‘Proximity Is The Number One Issue’: Armed Educators Key To Preventing School Shootings, Expert Says

Properly armed and trained teachers should be central to the conversation around school safety, firearm instructor and founder of Patriot Academy Rick Green told The Daily Wire. 

A gunman recently killed 19 children and two teachers in an attack on an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. As the community attempts to piece itself together after the tragic loss, political battles have erupted over what should be done to decrease the odds of a repeat tragedy in the future.

While lawmakers and experts debate the wisdom of gun bans and mental health programs, Green says willing teachers should be taking steps now to harden their classrooms against disaster by learning to use a firearm. His firearms training program, Constitutional Defense, is free for teachers aiming to do just that.

“Look, there’s always going to be wolves. There is always going to be evil in the world. We’ve had mass murder events all throughout history,” Green said, noting that often the perpetrator of such an attack uses something other than a gun, such as a knife or a vehicle. “What we need is more sheepdogs. We need more citizens prepared to respond in the moment.” 

Green emphasized the importance of “proximity” in halting any kind of attack. The attacker is not likely to stop until he faces resistance, and the chance of resisting successfully is better if the resister is armed. And relying solely on responding police officers to handle a dangerous situation can be a deadly choice.

“Proximity is the number one issue. Do you have a trained person with a firearm in close proximity to where the bad guy starts the carnage? And if you do, you can have a West Virginia situation where the lady takes him out immediately, sheepdog with a ponytail ends the threat before a single innocent life is taken,” Green said, referring to a May 25 incident where an armed woman shot and killed a gunman targeting a birthday party of roughly 40 people.

In 2019, the U.S. Secret Service conducted an analysis of attacks on K-12 schools across the United States. The analysis found that roughly four out of five attacks ended after less than five minutes. Outside law enforcement generally took longer to respond. In roughly half of the incidents, police officers arrived on scene more than five minutes after the incident began.

“You need sheepdogs and citizens everywhere. Responding after the fact is not working and we’ve got to get that through our skulls. The idea that the police are going to save you in every situation is a fantasy,” Green said. “The answer is training and arming more citizens, not fewer of them.”

Critics of firearms in K-12 schools point to the potential of a firearm mishap. The Giffords Law Center, an organization pushing for greater gun control, found nearly 100 examples of gun-related mishaps taking place in schools from 2014 to 2021. The mishaps include such scenarios as students discovering a gun left in a bathroom to a parent accidentally shooting himself in the leg in a parking lot.

The number of accidental injuries or deaths from firearms wielded by teachers in schools remains exceedingly rare. A 2019 analysis from the Crime Prevention Research Center found not a single documented case of someone being wounded or killed from a shooting between 6 AM and midnight at any of the schools in 20 states that lets teachers carry guns (to varying degrees) from January 2000 to August 2018.

The inherent risk of carrying a firearm is similar to the risk most people take driving a car to work every day, Green said. Skeptics of allowing educators to bear arms should consider the relatively low risk of doing so against the benefit of having at least one armed individual between an attacker and a classroom full of children.

“Just imagine hearing the mass murderer coming down the hall firing away, would you want someone in the classroom with you to be armed or not? Would you want someone near you to be capable and trained to stop the threat, or would you rather have to go hide in a closet?” Green said.

Data suggest that a majority of Americans support arming properly trained educators. As of January 2020, nearly 30 states allow teachers or staff at K-12 schools to carry a firearm in some situations, though regulations vary widely from state to state. A poll from The Trafalgar Group and Convention of States Action released on Tuesday found that about 58% of likely general election voters believe that arming properly trained teachers makes schools somewhat or much safer than they currently are. About 31% said arming teachers would have the opposite effect.

In the wake of the Uvalde tragedy, lawmakers in Ohio are taking steps to lessen the law’s demands on teachers who want to carry a weapon on school grounds. Currently, any teacher wishing to be armed at school must receive over 700 hours-worth of instruction, due to the Ohio Supreme Court requiring them to be held to the same training standards as police officers.

A new proposal that has been passed both chambers of the legislature, and is expected to be signed by Governor Mike DeWine soon, would reduce the initial time investment to about 24 hours. The teacher must receive another eight hours of training annually to stay up-to-date with the certification. 

Green’s own recommended firearms training course is of a similar length, taking part over five days and containing at least 28 hours of firearms training and 12 hours of classroom work. He says in that time, he has seen students who had never picked up a gun before become proficient.

“I’m not at all hesitant to say to a teacher that has never had any experience with a firearm, ‘You can do this.’ If you are willing to come get the training, at least go through the training with us or somebody else, but go through the training,” Green said.

The opinions expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.