School shootings - here's how you do it

From Associated Press:

Armed Utah teachers practice responding to school shootings
Nancy Miramontes had 30 seconds to find the gunman.

The Utah school psychologist weaved through a maze of dusty halls before spotting him in the corner of a classroom, holding a gun to a student’s head. She took a deep breath and fired three shots, the first time she’s ever used a gun. One bullet pierced the shooter’s forehead.

“Nice work,” a police officer told her as they exchanged high-fives in front of cardboard props representing the gunman and student.

Miramontes recently joined 30 other Utah teachers at a series of trainings where police instructed them on how to respond to an active shooter. Teachers went through the shooting drill inside a warehouse set up to look like a school, then moved outside to a shooting range.

Something that most anti-gun people fail to recognize is that shooting is not just buying a gun and pulling a trigger. If you want to take this sport seriously and not be a danger to your fellow man, you need training. Lots of regular training. I have probably a hundred hours under my belt (over ten years) and consider this to be bare minimum. I also shot regularly by myself at the farm - at least once/month until I started spending my time on Camano and am planning to visit some of the ranges down here.

The a**holes who get their pathetic kicks from murdering civilians are, at heart, cowards. They carefully choose places that have the most "shock value" but are also gun-free zones. The a**hole who shot up the Colorado movie theater avoided a theater closer to his home because the theater's policy was to allow people with guns to watch a movie. That theater was larger, showing the same film and was closer to his house. He avoided it because there was the chance that someone would defend themselves. Instead, he chose a theater further away that was a posted "Gun Free Zone".

We do not need all teachers to be armed. Those that are uncomfortable with carrying a gun can bow out. What this sort of training is doing is sending a message to some screwed up poindexter that, you do not know, there may be someone just inside the door that will stop you. A shot to the gut will not kill you but it will incapacitate you and keep you on the ground until the police arrive. Then you can have a trial and spend the rest of your worthless life in prison.

Glad to see Utah waking up to reality.