Utah Teachers Getting Guns and Texas Students Getting Tough

Personally, I think this is a good idea:

More than a dozen teachers and public school employees will spend part of their UEA weekend in a classroom — learning how to use a gun.

Clark Aposhian is offering a free class today to public school employees seeking to get their concealed- weapons permit.

"It is self-defense," he told the Deseret Morning News on Thursday. "But because teachers and school administrators and custodians are typically surrounded by students all day, any threat to any individual with a firearm would also be a threat to those students."

The concealed-weapons instructor's offer was met with opposition from some teachers and union representatives at the Utah Education Association's conference in Salt Lake City.

"We've always resisted the idea of arming school employees," said Susan Kuziak, executive director of the 18,000-member teachers union. "Though the intentions may be good, ultimately, the potential for harm is too great."

Why is the "potential for harm too great"? Do you have a bunch of mentally unstable wannbe mass murderers teaching in Utah? Probably not, so get out of the way and quit leaving our schools without any significant defense other than lockdowns and hiding under desks.

One problem, however - Federal law doesn't allow firearms within 1000 feet of a school unless carried by a law enforcement officer. The lawmakers in Utah have taken that into consideration:

School districts have long grappled with the guns-on-campus issue. Federal law bans weapons — real or fake — from school property. But Utah law now makes clear schools can't prevent people with concealed-weapons permits from carrying firearms on campuses. Granite School District's policy, for example, allows permit holders to keep their gun "readily accessible for immediate use," but bans teachers from leaving their weapons in a desk drawer or coat closet.

And how about this from Texas (h/t Instapundit):

Youngsters in a suburban Fort Worth school district are being taught not to sit there like good boys and girls with their hands folded if a gunman invades the classroom, but to rush him and hit him with everything they got - books, pencils, legs and arms.

"Getting under desks and praying for rescue from professionals is not a recipe for success," said Robin Browne, a major in the British Army reserve and an instructor for Response Options, the company providing the training to the Burleson schools.

That kind of fight-back advice is all but unheard of among schools, and some fear it will get children killed.

But school officials in Burleson said they are drawing on the lessons learned from a string of disasters such as Columbine in 1999 and the Amish schoolhouse attack in Pennsylvania last week. . . .Browne recommends students and teachers "react immediately to the sight of a gun by picking up anything and everything and throwing it at the head and body of the attacker and making as much noise as possible. Go toward him as fast as we can and bring them down."

One of the reasons school shooters have decided to make schools their targets is the lack of a defense, and if some teachers and adminstrators are able to pass the required background checks and training, and it becomes known in the community that some of the staff may be armed, shooters may think twice about attacking a potentially armed victim.

Although the kids can't carry guns, they have plenty of weapons at their disposal for close combat, and I think the training in Texas is only smart.