First class for Buckeye Firearms Foundation-funded Armed Teachers Training Program held at Tactical Defense Institute

by Chad D. Baus

The first Armed Teachers Training Program class was conducted this week at Tactical Defense Institute in Adams County. The Columbus Dispatch has published the first coverage of the training, which was funded by Buckeye Firearms Foundation.

From the article:

Arming teachers in classrooms is the best way to stop more mass murders, said Jim Irvine, the president of the Buckeye Firearm Association.

"Gun control is purely political and has no place in this conversation," Irvine said. "It doesn't work."

This is why the Buckeye Firearm Foundation, a non-profit with the association, paid $30,000 for two dozen Ohio school teachers, administrators and maintenance workers to learn how to handle a gun should a shooter invade a school.

The group was chosen from more than 1,400 applicants to participate in the foundation's first ever Armed Teacher Training Program, organized after the December school shooting in a Connecticut school that took the lives of 20 children and 6 staff members.

The $30,000 went toward instruction from the Tactical Defense Institute in Adams County, catering, and hotel rooms during the past three days.

The Dispatch quotes John Benner, the owner of the Tactical Defense Institute, saying that the program started Monday, March 25, with classroom sessions and ended Wednesday the 27th with active killer training, which involves roll-playing scenarios based on real-life situations. In role play, the "good guys" use model air-soft guns to shoot other participants who are playing the "bad guys."

Again, from the article:

David Bowie, an instructor at the institute, said the pellets hurt, which raises everyone's stress levels and results in better responses in a more heightened reality.

Deanna, an elementary school teacher from Central Ohio who chose to speak to the Dispatch on the condition of anonymity to keep her participation in the program a secret, said the training will help her in a threatening situation.

"Tragedy wakes you up," she said.

Deanna said she doesn't know if she would have taken the training course had the Newtown massacre not occurred.

"Newtown could be any town. It could be my town."

The article went on to explain that participants were required to have a concealed handgun license to participate in the program.

Irvine is quoted as saying that some participants in the foundation's pilot program have permission from their school's board of education to carry in school, and that others will get it if they complete the program, that some are planning to convince their boards when the program is complete. The specific districts were not identified.

The article concludes with a quote from Irvine stating that the $30,000 price tag was well worth it, adding that "we don't put a price on kids' lives."

To support this program, click the donate button. Buckeye Firearms Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Donations to the Foundation are tax-deductible.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.

Additional Media Coverage:

Associated Press - OH educators train how to handle shooters (versions of this article have appeared in hundreds of news outlets across the country, including the New York Post and the Christian Science Monitor)

WBNS (CBS Columbus) -

WSYX (ABC Columbus) & WTTE (Fox Columbus) - Teachers Attend Gun Training in Ohio

ADAMS COUNTY -- Two dozen educators have gone through the first tactical gun training program for teachers in the country.

The three day program was offered by Buckeye Firearms during the ABC6 town hall on guns and school safety.

Buckeye Firearms spent $30,000 to send 24 out of 1400 applicants the Tactical Defense Institute in Adams county.

"You can not put a price on our kids lives. Training 24 out of 1400 is not a success it's not the last class this is the first class," said Buckeye Firearms Jim Irvine.

...Buckeye Firearms plans to hold fundraisers to send more teachers through the training. It is also working to come up with a curriculum for other states.