Kasey Hansen, a special education teacher from Salt
Lake City, Utah, says she would take a bullet for any of her students, but if
faced with a gunman threatening her class, she would rather be able to shoot
back. Dec.
27, 2012: Clark Aposhian, President of Utah Shooting Sport Council,
demonstrates with a plastic gun during concealed-weapons training for 200 Utah
teachers.
SALT LAKE CITY –
Gun-rights advocates in Utah offered six hours of training Thursday in
handling concealed weapons for hundreds of Utah teachers in the wake of the
massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.
The latest effort to arm teachers to confront school assailants was organized
by the Utah Shooting Sports Council, which hosted the training session to help
educators become eligible for concealed firearm permits, FOX 13 News reported.
More than 200 teachers flocked to the training class in the Salt Lake City suburb
of West Valley City. Raye Ann Blauer, a kindergarten teacher, told FOX 13 she
is considering using her permit to carry a firearm at school.
“[A]fter everything that happened in Connecticut, I want to be aware of how I
can help in the classroom and protect my kids and whatnot. Be aware,” Blauer
said. “I think it’s really smart. Especially with everything that’s happened
lately.” English teacher Kevin
Leatherbarrow holds a license to carry a concealed weapon and doesn't see
anything wrong with arming teachers in the aftermath of the deadly Connecticut
school shooting.
"We're sitting ducks," said Leatherbarrow, who works at a Utah
charter school. "You don't have a chance in hell. You're dead -- no ifs,
ands or buts."
In Ohio, a firearms group said it was launching a test program in tactical
firearms training for 24 teachers. The Arizona attorney general is proposing a
change to state law to allow an educator in each school to carry a gun.
The moves come after the National Rifle Association proposed placing an armed
officer at each of the nation's schools after a gunman on Dec. 14 killed 20
children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
There are already police officers in some of the nation's schools. Parents and
educators, however, have questioned how safe the NRA proposal would keep kids,
whether it would be economically feasible and how it would alter student life.
Some educators say it is dangerous to allow guns. Among the dangers are
teachers being overpowered for their weapons or students getting them and
accidentally or purposely shooting classmates.
"It's a terrible idea," said Carol Lear, a chief lawyer for the Utah
Office of Education. "It's a horrible, terrible, no-good, rotten
idea." Utah educators say they would ban guns if they could, but
legislators left them with no choice. State law forbids schools, districts or
college campuses from imposing their own gun restrictions.
Educators say they have no way of knowing how many teachers are armed.
Gun-rights advocates estimate 1 percent of Utah teachers, or 240, are licensed
to carry concealed weapons. It's not known how many do so at school.
Gun-rights advocates say teachers can act more quickly than law enforcement in
the critical first few minutes to protect children from the kind of deadly
shooting that took place in Connecticut.
"We're not
suggesting that teachers roam the halls" for an armed intruder, said Clark
Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, the state's leading gun
lobby. "They should lock down the classroom. But a gun is one more option
if the shooter" breaks into a classroom, he said.
The council said it
would waive its $50 fee for the training. Instruction will feature plastic guns
and a major emphasis will be for people who are facing deadly threats to
announce they have a gun and retreat or take cover before trying to shoot, he
said.
"Mass shootings
may still be rare, but that doesn't help you when the monster comes
in." At the class, teachers offered their fingerprints for a permit
as an instructor in the "psychology of mass violence" kicked off the
gun class.
"I just bought a
bra holster," said Jessica Fiveash, a 32-year-old Utah teacher and wife of
a retired Army sergeant who grew up shooting and said she had no hesitation
packing a gun at school. "Women can't really carry a gun on their
hip."
Utah is among few
states that let people carry licensed concealed weapons into public schools
without exception, the National Conference of State Legislatures says in a 2012
compendium of state gun laws.
Leatherbarrow said he
often felt threatened while working at an inner-city school in Buffalo, N.Y.,
where he got a license to carry a pistol. He moved less than a year ago to
Utah, where he feels safer.
But he said gun
violence can break out anywhere. He said he was highly trained in handling guns
-- and was taking criticism from parents who don't appreciate his views on
school safety.
"I'm in agreement not everybody should be carrying firearms in school.
They're not trained. But for some parents to think we're cowboys, that
frustrates me," he said. "I wish parents would understand."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
