FoxNews.com and British newspaper The Daily Mail is informing its international audience of the success of Buckeye Firearms Foundation’s FASTER Saves Lives program.
From FoxNews.com:
Dozens of school districts in Ohio now allow teachers who have conceal-carry permits to pack heat on the job.
In several cases, boards of education have been pressed into adopting the policy by parents concerned about school shootings in the wake of the 2012 shooting at a school in Newtown, Conn. While an exact number of Buckeye State districts now allowing teachers to have guns in the classroom is not known, there are at least 40, according to Joe Eaton, director of FASTERsaveslives.org, a program affiliated with the Buckeye Firearms Foundation which sponsors training for teachers from the school districts,,
“The sad thing is that time is these situations in the most important factor,” Eaton said, “and waiting for outside help is just not a viable solution anymore.”
Fox News cites recent coverage from Cincinnati’s CBS affiliate, WKRC, noting that teachers who recently took part in the program are taught not only about gun safety and use, but were taught paramedic skills and how to react to active killer situations.
“Safety of our kids should not be a controversial issue. This is not about guns,” Jim Irvine, also with FASTERsaveslives.org and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, said. “For nearly 60 years, not one student has died from a fire. That is due to a redundant, overlapping approach to safety.
“We should be copying that same method for incidents of violence in our schools,” Irvine added. “You need something that is effective. Show us another method and we would invest in it.”
Chad Baus, of the Buckeye Firearms [Association], also stressed the importance of training educators in these skills.
“The single most important factor in active killer death toll is time,” he said in a statement to Foxnews.com. “The longer killers have their way in so-called ‘no-guns’ zones, the more people die. The sooner they are stopped, the fewer people die. It is really that simple.
“The importance of the decisions being made by these school districts to make sure that willing teachers and administrators have the proper tools to protect the children in their care cannot be overstated. Teachers will do anything for ‘their kids,’ including dying.”
The Fox News article goes on to document the safety plan that has been adopted by the 3,500-student Sidney, Ohio school district. In that district, Fox news reports nearly 40 teachers volunteered to be part of a first-response team, in which they were trained and provided with bulletproof vests as well as handguns.
“We learned that we may not stop a shooter from getting into the building. If they want to, they will find a way, but if they enter, we can stop them in seconds,” [Superintendent John] Scheu added.
Officials from FASTER say that school districts from at least five other states have reached out and expressed interest in the program.
For his part, Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told Fox News he finds efforts to protect our children from a mass slaughter like the one perpetrated in Paris last week “profoundly sad.”
The UK Daily Mail is also covering the news being made here in Ohio, noting that thousands of faculty who have concealed handgun licenses have also applied for the FASTER training, which teaches them how to stop a violent attack, as well as giving students first aid.
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.