September 11, 2025 • 8 mins
IT'S TIME TO GET GUNS IN SCHOOLS I've been too squishy about this in the past. Gun control is a fantasy. All the laws we've passed in Colorado did nothing to stop a student from shooting two other students in Evergreen yesterday and then taking his own life. It's time to put armed staff in schools, even though I realize that may not have stopped yesterday's shooting. Perhaps if students knew there were armed teachers they would be less likely to do things like this. Perhaps if we sent the message that schools are no longer a soft target it would give people pause. And I've got Laura Carno on today at 12:30 to talk about a program that has been in existence for years that uses a very high level training program to arm teachers or staff who volunteer to go through the program. Find out more about the program and lean on your school district to implement it. Find out more about Laura by clicking here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My next guest, Laura Carno, has been on the show before.
She has been tirelessly working for years now with an
organization called Faster, whose goal is to train volunteer members
of a school staff or a district who are in
the schools on a regular basis to undergo rigorous training
(00:20):
so they can safely carry a firearm and be able
to protect children in the case of an attack on
a school of any kind. And Laura, I am going
to give myself a bit of a beating right now
in that I've always been intrigued by this idea, but
I was never passionate about this idea. But what we
are doing is clearly failing. It is not working, and
(00:45):
we have yet another Colorado school shooting. So I want
you to explain to my audience because the first reaction is, oh,
my gosh, we don't want to arm school teachers. Do
you know, school teachers? They shouldn't have guns. But let's
talk about Faster and what that train is is really like.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Sure, and just to.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Back take a step back so that folks know the
context of this. It has actually been legal in Colorado
for more than twenty years for school boards and charter
school boards to.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Authorize armed staff.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
So this is not just hey, I'm a teacher and
I have a CCW and I'm going to carry and
go get training.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's not like that.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
The law in Colorado says your school board has to authorize.
You authorize the policy and then select the people. They
are hand picked, They go through vetting, they go through interviews,
all kinds of things before they even get to us
or you know, the training and vetting kind of continues.
But the training to be able to go from not
(01:46):
carrying a firearm in school to carrying it's the same
training that law enforcement gets in the academy to learn
how to stop.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
An active killer.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Our instructors are all active duty law enforcement instructors, so
they know they know the same They know what they're
training because they just trained it yesterday to recruits or
to guys that have been on the force for a while.
So it's it's mindset, it's medical, it's firearms, and it's tactics,
and it's all that stuff wrapped up. We have been
(02:18):
nearing the end of our ninth training year, Mandy, and
at the end of this year, we'll probably be in
about fifty school districts in Colorado. So when you and
I started talking about this way in the beginning, and
it was like, oh, this sounds crazy. It's really mainstream
now and more people are saying why weren't there armed
people there?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And that's the question I keep getting, where are the SROs?
Where are the SROs? We just found out their SRO
that's normally in the school was on medical leave and
there was a different SRO who was supposed to stop buying.
I mean, you know, SROs can't be everywhere at all times.
And this is what I actually was having a conversation
with someone who has a very deep knowledge about school
safety from a long career in that field, and they
(03:00):
were pushing back a little bit about the notion of
armed teachers. And one of the things that this person
said was, you know, teachers are not great in a
crisis situation. And I'm like, absolutely, there are some people,
whether they're teachers or members of the military or cops,
that are not good in a crisis situation. But I
got to tell you, Laura, I will never forget finding
(03:23):
out that the principle of Sandy Hook Elementary went rushing
towards a gunman completely unarmed to protect her children in
her school. Do not underestimate the Mama bear instincts of
people that work in school boards, Papa Bear instincts. You
don't work in a school because you don't love children,
You know what I'm saying. I mean, these people are
cut from a different cloth, and these children are their
(03:44):
children while they're in that schoolroom. What kind of things
have you seen or are you aware of from teachers
that have gone through the faster training. Tell me about
what that arc is like and who signs up.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, and I'm really glad you brought up the Sandy
Hook principle that ran towards the sound of gunfire and
died protecting children. These people do have the mindset. It's
not for everybody, and that's okay. It doesn't need to
be everybody, but the public, especially these bad guys, they
(04:20):
need to know that there are in every school some
one ten I don't know how many people potentially armed,
and they shouldn't go in there. So, Mandy, if you
were to come to a faster class and just kind.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Of survey the folks that were there.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Their male, they're female, they're younger, they're older, they're middle aged.
They are rural, they're urban, they're suburban. They look like
the people if you went to your local King Supers
and you'd go, oh, these are people who live in Colorado.
They don't look any different. They're a complete cross section.
But the one thing they do have is they have
that mindset that if something happens, even if they didn't
(05:00):
have a firearm, they would run to save the children
and be a bullet sponge if that's all they could do,
and die for other people's children. Wild animals don't die
for the babies of others. They only die for their
own babies. Humans are different, so this is a very
different breed of people.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
And that's why I started FASTER.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
After I went to the class in Ohio, the Faster
Saves Life's class in Ohio, I came.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Back here determined that we were going to.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Do this year because we have people with the right mindset.
They deserve to save children and they deserve to go
home alive to their families.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
How many hours of training is the program total?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
So the training that we do at Faster is only
their annual certification that starts with a twenty four hour class,
and then every year thereafter that's a sixteen hour class.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Regardless of the level, they have to pass.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
That same qualification that law enforcement has to pass every year.
We actually make it harder by two shots and they
have to pass at one hundred percent. Not all law
enforcement agencies require one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
So there's you there's a live fire portion of this
as well. It's not just classroom learning, it's actual tactical
training and firearms training and shooting an actual gun.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Correct, correct, And that qualification is the qualification and handgun proficiency.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
So again we make it harder and they have to
pass at one hundred percent. But this is just their
annual training.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
School Boards have gotten much more requiring over the years
in saying and you must dry fire once or twice
a week, and you must go to the range as
a group every month, and you must do exercises in
the school every quarter, including one with local law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
School Boards are getting very much more requiring.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So when I say twenty four or sixteen hours, that's
just their annual required qualification course. But they are getting
a ton more experience during the year, far more than
law enforcement is getting. And this is what we hear
from our law enforcement and start.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I in my conversation with the person who worked for
a long time in school safety. One of the things
that they said that I thought was kind of interesting
is like we saw in Uvaldi and Parkland, the failure
of police officers to go into the schools and face
an active shooter. And I just push back with these
people are defending their babies. These are their children, whether
(07:21):
they're in that school, and anyone who knows any teachers
knows that's how they feel about these kids. Doesn't mean
they're necessarily going to sign up for this class, but
I think overwhelmingly that's how teachers feel. So what can
the people listening to this show right now do to
get faster in their district to allow volunteers to become
trained in armed to protect kids.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So this is a very parent driven policy.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
So parents get together with ten or one hundred of
your fellow parent friends in your school.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
District, go to school board.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Meetings and talk about this. Meet with your superintendent and
talk about this. We have four years since this Gunfrey
School Zones Act, we have had these sitting ducks situations.
We've tried it their way, we keep having these school shootings.
Let's try it our way. Let's have somebody armed in
every single school, so bad guys know they cannot go
(08:15):
in there and kill with impunity and kill without without
being able to be stopped, and.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
It'll be a dramatic change in our country.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Laura Carnor, I appreciate your time today. You can find
out more about Faster. It's on the blog. You can
find out more about Laura. She's written a wonderful book
that's so accurate called Government Ruins. Everything that you can
order and Laura, thank you so much for what you do.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Thanks so much, And folks can find us at Faster
Colorado dot org.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Faster at Colorado dot org. I'll talk to you so Laura,
My next guest, Laura Carno, has been on the show before.
She has been tirelessly working for years now with an
organization called Faster, whose goal is to train volunteer members
of a school staff or a district who are in
the schools on a regular basis to undergo rigorous training
(00:20):
so they can safely carry a firearm and be able
to protect children in the case of an attack on
a school of any kind. And Laura, I am going
to give myself a bit of a beating right now
in that I've always been intrigued by this idea, but
I was never passionate about this idea. But what we
are doing is clearly failing. It is not working, and
(00:45):
we have yet another Colorado school shooting. So I want
you to explain to my audience because the first reaction is, oh,
my gosh, we don't want to arm school teachers. Do
you know, school teachers? They shouldn't have guns. But let's
talk about Faster and what that train is is really like.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Sure, and just to.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Back take a step back so that folks know the
context of this. It has actually been legal in Colorado
for more than twenty years for school boards and charter
school boards to.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Authorize armed staff.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
So this is not just hey, I'm a teacher and
I have a CCW and I'm going to carry and
go get training.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's not like that.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
The law in Colorado says your school board has to authorize.
You authorize the policy and then select the people. They
are hand picked, They go through vetting, they go through interviews,
all kinds of things before they even get to us
or you know, the training and vetting kind of continues.
But the training to be able to go from not
(01:46):
carrying a firearm in school to carrying it's the same
training that law enforcement gets in the academy to learn
how to stop.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
An active killer.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Our instructors are all active duty law enforcement instructors, so
they know they know the same They know what they're
training because they just trained it yesterday to recruits or
to guys that have been on the force for a while.
So it's it's mindset, it's medical, it's firearms, and it's tactics,
and it's all that stuff wrapped up. We have been
(02:18):
nearing the end of our ninth training year, Mandy, and
at the end of this year, we'll probably be in
about fifty school districts in Colorado. So when you and
I started talking about this way in the beginning, and
it was like, oh, this sounds crazy. It's really mainstream
now and more people are saying why weren't there armed
people there?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And that's the question I keep getting, where are the SROs?
Where are the SROs? We just found out their SRO
that's normally in the school was on medical leave and
there was a different SRO who was supposed to stop buying.
I mean, you know, SROs can't be everywhere at all times.
And this is what I actually was having a conversation
with someone who has a very deep knowledge about school
safety from a long career in that field, and they
(03:00):
were pushing back a little bit about the notion of
armed teachers. And one of the things that this person
said was, you know, teachers are not great in a
crisis situation. And I'm like, absolutely, there are some people,
whether they're teachers or members of the military or cops,
that are not good in a crisis situation. But I
got to tell you, Laura, I will never forget finding
(03:23):
out that the principle of Sandy Hook Elementary went rushing
towards a gunman completely unarmed to protect her children in
her school. Do not underestimate the Mama bear instincts of
people that work in school boards, Papa Bear instincts. You
don't work in a school because you don't love children,
You know what I'm saying. I mean, these people are
cut from a different cloth, and these children are their
(03:44):
children while they're in that schoolroom. What kind of things
have you seen or are you aware of from teachers
that have gone through the faster training. Tell me about
what that arc is like and who signs up.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, and I'm really glad you brought up the Sandy
Hook principle that ran towards the sound of gunfire and
died protecting children. These people do have the mindset. It's
not for everybody, and that's okay. It doesn't need to
be everybody, but the public, especially these bad guys, they
(04:20):
need to know that there are in every school some
one ten I don't know how many people potentially armed,
and they shouldn't go in there. So, Mandy, if you
were to come to a faster class and just kind.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Of survey the folks that were there.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Their male, they're female, they're younger, they're older, they're middle aged.
They are rural, they're urban, they're suburban. They look like
the people if you went to your local King Supers
and you'd go, oh, these are people who live in Colorado.
They don't look any different. They're a complete cross section.
But the one thing they do have is they have
that mindset that if something happens, even if they didn't
(05:00):
have a firearm, they would run to save the children
and be a bullet sponge if that's all they could do,
and die for other people's children. Wild animals don't die
for the babies of others. They only die for their
own babies. Humans are different, so this is a very
different breed of people.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
And that's why I started FASTER.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
After I went to the class in Ohio, the Faster
Saves Life's class in Ohio, I came.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Back here determined that we were going to.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Do this year because we have people with the right mindset.
They deserve to save children and they deserve to go
home alive to their families.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
How many hours of training is the program total?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
So the training that we do at Faster is only
their annual certification that starts with a twenty four hour class,
and then every year thereafter that's a sixteen hour class.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Regardless of the level, they have to pass.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
That same qualification that law enforcement has to pass every year.
We actually make it harder by two shots and they
have to pass at one hundred percent. Not all law
enforcement agencies require one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
So there's you there's a live fire portion of this
as well. It's not just classroom learning, it's actual tactical
training and firearms training and shooting an actual gun.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Correct, correct, And that qualification is the qualification and handgun proficiency.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
So again we make it harder and they have to
pass at one hundred percent. But this is just their
annual training.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
School Boards have gotten much more requiring over the years
in saying and you must dry fire once or twice
a week, and you must go to the range as
a group every month, and you must do exercises in
the school every quarter, including one with local law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
School Boards are getting very much more requiring.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So when I say twenty four or sixteen hours, that's
just their annual required qualification course. But they are getting
a ton more experience during the year, far more than
law enforcement is getting. And this is what we hear
from our law enforcement and start.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I in my conversation with the person who worked for
a long time in school safety. One of the things
that they said that I thought was kind of interesting
is like we saw in Uvaldi and Parkland, the failure
of police officers to go into the schools and face
an active shooter. And I just push back with these
people are defending their babies. These are their children, whether
(07:21):
they're in that school, and anyone who knows any teachers
knows that's how they feel about these kids. Doesn't mean
they're necessarily going to sign up for this class, but
I think overwhelmingly that's how teachers feel. So what can
the people listening to this show right now do to
get faster in their district to allow volunteers to become
trained in armed to protect kids.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So this is a very parent driven policy.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
So parents get together with ten or one hundred of
your fellow parent friends in your school.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
District, go to school board.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Meetings and talk about this. Meet with your superintendent and
talk about this. We have four years since this Gunfrey
School Zones Act, we have had these sitting ducks situations.
We've tried it their way, we keep having these school shootings.
Let's try it our way. Let's have somebody armed in
every single school, so bad guys know they cannot go
(08:15):
in there and kill with impunity and kill without without
being able to be stopped, and.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
It'll be a dramatic change in our country.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Laura Carnor, I appreciate your time today. You can find
out more about Faster. It's on the blog. You can
find out more about Laura. She's written a wonderful book
that's so accurate called Government Ruins. Everything that you can
order and Laura, thank you so much for what you do.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Thanks so much, And folks can find us at Faster
Colorado dot org.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Faster at Colorado dot org. I'll talk to you so Laura,
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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