Is This Mere Coincidence or a Cultural Change?

by Rob Morse

Lots of us are disappointed after the last election. Some of us turned off the news for a few weeks as we recovered. I’ve noticed a series of unexpected pleasant surprises during that time. The seeds of serendipity were planted long before the midterm campaigns began.

Laura Carno had social and political contacts long before she knew about the FASTER program. FASTER teaches school staff to be first responders. The FASTER program in Colorado would not exist without Laura’s hard work and also her network of dedicated volunteers. It is as if these firearms instructors and volunteers were waiting for FASTER to be brought to Colorado. FASTER Colorado called to their passion, and at the same time these volunteers were the answer to FASTER’s need for qualified staff. FASTER Colorado could not have happened 10 years ago. Why was it possible today?

Aaron Boyd also lives in Colorado. He was frustrated by the public’s passive acceptance of mass murder in our schools and churches. Aaron started Bullets Both Ways as a resource to organize, promote, and fund efforts for public defense. The idea was born before Aaron learned about FASTER Colorado and about the original FASTER program created by Buckeye Firearms in Ohio. Bullets Both Ways was an asset in search of a plan. Bullets Both Ways is here now, but it did not, and could not, exist a decade ago.

Carl Chinn was personally involved in defending two religious institutions that were physically attacked. Carl documents violence on church property. He also leads the Faith Based Security Network. After the recent attack on the synagogue in Pittsburg, Carl knocked on the door of his local synagogue. To the synagogue’s credit, the door was locked. His visit was unannounced but Carl pressed the buzzer for entry. “Mr. Chinn, we’ve been expecting you. Come right in.” With Carl’s help, the synagogue had a working security plan that day. This wasn’t an empty outline the synagogue could fill in later, but a plan they started that minute. Local churches provided not only copies of their own security plans, but also provided a number of volunteers who regularly staffed security positions at their church. These outside volunteers worked with volunteers from the synagogue as they learned their new security rolls. This would have been impossible five years ago, but these volunteers pulled a program together in hours.

A few months ago, the School Board in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania voted to arm school staff. The vote was a unanimous 9-0. The board did this without knowing that teacher training programs like FASTER already exist. Pennsylvania state law neither prohibits nor permits armed school staff. The board decided their action was permitted since it wasn’t illegal. They knew that some school districts somewhere had armed school staff and they were going to be one of them. They would not have made that decision five years ago, but now the vote was unanimous.

The Florida sheriff leading the investigation into the murders at the Parkland, Florida high school was against arming school staff. That changed as the sheriff reviewed files from the high school security cameras. The sheriff had timelines from the responding deputies and EMS. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, publicly recommends changing state law so teachers may be armed. The Sheriff would not have reached that conclusion two years ago, but times have changed.

Some people didn't get the memo. Not Last week the faculty advisory committee at Oakland University in Michigan passed a security plan to issue hockey pucks to students and staff on campus. This was a kinder-and-gentler version of the plan from a Pennsylvania school board who issued a bucket of river-rocks to each classroom. The Oakland U plan was met with widespread criticism.

  • Planning for improvisation isn’t a plan.
  • Unarmed security is a contradiction.
  • Hockey-puck-security is political theater.

At least the faculty knew they needed to do.. something. Would anyone have criticized the intellectuals at Oakland U last year? We openly mock their decision today, and I think I know why.

Today we have high school students who want to learn emergency trauma care as part of their community service activities. That indicates a change in attitude. It shows a change in our culture. No one told these students that they will be their own first responders. Self-reliance wasn’t part of a lesson plan or a test question on a weekly social studies quiz. These students looked at the world around them and slowly drew their own conclusions. That is the definition of a cultural shift. Where did this shift come from?

You did that. Social change is the residual of hard work and persistence. You replied to articles in your newspaper and online. You spoke to your friends and took them shooting. You talked about firearms safety and trauma care with new gun owners. A hundred million handshakes changed the world.

The world is a better place because of the things you did.

Thank you, and drive on.


Training Armed Teachers in Colorado: just your everyday warrior-hero

by Rob Morse

What does it mean to be a warrior, a hero, and a first responder. I sat in on a class where volunteer school staff learned to stop an armed attack. They learned how to treat the injured until help arrives at their school. When they need these skills, they will need them urgently. Mere seconds will count and lives will depend on their actions. We need more of these trained teachers.

The training program is called FASTER for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. This class in the Denver area drew about two dozen school staff from across the state of Colorado. Since the attack on the school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, about two thousand teachers across the US have taken FASTER training.  The volunteers in this class came from both new schools that were setting up their first security program and from existing districts that were expanding their staff. There was a lot to cover in this three day survey course.

I call it a survey course because the information we learned one minute had to be applied the next. These teachers will take these basic building blocks and their medical kits home with them. There, they will taylor the program for their particular school. The attendees ranged from school superintendents to bus drivers and custodians. We can call all of them teachers, but 60 percent of FASTER students are from non-classroom positions. While the FASTER Colorado instruction and instructors are world class, the application is cutting edge.

The training course borrows everything it can. They take emergency trauma training from the military. From police academies, they borrow training techniques on how to shoot. The course uses concealed carry methods from the civilian world. With all it borrows, the application is unique to FASTER.

Armed first responders are not the police. These teachers don’t have to chase fleeing bad guys across town. Neither are these teachers like private gun owners who can retreat, lock their bedroom door, and wait for police to arrive. Defending our kids requires a special mix of determination and restraint. Each volunteer and each school applies what they learned in a way that fits their unique resources and needs. Some of these schools expected the police to arrive 40 minutes after they are called. They are on their own until help arrives.

These volunteers learned a lot. Some of these volunteer school staff were new to carrying a concealed firearm. They overcame their uncertainty as they were trained. They learned the new mechanical skills with practice. They also learned emergency trauma care. We put on tourniquets and packed wounds. We learned about the legal use of lethal force, and how to apply chest seals to save a life. That was the easy part.

.

The hard part was attitude and mental preparation. Everyone wants to stop the killing, but no one wants to kill. The sad, hard, fact is that sometimes we have to shoot someone in order to save lives. That warrior ethic was the hard part for us to grasp. These teachers accepted the uncomfortable and unfamiliar roll of warrior because of who they love. They love their kids. These school staff will risk their life to save their students.

These volunteer school staff sacrificed their innocence to become protectors.
Their character and their commitment were essential.

Mindset is the key to saving lives. You might have a slow draw as you present your firearm to stop the threat. That adds fractions of a second, but denying that the gunshot you heard down the hall is real can add forever. That denial is our all-to-normal response.

We assume the sound we heard isn’t a gunshot since we don’t expect an attack on our schools. We assume the screams we hear are a from a game or a fight since we don’t normally hear our children screaming in terror. Unfortunately, today, those nightmares can be real. Now what are we going to do?

The warrior mindset says that those sounds are the worst thing we can imagine. We will go find the cause and be prepared to stop someone who could be killing our kids. That determination to do whatever it takes to save lives is the attitude of a hero.

We don’t use the term “hero” very often. It took me a minute to be comfortable with it. Maybe you are familiar with a hero’s attitude. See for yourself if I'm using it correctly.

This is a hero's prayer-

I hope that evil never comes to my school. But if my children are threatened, then I pray that I am there. Let it be me who stops it.

For if not me, then who? If not now, then when?

I wish you could meet the instructors and students I saw. We are blessed that volunteer school staff are eager to save our children. We are rich beyond measure that they are our neighbors.

We need more volunteers like them.

References-

Instructors-

FASTER CO Program Sponsors-


Armed Defense and the Tree of Life

On a cloudy October Saturday, an evil man invaded the Tree of Life synagogue and brutally murdered eleven elderly defenseless Jews, including a Holocaust survivor. There was nobody in the congregation to shoot back at the attacker. While the synagogue has armed security for high holy days, due to financial constraints they were unable to have paid security in place on a regular basis.

Just a few days before the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, a racist intent on killing African-American people went into a Kroger grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky and opened fire, killing two. A concealed carry permit holder confronted the shooter, and while no shots were exchanged, the criminal left the scene and was subsequently arrested.

On the same day as the Pittsburgh shooting, a masked gunman opened fire in an Alabama McDonald’s restaurant. He was shot and killed by a concealed carry holder who was there with his sons. The concealed carrier and one of his sons were wounded but are expected to survive.

Incidents like this are where the armed defender comes in, and the mission of Bullets Both Ways is to support armed defenders, whether that is in a school, a church or synagogue, a grocery store or a restaurant. Because evil exists in this world, we must have people who are willing and able to take on the responsibility of defending themselves and others.

Unlike the left-of-center politicians who naively believe in the efficacy of so-called “Gun Free Zones,” we know that the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

What does Bullets Both Ways do with the profits from our merchandise sales? We support world-class training for armed school and church staff by sponsoring attendees at the Colorado Faculty Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response (FASTER) program. We work to expand protection of our public spaces. We support proper training, screening and certification courses for all who are willing and able to deliver Bullets Both Ways when armed evil perpetrators threaten our communities.

We stand in solidarity with our fellow Americans of all races and religions throughout America who have been under attack in recent days. These tragic incidents prove yet again that armed defenders are the best defense against evil monsters intent on doing harm.

By Richard D. Turnquist

Photo by United Press International


Becoming a Last Layer of Protection

I don’t know about you, but I’m all about protecting my family and those around me - wherever I go. In addition, motivating our citizenry and helping to expand protection for our schools and communities are some of my main goals.

Becoming a last layer of protection is more than just making the decision and getting your concealed carry permit. Training and preparation is a must.

We have several instructors, programs, and courses we recommend depending on your objectives. Reach out for direction and we’ll provide guidance based on your goals.

Below is a great article from SlowFacts that sheds some light into the thoughts many of us have shared at some point (or will) as we progress in our respective training:

https://slowfacts.wordpress.com/2018/10/16/fear-of-failure-and-simple-self-defense-instruction/

Stand up | Represent | Prepare | Protect

*Those that are willing and able.*

We’re counting on you America!