NRA-certified instructor holds free concealed carry class for school employees

Editor's Note: The author's name is being withheld to protect the identities of the school officials involved in these classes.

As a service to the schools in my community, I decided to offer an Ohio Concealed Carry Class to any local school employee free of charge. I did not know what to expect or what the response would be. I put the word out with a few phone calls to teachers I knew who had mentioned, prior to this class, that they wanted to get the training. Before I knew it, my voicemail was full of messages and I had the biggest single CCW class I have ever taught.

I ended up with about 35 students, all concerned with school security and their ability to protect the innocent children whose lives were in their hands. It was obvious to them that no law could help them. The only thing that could was to train and learn to use the life-saving tool available to us all thanks to the Second Amendment.

While some would personify these devices composed of plastic and metal as evil, the teachers and school officials directly involved with the everyday task of keeping their students safe knew that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy or girl with one.

On the day of the class, everyone showed up ready to learn. They were very serious about taking in every piece of firearm safety I could share with them. I started the class by showing an excerpt from Lt. Col. David Grossman's The Bullet Proof Mind series. I also shared with them his website and the vast resources he has for schools. I am not an expert in these fields, but I could share with them information from people who are.

One thing they took away from the Grossman was one of his main focal points - Denial kills you twice. It kills you psychologically, when you believe that it could never happen to you, and then it kills you physically. I also reiterated his point that the arming of our teachers is not normal, and that they should never believe it is. Some speak out against teachers and school officials being able to have the life-saving tool they need, proclaiming that teachers should be carrying crayons and rulers. I could not agree more, and neither could my students. But, unfortunately, this is not the world we live in anymore. But once again, my students knew that this is not normal, and never to think that it is. We discussed how when I went to school there, I thought it was insane that they installed cameras.

I focused the class on gun safety and put them through rigorous exercises of loading and unloading many different types of firearms. Even if some of my students decided that they did not want to carry in schools, they should at least know how to make a firearm safe. What if a 7 year-old brought a gun to school with no evil intent, but just to show and tell? Teachers need this training so that they know what to do, and how to make the gun safe, while they proceed to follow the school guidelines for such situations.

After a long ten hours of classroom training and testing, we met the following Saturday for the live-fire portion on a private outdoor range. It was below freezing and I had them come in groups starting at 9am and ending at 6pm. Even through the cold and the rain and the mud and the snow, they all came, and they all put in their range time with no complaints. They knew that little lives were at stake and that our children are our future. It is our duty as adults to protect them by any and all means necessary. That includes arming our teachers and school employees.

I was given a lot of kudos for the class and I already have many other teachers ready to take my next one. I am going to do this again in the next few weeks. I encourage all certified instructors in Ohio to do this. Do a training session for teachers free of charge. You will be doing a great service to your community and you could help save lives - maybe even the lives of your own children.