November 24, 2015 | 0 Comments

Classroom firepower: Ohio teachers increasingly pack heat on job

By Perry Chiaramonte

“Dozens of school districts in Ohio now allow teachers who have conceal-carry permits to pack heat on the job.

In several cases, boards of education have been pressed into adopting the policy by parents concerned about school shootings in the wake of the 2012 shooting at a school in Newtown, Conn. While an exact number of Buckeye State districts now allowing teachers to have guns in the classroom is not known, there are at least 40, according to Joe Eaton, director of FASTERsaveslives.org, a program affiliated with the Buckeye Firearms Foundation which sponsors training for teachers from the school districts,,

“The sad thing is that time is these situations in the most important factor,” Eaton said, “and waiting for outside help is just not a viable solution anymore.”

“The sooner they are stopped, the fewer people die. It is really that simple.”
– Chad Baus. Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Teachers who recently took part in the program were taught not only about gun safety and use, but were taught paramedic skills and how to react to active shooter situations, according to WKRC in Cincinnati. Teachers and administrators trained side-by-side with local cops and paramedics at the Tactical Defense Institute in West Union, located in Adams County.

The training entailed practice scenarios in which the armed protector must find and subdue the threat as students flee a classroom. In addition to the combat training, those who attended the exercise were also given combat casualty training where they learned how to treat injuries at the scene with bandages and a tourniquet.

“Safety of our kids should not be a controversial issue. This is not about guns,” Jim Irvine, also with FASTERsaveslives.org and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, said. “For nearly 60 years, not one student has died from a fire. That is due to a redundant, overlapping approach to safety.

“We should be copying that same method for incidents of violence in our schools,” Irvine added. “You need something that is effective. Show us another method and we would invest in it.”