Amid an epidemic of school shootings, some teachers are being trained to shoot back
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Long article & good read. If teachers are going to be armed, this is probably what training needs to be....
"....Crowley is an Army veteran, a federally certified firearms instructor, sniper instructor and Missouri Sheriffs’ Association Training Academy instructor. He knows the starting point for some of the teachers.
“Zero,” he said. “So it’s absolutely ground floor — stance, grip, sight alignment, trigger manipulation.”
But on a scale to 100, he said, his students will be shooting at 90 to 95 by the end of the week. If not 90 percent, they don’t graduate and the district will have to send someone else.
At the recent session, an elementary teacher struggled. Her eyes were tearing up, and she repeatedly had to run up a hill as punishment for misses.
“She’s not going to make it,” Wehmer said. “She can’t handle the stress. And if she can’t handle it out here, what would she do in a real situation?”
The woman knew she was too slow.
“I have to stop thinking scenario so much and start shooting,” she said.
Training topics include weapons maintenance, threat identification, discretionary shooting, one-handed shooting, shooting while moving, barricade shooting and “the warrior mindset.”
Five hours are spent in the classroom and 35 hours on the range. The required firearm is the Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol.
“Concealable, easy to handle and it goes bang every time,” Crowley said.
“Combat accuracy,” added instructor Fred Long, a retired Missouri Highway Patrol trooper and former Army paratrooper.
On Thursday of the recent week, too many shots missed targets. Students forgot to take the evasive sidestep.
“This is Day Four! Step off the X!” instructor Jason Long yelled.
Crowley, clearly frustrated, glared at flubbers as they left to run up the hill.
“You boys are detracting from everybody else’s training,” he said.
Part of the school shooting scenarios include the arrival of law enforcement.
“Sheriff’s department! On the ground!” the officers shout as they barge onto the scene.
By that time, the teachers should have looped around their necks the yellow security sash they must carry at all times.
“What is your name?!” the officers yell. “Do you work here?! Are there other shooters?!”
Some of the teachers’ voices wobble as they respond with their hands up and their knees in the gravel. It’s about performing under pressure, Martin said. The same as putting the school shooter target in the middle of the kids.
“It adds to the stress,” Martin said. “But it makes them better.
“They can’t fail at this.”
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