Cross-post... Gun School For Teachers

[TGO David]

I received the following via email...

From Dr. Ignatius Piazza

Founder and Director

http://www.frontsight.com

1.800.987.7719

Please Forward to Your Local Newspapers, Radio

Stations, and Television News Stations

Subject: Gun School For Teachers

Las Vegas, Nevada: In the wake of the Virginia Tech

shootings, Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, which

arguably is the world leader in providing intensified

courses in the defensive use of firearms for private

citizens, feels they have the answer to stopping further

attacks on school children. Front Sight is offering free

firearms training to any school administrator, teacher, or

full time staff member designated as school Safety

Monitors. Front Sight will accept for training up to three

staff members from each school, college or university.

Applicants must submit a letter requesting training on

school letterhead signed by the top school district

official and designating the applicant as the school's

Safety Monitor.

Guns and Teachers

Front Sight's Founder and Director, Dr. Ignatius Piazza

understands that his offer may offend some school

administrators and parents who do not see arming and

training selected school staff members as a positive

solution to violent attacks. However, he is quick to point

out that historically, his approach has worked while gun

control has actually increased violent crime by shifting

the balance of power to favor the criminals and lunatics.

"My offer is not a new idea," says Piazza. "In the early

70's, Israel was faced with much greater problems of armed

terrorist attacks on schools. The cry for more gun control

was heard then too, but Israel very carefully analyzed all

possible options before adopting the proactive position of

arming and training their teachers. School shootings

stopped and terrorists looked for easier targets." He

maintains that gun control never has and never will stop

criminals and madmen from carrying out acts of gun

violence.

"In our country, every time a misguided individual on

psychiatric drugs goes on a killing spree, anti-self

defense legislators, watch the polls and exploit the

dead victims in order to fool the public into accepting

more gun control. It is time our country finds some

resolve and the will to tackle the real problem- which is

rooting out the actual influences in the lives of our youth

that predispose them to commit atrocities such as those we

saw at Virginia Tech. The problem is not guns. Guns don't

cause these incidents to occur anymore than cameras cause

child pornography or automobiles cause traffic fatalities.

Israel had the right answer. Society is safer when we train

and arm our law abiding citizens. As the defensive training

leader in the USA, Front Sight is willing and able to set

the example for the rest of the country to follow."

Armed Teachers

Dave Clark, who recently retired after teaching for the

last 25 years at Junction Junior High School in Livermore,

California agrees with Front Sight's philosophy. In fact,

Mr. Clark has previously attended a Four Day Defensive

Handgun course at Front Sight at his own expense and found

the course to be exactly what is needed to train fellow

teachers to stop an attack similar to Columbine school and

Virginia Tech. "Front Sight provides safe and responsible

training to a level that exceeds law enforcement

standards." Says Mr. Clark. "Among the many lessons

taught, I learned universally accepted rules in justifiable

use of deadly force. More importantly, I learned when not

to shoot and how to be more mentally prepared to see a

lethal confrontation coming before it happens in order to

avoid it. The firearms training is second to none and

clearly gives the graduates the skill needed to save the

lives of those in their charge if ever attacked. If my

school district chose to adopt a policy of sending selected

teachers to Front Sight for concealed handgun training, I

would wholeheartedly support it and volunteer as a Safety

Monitor. There is no reason for our children to continue to

be victimized when free, professional training is available

to stop school attacks."

Guns in Schools

There is evidence that a gun in the hand of a teacher will

stop an armed attacker. The vice-principal of a school in

Pearl, Mississippi used his handgun to stop and detain an

armed killer until the police arrived. Dr. Piazza adds, "It

seems obvious that armed and trained staff members inside

the school are in a better position to identify the

attackers and do something immediately to resolve the

situation. It is much harder for police, who arrive on the

scene too late to stop the killing."

Not so convinced is Sharon Piazza, Dr. Piazza's aunt who

recently retired after 30 years as an elementary teacher

and school administrator for Oak Grove School District in

San Jose, California. "The thought of teachers carrying

guns saddens me greatly. I would feel that we had failed

as a society and missed the core reason why violence is

occurring in our youth. It is not guns, but something much

deeper that is the common thread in all these tragedies. If

we must arm individuals in the school setting to protect

our children, I definitely believe they need to be trained

in when and how to use the weapon. However, I am definitely

not one who would want to be armed and would not want to

teach in that setting."

Lawmakers With Blood on Their Hands

Another obstacle to Front Sight's offer to train and arm

teachers is the current law in many states prohibiting the

possession of firearms on school grounds even when the

possessor is qualified and has a concealed weapons license.

Dr. Piazza quickly points out that those laws did not

prevent or stop the gun violence at numerous schools over

the last tens years. He states, "The brazen attacks in

school after school during the last decade indicate

criminals have concluded that 'Gun-Free-School-Zone'

actually means 'Government Certified, Helpless and Unarmed

Victim Zone.'

Case in Point: House Bill 1572 would have given college

students and employees the right to carry a concealed

handgun on campus but this legislation was killed

in subcommittee by the General Assembly. Virginia Tech

spokesman Larry Hincker was happy at the time to hear the

bill had died. Hincker stated, "I'm sure the university

community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions

because this helps parents, students, faculty and visitors

to feel safe on our campus." Mr. Hincker now has rotten egg

on his face and the General Assembly has blood on their

hands.

School administrators, law enforcement agencies,

and legislators can change laws and policies if they truly

want to stop these attacks.

Senator Bob Beers of Nevada had the right answer by

introducing Senate Bill 286 which authorized teachers

who hold permits to carry concealed firearms and who

have completed a specific program of firearms training

to carry concealed on schools grounds. Nevada lawmakers

shot down Senator Beers' prophetic legislation just one week

before the Virginia Tech Massacre.

The voices of Dr. Ignatius Piazza and Senator Bob Beers

can now be heard through the halls of every school in

America as they scream, "How many more of our children must

be gunned down before this country will wake up and pass

sensible laws that protect our children by placing

concealed guns in the hands of the good guys? No more

free-fire-zones for deranged criminals!"

Schools Can't Afford to Pass on No Cost Security

Most school districts cannot afford to have even one full

time police officer in every school, but they can easily

afford to train three or more of their selected staff

members to a higher level of firearms training than offered

in police academies because Front Sight will provide the

training at no cost."

Retired law enforcement firearms instructor, Mike Waidelich

from Bakersfield, California strongly supports the Front

Sight concept of arming and training teachers. "Nearly

every tragedy on or off school grounds in the entire 30

years of my law enforcement career could have been

prevented or the damage done considerably limited, by the

presence of an armed and trained individual."

Concealed Guns

The training provided in Front Sight's basic training

classes easily exceeds the training provided in most police

basic training academies.

Front Sight proves it on their nationally televised

reality series Front Sight Challenge shown every week

on VERSUS Network. Seasoned law enforcement officers

from around the country go head-to-head in tests of

marksmanship, speed and tactics against private citizens--

including teachers-- who have not received any training

other than Front Sight's firearms courses. Remarkably,

the Front Sight trained, private citizens are currently

leading the series 8 : 5.

Piazza adds, "Teachers will be trained to carry a concealed

weapon, so potential attackers will not know which teachers

are armed and which are not. In states that have adopted

concealed weapon laws for private citizens, violent crime

has dropped. School attacks will drop as well once it is

known that any of the teachers and staff members on school

grounds have the ability and training to stop a violent

attack immediately."

Piazza explains that scientific research also supports

Front Sight's stance on concealed weapon training. He

references researcher, John Lott, Jr. from the University

of Chicago School of Law who published Crime, Deterrence

and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns in July 1996. "Mr.

Lott's research of cross-sectional time-series data from

all 3054 U.S. counties from 1977 to 1992 found that

allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent

crime and appears to produce no increase in accidental

deaths. If those states which did not have right-to-carry

concealed handgun provisions had adopted them in 1992,

approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, and over 60,000

aggravated assaults would have been avoided yearly."

Gun Control Increases Violent Crime

Piazza asks, "How many times must we experience another

Littleton, Colorado or Virginia Tech before we wake up,

study the research and adopt policies which actually reduce

crime and begin saving our children instead of leaving them

helpless victims when the next psych drug user snaps?"

Gun control typically increases violent crime yet some

politicians continue to tout disarming law abiding citizens

as a solution. Front Sight has a better solution.

School districts interested in taking advantage of Front

Sight's commitment to help protect our children should

call us at 1.800.987.7719 or e-mail Front Sight at

info@frontsight.com. More information about Front Sight

training is available at http://www.frontsight.com."

[towerclimber37]

awesome! from what I understand, In Utah, there's a School thats doing the very same thing!

I like this!

[Guest Drewsett]

Would love to see MTSU take advantage of this. Since I can't be armed, I'd have felt slightly less helpless if I knew that there was someone in the building who was, other than the gunman.