Follow Up: More Teachers Want to Concealed Carry in School

As a follow up to one of our more popular posts, more and more teachers are seeking concealed carry permits in preparation and hope that states will allow teachers to carry a concealed handgun in school to protect themselves and their students as long as they meet some provisions. A handful of states already offer the choice to the school districts, to include Texas, Ohio, Utah, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Delaware, among others. Utah has allowed unrestricted concealed carry for teachers and administrators for over 12 years with no incidents. There are no data to show how many teachers or administrators take advantage of that allowance since the law actually prevents records from being kept on who is carrying, partly for privacy, partly so that would-be shooters cannot base their targets off of the knowledge of where they would encounter resistance.

On Thursday, December 27, 2012, 200 teachers took part in a day long training class covering handling of firearms, safety, state laws on the use of force and firearms, as well as federal firearms laws. The response and desire for the free class, which is normally $50, was overwhelming, but had to be capped at 200 due to space limitations. You wouldn't know that the class was that popular from reading the selected quotes from other teachers, lawyers, and union reps from other states who didn't even take the training, reported by CNN, NBC, and Reuters. At lease USA Today maintained some balance on the issue, including a quote from Clark Aposhian, the tactical firearms instructor who gave the course, which makes perfect sense: 

"Teachers are professionals. They will take appropriate measures to maintain a gun discreetly and safely. [Gun-toting teachers are] a deterrent when the bad guy comes in. He could be surprised by return fire from any direction. We are not expecting teachers to go out and actively engage the shooter. We want them to do the lockdown drill they have been trained to do. But it fails when someone breaks into a classroom. This is where having a firearm would be a better choice than diving in front of the bullets to protect the kids."

While not all teachers were completely on board and some were on the fence, they were at least willing to get the education before jumping to conclusions. One substitute teacher said, "The sooner these gunmen ... face opposition, the sooner the carnage will stop. If I was a parent, I'd be OK with it as long as the people carrying the weapons were prepared, responsible and knew what they were doing."