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Nearly 200 Utah Teachers, School Workers Attend Free Concealed Weapons Class

Dec. 27, 2012 8:00pm Jason Howerton

WEST VALLEY CITY, UT – DECEMBER 27: Firearm instructor Clark Aposhian teaches a concealed-weapons training class to 200 Utah teachers on December 27, 2012 in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council said it would waive its $50 fee for concealed-weapons training for Utah teachers. Credit: Getty Images

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (TheBlaze/AP) — Jessica Fiveash sees nothing wrong with arming teachers. She’s one herself, and learned Thursday how to safely use her 9 mm Ruger with a laser sight.

“If we have the ability to stop something, we should do it,” said the elementary school teacher, who along with nearly 200 other teachers in Utah took six hours of free gun training offered by the state’s leading gun lobby.

It is among the latest efforts to arm or train teachers to confront assailants after a gunman killed his mother and then went on a rampage through Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children and six adults before killing himself.

In Ohio, a firearms group said it was launching a test program in tactical firearms training for 24 teachers. In Arizona, the attorney general is proposing a change to state law that would allow an educator in each school to carry a gun.

The moves to train teachers come after the National Rifle Association proposed placing an armed officer at each of the nation’s schools, though some schools already have police officers. Parents and educators have questioned how safe the proposal would keep kids and whether it would be economically feasible.

Some educators say guns shouldn’t be allowed on school campuses. Among the potential dangers they point to 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.”

Kristen Rand, the legislative director for the Violence Policy Center, a gun control advocacy organization, said to believe that a “teacher would be successful in stopping someone who has made the decision to engage in a shootout is just not rationale.”

“No teacher is ever going to be as effective as a trained law enforcement officer,” Rand said. Even trained police officers don’t always hit their targets, and arming teachers could put innocent students at risk of crossfire, she said.

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. They emphasized the importance of reacting appropriately under pressure.

“We’re not suggesting that teachers roam the halls” looking for an armed intruder, said Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, the state’s biggest gun lobby. “They should lock down the classroom. But a gun is one more option if the shooter” breaks into a classroom.

WEST VALLEY CITY, UT – DECEMBER 27: With a handgun on his side, firearm instructor Clark Aposhian teaches a concealed-weapons training class to 200 Utah teachers on December 27, 2012 in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council said it would waive its $50 fee for concealed-weapons training for Utah teachers. Credit: Getty Images

WEST VALLEY CITY, UT – DECEMBER 27: Joanna Baginska (R), a fourth grade teacher at Odyssey Charter School in American Fork, Utah is shown how to handle a 40 cal. Sig Sauer by firearm instructor Clark Aposhian at a concealed-weapons training class to 200 Utah teachers on December 27, 2012 in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council said it would waive its $50 fee for concealed-weapons training for Utah teachers. Credit: Getty Images

The group waived its $50 fee for the training. Instruction featured plastic guns and emphasized that people facing deadly threats should announce or show their gun and take cover before trying to shoot. They cautioned teachers about the liability that comes with packing a gun in public.

“It’s going to be a hassle. It’s another responsibility. You can’t just leave your gun lying around,” Aposhian said. “Not for a minute.”

The teachers at the basic gun training applied for a concealed-weapons permit, submitting fingerprints and a mug shot for a criminal background check. The class kicked off as an instructor in the “psychology of mass violence” offered various tactics to disrupt an assailant.

The first, the instructor said, was to start with the command: “Stop right there!”

“I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot if the danger was immediate,” said Fiveash, adding that her laser sight would make shooting in tight quarters safer.

English teacher Kevin 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.

Leatherbarrow 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.”

In the U.S., the number of homicides at schools of children, ages 5-18, have been lower year-by-year in the 2000s than they were in the mid- to late-1990s, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report on school crime released in 2012. At 32 deaths, the 2006-2007 school year was the only one that reached the levels from the 1990s. The manner of death was not listed.

Utah is among a 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.

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.

“I never felt threatened in 14 years of teaching, but I don’t think you can be too prepared,” said Tiffany Parry, a dance teacher in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy who applied for Thursday for a license to carry a concealed gun. “I think it could come in handy.”

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (142)

skippy6
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:32pm
If you’re gonna shoot,shoot don’t talk…..That’s what you call a well educated militia…

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- WATER-THE-TREE
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:39pm
  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOwwwwweeeeeeeooooooowwweeeeeeeooooooooooo, WWAAAAAH WWAAAAAH WWWAAAAAAH!
  
  Report this comment
- WATER-THE-TREE
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 12:02am
  Sorry about that first site that is the wrong one! Try this
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-rHdSWZLpQ&feature=related
  
  Report this comment
- muffythetuffy
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 1:39am
  A FEDERAL LAW MANDATING THIS IN EVERY STATE MUST BE PASSED IN NEXT CONGRESS
  
  One of the requirements to teach would be to know how to protect little school kids in the classroom against assassins. The Department of Education must be compelled to enforce this requirement. School districts refusing to participate loose all of their Federal dollars.
  
  NO MORE PILES OF DEAD SCHOOL KIDS
  
  Report this comment
- Gorp
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 3:22am
  This is a fantastic version of the song too: http://8nz.9c.sl.pt
  
  Report this comment
- MittensKittens
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 7:15am
  It’s too late now, we’ve gone too far down the road to turn it around…we are now into the 2nd generation of kids with no morals. Time to shake out the rug and start over!
  
  Report this comment
- poorrichard09
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 8:15am
  Wow! Interesting how all the gun hater groups HATE the idea of arming properly trained teachers! It’s because they know it will WORK! We’ve tried everything but this, so why not give it a try?
  
  Report this comment
- valiant1776
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 7:58pm
  “Kristen Rand, the legislative director for the Violence Policy Center, a gun control advocacy organization, said to believe that a “teacher would be successful in stopping someone who has made the decision to engage in a shootout is just not rationale.”
  
  “No teacher is ever going to be as effective as a trained law enforcement officer,” Rand said. Even trained police officers don’t always hit their targets, and arming teachers could put innocent students at risk of crossfire, she said.”
  
  Idiots, all of them.
  
  So, they would rather that defenseless teachers and school children wait for the police while an armed maniac in school faces no real opposition? Isn’t that what happened in Newtown?
  
  Report this comment
- WATER-THE-TREE
  Posted on December 29, 2012 at 5:08am
  VALIANT1776 — crossfire is better than fire coming from only ONE direction, when it come from one direction it is not a CHANCE that ONE or TWO might get injured, but ALL (26) will be dead . Your argument has more holes than a sieve!
  
  Report this comment
- WATER-THE-TREE
  Posted on December 29, 2012 at 5:10am
  VALIANT1776 — SORRY that was supposed to read THEIR not YOUR argument.
  
  Report this comment
- banjarmon
  Posted on December 29, 2012 at 4:50pm
  Arm NON-UNION Teachers…They are more responsible to the education and safety of the kids!!!!
  Union people are only concerned about their pay checks and tenure!
  
  Report this comment
Charbet
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:30pm
I am sorry our society has come to this, but, I believe the students will be safer.

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- SageInWaiting
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 12:04am
  Agreed. CCP training is not enough for teachers, I would hope that they would also get tactical training: situational awareness; target identification under pressure; careful definition of their roles in such a school situation – the focus on protecting the students in their care. In what situation do they actively confront a shooter and when do they act solely defensively?
  
  In high school I had an ex-Marine gym/weight coach… I wouldn’t mess with him if he were unarmed. Are there special roles for people like him who had tactical training and experience? Arming teachers may not be enough but it can be a start.
  
  When comparisons are made with Israel, remember that the majority of those teachers born in the land have completed their tour in the military and are well trained. Arming teachers there may not be the same as doing it here… but it IS a start. The key is “stealth” – CONCEALED carry. The students shouldn’t know who’s armed, for the protection of those teachers and their weapons.
  
  Report this comment
- NeoFan
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 12:29am
  An armed society is a polite society. The students knowing the teachers are armed may show a bit more respect.
  
  Report this comment
- 1TrueOne55
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 1:56am
  I agree with Sageinwaiting. If your going to put firearms in the hands of teachers then you have to also train them for the stress and responsibility of shooting at another human since it is a somewhat unnatural act, the taking of an-others life no matter what evil they intended.
  
  It was reported in Portland Ore. that a concealed carry citizen is what really stopped the shooting but not like the gun grabbers would like to think. He pulled his pistol from its holster and pointed it at the shooter, but his training kept him from firing since there were innocent shoppers on the other side. But when the shooter saw he had a gun that is when he shot himself and died.
  
  And maybe just maybe if one of the people at Sandy Hook School had pointed a gun sooner at the shooter he might not have killed as many as he was allowed to do because he was the only one with a weapon.
  
  Report this comment
- Fubared
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 8:49am
  What Sage said. But. How do you rectify issues in districts like Camden, Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, Miami, DC, Baltimore ,etc? A supplement to teachers will be needed or the nice little kiddies will just rob them of their irons while they’re smoking and drinking vodka/chamomile in the teacher’s lounge.
  
  Report this comment
- Derek01
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 9:01am
  You shouldn’t be sorry. The problem is once again liberals. They hate guns and the only thing they hate more than that is having to admit they were wrong. No longer will they be able demonize guns because now guns are “protecting the children”. They will have to talk about personal responsibility, and other issues that go against their liberal philosophy. So you see why this is driving liberals up the wall
  
  Report this comment
- Twinspeedr
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 10:50am
  The average teacher should to be trained with an absolute minimum 1 week basic handgun security and tactics course and a full day refresher every 6 months including 4-6 hours of range time to be qualified for to carry a firearm in a school setting. This should culminate in a real qualification practical exam. This is not something to take lightly.
  
  Report this comment
- Izzy383
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 11:23am
  hmmmm…..240 teachers with CCL. But where are all these “wild west shootouts” we’ve been warned about?
  
  Report this comment
- JonSigMan
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 3:48pm
  on TV & in the movies, right where they’ve always been…….
  
  Report this comment
GuruMeditation
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:26pm
Fine business.

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- Marine 1
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 10:20pm
  This should of happened a long time ago. Good to see the people of Utah taking point in this matter.
  
  This should also be a message to Comrade Feinstein and her troop of fools regarding OUR take on the guns rights issue.
  
  Hey, Comrade Feinstein…if you can’t see the writing on this wall it’s because you are part of the problem and not the solution. You are scared to death of the 100+ million gunowners and we know it.
  
  100 Senators – 435 Reps…100 million gunowners. Tell me Feinstein, you communist pig of a senator, who has the real power?
  
  We will ignore you the way you have ignored the U.S. Constitution and U.S. We are tired of your foolishness, lies, and waste of OUR money.
  
  Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way so real leaders can save this country and our Constitution.
- MetalPatriot
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:25pm
  Excellent post Marine
  
  I try to see both sides: “A teacher can be over-powered and the weapon taken away.”
  
  However, my response would be that the perpetrator is likely already armed and/or has the intent to do harm, so why not have a chance at protection?
  
  I can even go so far as to imagine that if having armed security could lead to a police state if the government is paying for it.
  
  Nonetheless, I appreciate the NRA’s program initiative and believe it to be light years more responsible than gun bans and confiscation schemes that only affect law abiding citizens. It seems nobody in office believes that gangs/criminals don’t register their weapons. Nor do they seem to believe that government has become so over-reaching that it mimicks the same King George regime our Founders resisted, fought, and overcome.
  
  Report this comment
- Uranium Wedge
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:38pm
  And lets not forget, Feinstein has a concealed weapons permit.
  
  Report this comment
DESERT RAT 121
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:15pm
Having been involved and teaching firearms safety, I can only guess that the instructor was demonstrating the difference between a single action revolver and a double action revolver (with a teaching aid), Even if that was the case I would have removed the cylinder. Empty guns kill too many people every year.

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:11pm
God bless these teachers, who are taking the time to learn how to protect their students.

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marybethelizabeth
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:05pm
We don’t have the money to be paying for this.

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- The-Monk
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:10pm
  Hope you had a Merry Christmas BaryMethElizardeth. : )
  
  Report this comment
- DadRocked
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:12pm
  There is little money to pay for anything…
  Your point is…?
  
  Report this comment
- LeadNotFollow
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:17pm
  What a heartless, un-American thing to say.
  
  Report this comment
- 8YRSOFHELL
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:19pm
  It’s a free class stummer Esel!!!!!
  
  Report this comment
- Banter
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:21pm
  But we do for free condoms, birth control, obamaphones, obamacare, and anything else the freeloaders can loot from the treasury. But arming teachers, a Constitutional right, we can’t afford.
  
  You really are an idiot.
  
  Report this comment
- R1dd1ck
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:28pm
  The class is being given by a private organization. They usually charge people 50 dollars to get the lessons and training for a permit. So there are no tax payer dollars going towards this. Do more research instead of writing up an inane post on something you haven’t a clue about.
  
  Report this comment
- J.C. McGlynn
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:14pm
  Being taught for free. Free range time. Teachers buying their own gun. And taxpayers can’t afford it?
  
  Report this comment
- WATER-THE-TREE
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:41pm
  Since when is a Bammy leghumper worried about money???
  
  Report this comment
- abyrd
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 12:02am
  it was a free class…free costs nothing.
  
  Report this comment
- darkknight91
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 12:38am
  We’ll take it from the food stamps program. It’s cool.
  
  Report this comment
- stephenb0
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 1:01am
  You are saying we don’t have the money to keep our kids safe?
  
  Report this comment
- Quiata
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 8:55am
  @BaryMethElizardeth (thanks, Monk! ha ha) “We don’t have the money to be paying for this”
  
  Wow, that’s a new phrase coming out of a left-wing statist’s mouth. Since when are you drawing the line on budgetary issues?
  
  Report this comment
- Fubared
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 8:55am
  Poor, poor, MBE. Stop stealing all the free condoms MBE, they are for middle schoolers.
  
  Report this comment
- Zipit
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 9:42am
  MARYMETH! Simple, do away with, free breakfast, free lunch, free snacks, free summertime lunch programs!!! Considering obesity is the greatest problem affecting our countries impoverished youth, it would be a win, win!
  
  Report this comment
- Dismayed Veteran
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 9:51am
  MaryE
  
  Are you a parent? How will you react if your child was gunned down in school? Will you be glad that no teacher had a weapon to stop the shooter?
  
  Report this comment
- Fubared
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 10:43am
  We don’t have the time to be paying attention to the MBE’s among us.
  
  Report this comment
Voice1percent
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:02pm
OOpps, looks like the NWO the US government and moosslims will have a harder time taking over Utah.

Honey! lets pack up the camper we moving to Utah!

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DadRocked
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:01pm
“No teacher is ever going to be as effective as a trained law enforcement officer,” Rand said.
BULL CRAP, as an former 18yr badge wearing, weapon carrier I say have them be range qualified on at least a quarterly basis. We had monthly qualifications at 10, 20, 25 and 30yds. Hell that was back when we used a S&W .38 158g revolver…

“Even trained police officers don’t always hit their targets”
BULL CRAP, at those distances, I always did…

“…and arming teachers could put innocent students at risk of crossfire”, she said.
THESE days, don’t they always have a lockdown procedure in place?

Just saying…

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- fedupcitizen2012
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 10:09pm
  GO UTAH!!!! How is “risk of crossfire” worse than direct fire? What idiots. Finally a state implementing common sense. GO UTAH!
  
  Report this comment
- J.C. McGlynn
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:16pm
  If you did hit all your targets you did better than most of the Phila. PD.
  
  Report this comment
- FesteAinoriba
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:42pm
  The Air Force’s “Active Shooter” situation training tells air force employees to hide, block doors, and if all else fails, to throw things at an active shooter. Every year when I undergo this mandatory online “training”, I wonder why the last resort isn’t to pull out my concealed weapon and shoot the active shooter? Why is any employer allowed to make employment conditional upon surrendering your Constitutional rights. Forcing teachers, or anyone for that matter, to surrender their constitutional right to bear arms as they cross the threshold into a public facility is a crime against the Constitution and against the citizens themselves. Gun control advocates who use instruments of power to disarm citizens are guilty of the innocent blood spilt by madmen who could have and would have been stopped much sooner had principals and teachers been armed.
  I think any employer who disarms his employees as a condition of employment takes on himself the legal, ethical and moral responsibility to ensure that no active shooter can access the workplace. Of course that is impossible, and that is why nobody, state agencies included, should even consider the feckless policy of putting people into a position of vulnerability and defenselessness. It is not gun owners who are responsible for violence against disarmed teachers – it is those who disarm them and leave them defenseless.
  
  Report this comment
mkb22
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:58pm
It’s just too bad they didn’t get an instructor that knows you don’t put your finger on the trigger unless you’re intending to fire. Or maybe he was intending to shoot a hole in the ceiling?

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- DadRocked
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:03pm
  From my view, neither finger is engaged and is on the trigger guard.
  
  Report this comment
- 000degrees
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:13pm
  you are an idiot
  
  Report this comment
Chuck Stein
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:54pm
Glad that some folks are taking affirmative action to address school shootings. I am all for his affirmative action.

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- rawmilker
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:44pm
  Well said Marine1 & LORDCHAMP. Please, more states need to follow up with this weapons training. Show Fienstine & the rest of the gun grabbers that we are going to take our childrens protection seriously.
  
  That evil commie & her band or authoritarians need to sit down, shut up and do their job of working for us, not trying to dictate tyranny to us.
  
  Keep pushing people…PUSH BACK HARD! GO UTAH!!
  
  Report this comment
Mr.Crisp
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:53pm
Most of these mass shooting have occurred on gun free zones. These zones obviously do not work and only make the innocent more vulnerable. God bless these teachers. I hope they never have to use a firearm but at least they have piece of mind.

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californiakhg
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:49pm
GO UTAH GO……..Arming well trained teachers is THE IMMEDIATE SOLUTION.

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- DadRocked
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:03pm
  Concur
  
  Report this comment
- Quiata
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 9:00am
  Thumbs up.
  
  Report this comment
- 7munchkins
  Posted on December 28, 2012 at 3:27pm
  Nice thing is that this is not a solution to the current discussion and liberal hype. We’ve been able to open or conceal carry on any public school campus since the Utah Supreme Court decided this issue for us years ago.
  
  Report this comment
banjarmon
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:27pm
An Armed teacher is SECONDS away when the Police are minutes away!!

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- DadRocked
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:38pm
  or longer…
  
  Report this comment
Dkoonz
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:24pm
Now this make more sense then taking away guns from the people.

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- oldguy49
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:34pm
  take the gun free zone signs down……………….put up signs like i have ………………trespassers will be shot , survivors will be shot again…………………it works unless you graduated from chicago school and can’t read
  
  Report this comment
media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:19pm
When the Japanese started ramming suicide bombers into naval ships in WWII, did Senator Feinstein petition the Japanese to ban suicide bombers? What Senator did?

There is only one defense against suicide bombers, viligence, not wishful thinking? Do suicide “killers” ask for forgiveness? Did “rules of engagement” save the US Navy seals that died in their Chinook? How many millions of dollars worth of training was lost on that day?

Do you punish “suicide killers”? Or do you wrap their minds with the knowledge of certain failure their plans will encounter if they even attempt it, or give them the audacity of hope that they will encounter a gun free zone? There should be only one rule of engagement, engage the enemy?

You engage criminals, not ignorant voters?

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- DadRocked
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:54pm
  Very well worded and the proper perspective…
  
  We, as people, sometimes have blinders on at times…
  Others more often or use only their tunnel vision…
  
  Thanks for having the blinders off…
  
  Report this comment
noslave
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:17pm
there are still smart folks??some escaped the liberal indoctrination when they went to school,hooray for that,remember in a gun fight? theirs no second place winner??

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Lordchamp
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:16pm
Some questions to these people that oppose this.

Do you not trust teachers?

Are teachers less responsible people that police?

Are police just smarter and more capable than teachers?

Are teachers not trainable?

Do you hate teachers and children?

These questions need to become our drum beat. They need to be asked in every interview concerning this subject. Make them answer.

The left LOVES teachers.

Or is it that they love them ONLY as long as they toe the line and do what they are told? When they step up and want to be part of the solution and not victims they are no longer loved by the left.

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- TSUNAMI_22
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:37pm
  The left loves teachers that propagate their liberal, anti-American agenda. What is so heart-warming about seeing teachers embracing a CCW is that by doing so they scare the left because the left fully understands that 40 years of Marxist, socialist nonsense can be destroyed with class-taught common sense OVERNIGHT.
  
  This is the silver-lining was trying to avoid. They are losing the anti-gun narrative!
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:39pm
  I certainly have no problem with this. In fact put these teachers through some of the things that I had to do to become a policeman. I’m sure the continuing drug testing, polygraphs, and the occasional psych analysis will prove that many can handle the responsibility very well. It will also likely put a focus on some and wash them out of teaching for good reason too.
  
  Report this comment
niterider
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:15pm
Wow. There are teachers with some commonsense. Color me shocked that the Teachers Union let them get jobs.

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- Polarized America
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:21pm
  .
  and will the Teachers Union insist on combat pay ? ;-(
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:28pm
  Hi Polarized America,
  
  As far as I have seen they already make more than that.
  
  Time to start earning it. : )
  
  Report this comment
- Polarized America
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:36pm
  .
  Hi…MONK…..Agree ….btw how was your Christmas > i meant to ask on another story … hope it was wonderful for ya …/;-)
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:41pm
  POLARIZED AMERICA and MONK, I do get the feeling that the unions will screw this up for some reason.
  
  Report this comment
- Teufel Hunden
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:50pm
  I think Utah is a right to work state so the union won’t have much of a voice about anything like this. In this aspect, silence is golden.
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:54pm
  Hi Polarized America,
  
  Well, it stared out and ended calmly…
  
  …and the turmoil in between never touched me. All in all…. not too bad. : )
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 9:01pm
  Hi RJJ,
  
  Yeah, Unions tend to do that.
  
  Part of me says this might be good but, in the long run… I think any hard-core liberal should not be armed. If they were to put discipline back in schools I think in a generation things would work themselves out.. in more ways than one.
  
  Report this comment
flyoverbob
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:13pm
This is the most responsible reaction to gun violence I have witnessed

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southernORcobra
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:12pm
Seems to me teachers and real American’s get it. While admin does not.

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Gregb
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:08pm
This is the right approach. By taking the conceal carry classes the teachers have a better understanding of the law and will not be vigilantes. Great Idea!

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Mike Benton
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:08pm
Try this logic: If no one responds the gunman could go on all day. The sooner someone responds the sooner it is over. So why not have a first responded on site?
Think air marshals. I was a teacher for six years and previously had a Boy Scout gun merit badge; I would have volunteered to be trained and certified to be a school marshal.

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le misanthrope
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:07pm
Sanity, finally. I was beginning to give up hope.

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RoDogg
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:05pm
sorry but why concealed???

teachers should have that piece right there on their side in a holster for everyone to see!!!

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- Walkabout
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:18pm
  I wonder if some kid will try to grab the gun out of the holster? Sooner or later some kid will try. Sooner or later some teacher will leave their gun in a bathroom stall.
  
  Then again kids will police themselves. They will ensure other kids behave so that they are in a safe classroom. that is one that is a hard target & not an easy target.
  
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- PatriotSunDevil
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:19pm
  IF would wear my .44 Colt Anaconda 6 inch. It would match all of my attire. I do think the visible sidearm could be a distraction.
  
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- roseblood
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:22pm
  RODOGG, Utah’s permit does not require concealment; legally these teacher will now be able to openly carry their firearm while on school property.
  Generally, Utah allows open carry for all residents with some restrictions. With the CFP those restrictions are waived.
  
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TheFrost
Posted on December 27, 2012 at 8:05pm
They will be prepared.

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