer (SRO), and that the SRO had left the cafeteria minutes before this took place, and had left to go to the principle's office when the shooting began. Fighting the rush of fleeing students, he pushed his way back to the cafeteria. When he got there, the attacker fled. Sheriff Jones thinks he ran because he know the SRO arrived. 

“You'd better have a school resource officer in your schools. If you don't…parents, you should demand it. Teachers, you should demand it. …You'd better have security in the schools.”

The sheriff continued, “My school resource officer was there and prevented this from being worse, since the kid ran out the door [when the SRO arrived]. He didn't stay in and keep shooting. They were afraid of the police.

“We always think that the odds are so great that it won't happen to you, in your school. It always happens somewhere else. Believe me….you need to have a school resource officer or a teacher or someone trained with a gun.

“The simplest thing is to have a police officer in the school. The next best thing is to have a school teacher or a school administrator trained with a firearm.”

After discussing other facts abut the case, Jones looped back again to the subject of having an armed presence in schools.

“I'm telling you, school administrators and these parents, you've got to have an officer in your schools. And if your administration or your Board of Education says they don't need it, they got everything under control, they're enot telling you the truth. That's not true.  …They have to address this and I am not getting off this.”

Click here to listen to the 18 minute interview.

Click here to visit the website of Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives program – the groundbreaking, nonprofit program that gives educators practical violence response training. Classes are provided at NO COST to your school district.

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

Additional Information:

WCPO (ABC Cincinnati) – Madison school shooting re-ignites debate on armed teachers, resource officers

“Without the officer being there within nine seconds, we feel the shooter would have stayed and took his time. There would be more people shot,” Jones said.

“I’m telling school boards, ‘Shame on you for not addressing this issue. When you can have all the training in the world, this is an instance where you need to have law enforcement in your schools or somebody with a gun.”