A rural Colorado school district decided to allow its teachers and other school staff to carry guns on campus to protect students.
The Hanover School District 28 board voted 3-2 Wednesday night to allow school employees to volunteer to be armed on the job after undergoing training.
The district’s two schools serve about 270 students about 30 miles southeast of Colorado Springs, and it takes law enforcement an average of 20 minutes to get there. The district currently shares an armed school resource officer with four other school districts.
Board member Michael Lawson backed the idea not only as way to protect students from a mass shooting, but also as protection against possible violence connected with nearby marijuana grows, which he believes are connected with foreign cartels, the Gazette of Colorado Springs reported.
He said it will take months to work out the details and to train employees.
School board President Mark McPherson said a survey showed the community was split on the issue. While staffers would get some training, the retired Army officer said he didn’t think it would be enough to help them respond effectively to an active shooter. He worries what would happen if they fired and missed in a classroom.
“Our rooms are supposed to be locked and secure. We have cameras. We have a very vigilant staff,” he said. “We are authorizing teachers to pull a weapon and kill a human being, and I cannot support that.”
He said he is only aware of one marijuana growing operation within about 5 miles of the schools, and he thinks comments about cartel involvement in the area are just rumors at this point.
Some other school districts in Colorado as well as in Texas, Oklahoma and California have also backed allowing teachers to carry weapons following the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.
An undisclosed number of teachers and other employees at a one-school district in Colorado’s sparsely populated Eastern Plains are currently being trained after the school board approved the move in July largely out of concern for how long it would take law enforcement to respond.
All had concealed weapons permits and volunteered for the duty, Fleming School superintendent Steve McCracken said. They all must undergo an initial 46 hours of training, including live fire training, plus yearly training and undergo a psychological examination. The firearm training costs a total of $3,000, and the district will also have to spend an unknown amount of money to buy firearms and ammunition. But McCracken said that it still makes more financial sense than trying to hire an outside security officer to protect the school.
The latest Colorado vote came on the fourth anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre. McPherson said the proposal has been in the works since June and the timing of the final vote was coincidental.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
“…Army officer said he didn’t think it would be enough to help them respond effectively to an active shooter. He worries what would happen if they fired and missed in a classroom.”
I would rather take a chance an armed teacher has to take a shot and potentially hit a child than the alternative where the active shooter has as his goal to intentionally shoot and kill that child. History has shown when a good guy with a gun is added to the situation, the active shoot retreats and offs himself. Active shooters are indeed crazy to want to kill innocents, but still smart enough to chose gun free zones.
I would hope that any teacher, that wants to be armed, would get weapons trained before buying the weapon. I fully support the idea of teachers being armed to protect the children and themselves, as compared to the terrorists being the only person with a gun!
The bad guy goes for the soft targets and the good guy considers all potential targets but is driven to the bad target of aggression. More power to the trained teacher or school guard.
Finally some people are getting some smarts! Take down the sign on schools that say ” Gun Free Zone”. Train and Arm employees to shoot to kill every shooter that try to kill the students.
All of you anti gun people. Wake up time is the woe of the shooter. he does not want to get shot anything you can do to slow down his rant the better it is. Police will have more time to get to the scene.
FINALLY some ACTUAL “common sense”!
Whoa! What’s going on here? Pot is legal in Colorado, and one of the main reasons it was legalized was to end drug cartel involvement. Even if cartel involvement is just a rumor, how could such a rumor exist if pot is legal?
Don’t misunderstand me. Do you think a 12 year old can be trained to own a gun and ONLY use it responsibly? I’m not saying it can be done, I’m saying it HAS been done. Audie Murphy learned to use a gun at a very young age, by the time he was 12, he was effectively hunting to help feed his family after his father abandoned them. The Comanche Indians were a warring nation of “savages”. They grew up watching their braves and warriors hunt, fight, make weapons and live off the land. The started their training as braves at a very young age which also included killing, stealing, breeding, selling and riding horses. At the age of 10, braves were given their own horse to help them to grow and become warriors. How many of you out there trust your kids to care for and raise a dog or a cat? How many kids nowadays are responsible and knowledgable enough to do it? How many 10 year old kids are responsible enough to own and a modern day horse, a car or motorcycle? How old were Spartan children when they were taken from their mothers to begin their long training as the Spartan warriors we still respect today? Read about (Sgt) Alvin York and how he grew up. I am NOT saying we should arm every school kid, do NOT misunderstand me, I am saying we can teach our children better and raise bright, intelligent, sensible and responsible adults. **** Facebook, **** the Kardashians, **** the liberal media bias and Hollywood! Educate your kids and raise them right! God bless America!
JUST WHAT DOES YOUR RANT HAVE TO DO WITH THIS ARTICLE ?
The statement is clear, the right to bear arms and being responsible in doing so. To teach our young how to act properly if and when they are armed, not to pull it out on someone for anything other than self defense, it is a tool guaranteed under the Second Amendment that was not meant to be infringed upon, no matter how many laws the government passes, no matter how much fear mongering takes place.
The bottom line being that it is the right of every American to bear arms in their self defense and to be responsible in doing so. A perfect example would be someone living in a crime riddled neighborhood that has already served time and has been released.
Upon their release they are sent to the same crime ridden neighborhoods where just about every criminal not only has a gun but in most cases has a long criminal record. Their right to defend themselves in accordance with the Second Amendment affords them that right, but fear mongers and a power hungry government restricted those rights that they never had the right to infringe upon on in the first place. There are proper ways to make changes to the Constitution, fear mongering was not one of them.
I am guessing that he longs for the time when youngsters were raised to be responsible people from a very young age. I long for that, too. I was raised that way myself. Three of my nine grandchildren are very responsible. Unfortunately, the other six are brats that only think of themselves and what they want and throw big fits if they don’t get it. I had hoped they would turn out to be better people and pray for that to happen still.
I got my first gun at 10 yrs. My Christmas present that year. I was taught the 10 commandments of Gun Safety and let go into the world and never harmed anyone, so far and I am now 68 yrs. So it can happen.
Having lived with a teacher for over 50 years, I know that they would very willing to pay for the cost of the class and be real happy if the district ponyed half of the fee.
As far as the district buying guns and ammo. Any teacher that signs up to protects the students will have his/her own weapon. So buying guns is not on the table. Trained weapon carriers ,train with the weapon they carry. Would be money well spent if the district chipped in every three months with a couple boxes of ammo per the volunteer for their on going training.
I carry the best weapon I own, for I know it will get the job done when the situation arrives and I know these volunteers will do the same.
Frontsight has professional firearms training that exceeds that of police. Send the teachers there.
Agreed Frontsight is a Great Training Facility. I attended a 1 week handgun defense course. Excellent Training beside Soldiers, Police, State Police, FBI and other agencies. This is a NO BS Training course. 800 Rounds in 4.5 days, Plus Classroom. A solid packed course. Well worth the price. Great and Very knowledgeable instructors.
If they are not sane enough to be trusted with a gun, what makes you think that they are sane enough to be entrusted with the control of your kids? If they are not sane enough to be able to have a gun, they are not sane enough to be entrusted with the care of my kids.
Who decides who is and isn’t sane? What qualifies one’s sanity or insanity? A hundred years ago a lot of what takes place today would be considered insane.
More like protect themselves from the students. When will people understand that the Second Amendment was for all Americans and there where to be no restrictions. Just stiff penalties for those who commit crimes with a gun, but not the loss of those rights after time was served. That is how it was from the inception, but due to fear mongering and control it was restricted and in so doing infringed upon the rights of Americans which is in direct violation of the Second Amendment. All the government has to do is label an individual or a group undesirable to restrict their rights to bear arms.
i went fishing when i was about 14 years old and left my dads gun in the boat my friend bought it to school the next day the principal told me to put it behind the door in science room and take it home that evening that is what i did took it home on school bus that evening no reason to get alarmed i had no intention of using it cause had no shells took them home the night before my point is it not who has gun it who wants to harm others