Teachers Flocking to Firearms Training Classes

Teachers Flocking to Firearms Training Classes
Two days after Christmas 200 school teachers in Salt Lake City, Utah, took a vacation day to take advantage of free training in the safe handling of firearms. Sponsored by the Utah Shooting Sports Council, the event usually attracts about 15 teachers. But more than 200 showed up this time, with many being turned away due to space limitations.
Clark Aposhian, head of the council, waived his usual $50 fee to honor the victims at Sandy Hook and to encourage participation by teachers who might face a similar threat in the future. Aposhian told NBC, "I genuinely felt depressed at how helpless those teachers were and those children were in Newton. It doesn't have to be that way."
His training gives teachers one more option in the event of a threat: “We’re not suggesting that teachers roam the halls” in search of armed intruders. “They should lock down the classroom. But a gun is one more option if [a] shooter breaks into the classroom.... This is where having a firearm would be a better choice than diving in front of the bullets to protect the kids.”
Upon completing the training, Kasey Hansen, a special ed teacher, told Reuters, “I feel like I would take a bullet for any student in the school.” But, "if we should ever face a shooter like the one in Connecticut, I’m fully prepared to respond with my firearm."
In Ohio the Buckeye Firearms Foundation received more than 400 applications from teachers and staff for its intensive three-day tactical defense course. As in Utah, the foundation is waiving its fee for the training, usually $1,000. Instead, the fee will be paid for by the foundation. Said Jim Irvine, the foundation’s president, told USA Today “What better use for an educational foundation than to help educators protect our children?”
In Broomfield, Colorado, a similar class sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) was oversubscribed as well. Dudley Brown, RMGO’s executive director, wrote that 300 teachers “braved snow … to attend the four hour course [which focused] on firearms safety and handling, and Colorado gun laws.” Brown said,

Colorado teachers have been breaking down our doors to receive firearms training…