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Chasfm11, feel free to use my comments anytime. When you talk to the chief, there is one other argument you might use and find helpful. I don't know what the response will be since I have never asked on this question, but I know the professors who run the ALERRT training center at Texas State University are very pro-gun and pro-self defense. You might suggest he call them and see what they think. They do have statistics and studies on active shooter situations in school and have done some research on it. For that matter, you might call them yourself and see what they say. Given their jobs, i am confident they will answer the chief but not as confident that they will ahve the time to answer a citizen. Not that they are biased, just the time involved and their salaries get paid for working with law enforcement.

I support teachers being armed. I also strongly support the concept of a plan for what they will do when something does go down. For most cases, when there is a shooting, I suggest that the armed teachers stay with their students in the locked room. I understand that this has a flaw since I also doubt we will see a majority of teachers armed.

And for those who think the teacher will never leave his or her students, I would point out that almost every school of which I am aware has a plan for specific teachers to respond to trouble areas and handle or help handle it. This is true even in schools with police officers on campus. I know that most of these plans are based on students being involved in fist fights, but those teachers are most likely to be the type of person who would run to the sound of guns. I really don't have too much of a problem with this, IF the teachers are given training in how to handle these situations.

That is actually one of the few parts of the school marshal program I did like. The teachers all must get some training in how to handle these situations. A school can allow armed teachers without participating in the program by just writing a policy on staff members who have a CHL carrying on campus.

And for the Chief who is worried about his officers not being able to tell the good guys from the bad guys, I have a few suggestions. The first, and strongest, is to get better officers and give them better training. this was one of the arguments against CHLs way back when. It is simply not valid because officers need to be able to tell the difference in everyday life and cannot just start shooting anyone with a gun anywhere.

And, as a certified TCOLE trainer, I will offer to teach the class. It would probably only be about a five minute class. Using examples, I would simply show that the good guy is the one who is not shooting or is only shooting at one other person who is also armed and who obeys when you tell him to do something. The bad guy is the one shooting at other people indiscriminately and points his weapon at the officer when the officer yells a command.

I would have to acknowledge that the good guy may react wrong when under the stress of a live fire situation, but these are the guidelines I would teach.