ThinkProgress Upset Over Lack Of Training For Armed Teachers

Following Parkland, a lot of us felt the best option for protecting our children was to arm teachers. After all, many have bravely sacrificed their lives for the lives of their students. That kind of heroism is to be commended, but it should also be preserved. The best way to do that is to allow those brave teachers to have the means of potentially ending the attack, not just sacrifice their lives.

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That means a gun.

While the debate continues to rage on at the federal level, many states have made moves to arm teachers. One such state is Colorado, where local districts have the option.

Now, ThinkProgress is kvetching because they don’t like the way things are being done.

There are now at least nine states that allow teachers to arm guns. One of those states is Colorado, where 30 school districts and charter schools have given teachers the okay to bring firearms into classroom, according to the Denver Post. However, there is no statewide gun safety training standard for educators and no standard use-of-force policies, and such policies are left entirely to decisions of the individual school district.

In fact, it’s an insurance company, the Colorado School Districts Self Insurance Pool, coming up with the most regulated training and safety standards for armed educators. However, the insurance company does not disclose which school districts, charter schools, and teachers are actually allowed to bring guns into the schools.

Colorado law allows school boards to designate teachers and staff as school security officers that are allowed to carry concealed in the classroom without training. However, to be insured those districts and teachers need to meet some requirements. This includes, among others, 24 hours of firearm training over the past year, four hours of classroom instruction on firearms safety and use of deadly force, 14 hours of live fire range training exercises, six hours of school active shooter training, and the shooting range test police officers need to pass, according to the Denver Post.

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First, regarding the use-of-force rules, yes there are. It’s called “state law.” Teachers aren’t police officers, and as such, they don’t get policies on when to use force. They have laws regarding it. It’s fairly straightforward, and teachers should be held to precisely these standards.

As for training requirement, Colorado requires some verification of training in order to receive a concealed carry permit. They include military training within the last few years before the permit is issued, current military service, shooting competitions, or completion of a handgun course in the last ten years, among other requirements.

In other words, there is a training requirement in place for all concealed carry holders.

What ThinkProgress is upset about is that teachers aren’t undergoing some super-training that makes them uber special. Well, they’re not. Not in this regard, anyway. They’re armed citizens just like the rest of us. The only thing different is that they’re being permitted to carry at their place of work, a place which is ordinarily off-limits.

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That’s it. That’s all that’s different.

Not that some people can see that difference.

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