Re: Gun Control - Should Ordinary Citizens Own, Carry, & Use Firearms?
Reply #1447 –
Colorado’s rural schools arming themselves against
danger, long response times
Source: THE DENVER POST Teachers and staff members in at least a dozen of Colorado’s most remote school districts are arming themselves instead of waiting for local law enforcement to rescue them in the face of a Columbine-style attack.
Those districts have employees carry concealed weapons, train like law officers and then be the first line of security should a school or classroom be targeted by assault.
Colorado law prohibits firearms in the classroom but does allow for security personnel to be armed. These smaller districts, fearing their vulnerability because of their far-flung locations, are training and reclassifying some teachers and staff as security personnel and overseeing the safe storage of their weapons.
The districts say they do so because hiring a security guard can cost more than a teacher’s salary. They also are not relying on the local sheriff’s department for help, where it could take a deputy 60 minutes to get to the front door.
“There’s a bunch of us out here in a kind of no-man’s land,” said Rick Mondt, superintendent for the Briggsdale School District in northeast Weld County.
A bill sponsored by Colorado Senate Majority Leader Chris Holbert, a Parker Republican, will allow a county sheriff to provide a handgun-safety training course to any employee of any public school who also possesses a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Under Senate Bill 5, which had its first hearing Tuesday, county sheriffs would consult with school boards to develop a curriculum for the courses.
The bill also says that someone employed by the school district and who carries a valid conceal-carry permit can carry a concealed handgun onto school grounds, if they have received permission from the local school board.
Training courses for teachers and other staff members are minimal in some cases, Holbert said, adding that his bill will establish and bolster training standards for armed school security.
“This is not a gun bill, but a training bill,” Holbert said.
The bill’s hearing drew both pro-gun and anti-gun speakers before passing 3-2 along a party-line vote. The majority Republicans supported the measure, which now moves to the full Senate.
Critics said the bill repeats the dangerous myth that more gun training will turn English teachers and custodians into experts at close-quarter combat.
“I am going to be a kindergarten teacher and I don’t want to worry about a gun in my possession or one of my colleagues having a gun in their possession,” said Carly Dougherty, whose aunt was killed during the assault at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
But the bill’s proponents said having school staff members take gun training will discourage someone from targeting a classroom.
“My office is always fielding phone calls from schools and teachers who want to know how they can make the next angry, young man rethink his next move,” said Dudley Brown, head of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
The districts with the policies say they are requiring the type of training routinely required of deputies and police officers.
“People think we are just offering up guns for anybody on our staff to use, and that is not the case,” said Randy Underwood, a member of the Hanover School District school board in eastern El Paso County.
Hanover, which boasts an enrollment of 270 students, is now hammering out its policy that security will be provided by staff members with a conceal-carry permit who undergo annual training that meets school insurability standards.
Underwood voices the thoughts of rural school officials who say even the hint that some school personnel are willing to draw weapons to secure the safety of students will make a prospective attacker think twice before acting.
This is just the beginning. "Gun Free Zones" are magnets for deranged criminals wishing to commit heinous crimes without the fear of any armed opposition, because as we know "good guys obey the law", so if it's a "Gun Free Zone" nobody will be carrying firearms...right?
[glow=black,2,300]Well think again asshole!!!!! [/glow]