FASTER = Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response
Day One
Over the weekend of August 10-11 I attended FASTER Colorado’s Level Two training course, an advanced two-day course that builds on the basic three-day course I attended last year. The purpose of this course was skill development and to re-qualify under the Colorado Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) qualification + 2 standard. Read about FASTER Level One here.
Because of the dynamic nature of the instruction, the class size was limited to 14, consisting of educators and staff from small, rural school districts, a couple of charter schools, and myself, attending as “that blogger guy”. All of us had passed FASTER Level One, and all of us were experienced shooters with our concealed carry permits.
We started the class on the firing range with a safety instruction talk from one of the instructors. I’ve noticed that sometimes the “safety lecture” is canned and recited from rote memory, but in this case the discussion was thoughtful, comprehensive and relevant to the context of our class.
A review of shooting fundamentals was next on the agenda. We went over stance, grip, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control, drawing, loading, unloading and clearing malfunctions. We also went through some dry firing drills that were designed to help us think through the mechanics of drawing, acquiring sight pictures, trigger pull and trigger reset.
Why are drills like this important? Because firearms skills are not ingrained and must be reinforced through repetition. It takes a lot of muscle memory to develop a skill to the point that it becomes automatic.
Once our instructors felt comfortable with our progress on the basic skills, we started in on live fire exercises. These included marksmanship exercises, slow fire, trigger reset and long range (25 yards) shooting.
The next set of drills involved motion: shooting while moving and shooting at moving targets. To practice shooting while moving, we used large plastic barrels to create obstacles to move around in figure 8s and squares. The skills developed are watching where you’re moving while keeping the sight picture and placing rounds on target. It’s a challenge!
Shooting at moving targets is also a challenge. While the targets were moving back and forth across the 24 lanes of the range, we spent a minute firing at the targets when in range and going through several magazines. At the end, we had perforated targets and a cloud of gunpowder smoke. But we also earned a lecture: there were several hits outside of the target silhouette. In a situation where not missing the target is important, accuracy is paramount. So, the next exercise was to shoot at the moving targets while “innocent” targets were turning to face to and away from us. Any misses would earn a penalty.
The point of this exercise was to impress upon us the absolute need to make sure that every shot goes where it’s supposed to (the aggressor), and not to an innocent bystander.
After the motion drills we moved on to firearm manipulation skills: clearing malfunctions and the like. There’s a handful of malfunctions that must be learned: empty chamber/magazine, which necessitates a combat reload; empty chamber/rounds in magazine, which requires a “tap/rack” to chamber a round; a “double-feed” which requires a “rip-reload-rack” motion to clear; a “stovepipe” which is cleared by tap/rack.
We wrapped up Day One with practice for the POST qualification (plus 2 rounds). Several people passed on the first try, including my neighbor who put all of his rounds through a 6-inch group on the target – pretty impressive marksmanship!
Why is FASTER so important? The answer is simple. When kids attend school, they should be safe from harm, and their parents should have every expectation of them coming home safe every night.
Some people believe that designating schools as “gun-free zones” will keep kids safe. They don’t want teachers and other school staff to be armed, and they certainly don’t want students bringing guns to schools. These people grudgingly grant that armed law enforcement officers are OK, but they would really prefer no guns at all in schools. How well has this policy worked? (Let’s remember that the armed school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida completely failed to address the threat.)
In the years since the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 was passed, there have been over two hundred incidents of gun-related crimes on school and university grounds, with about 175 incidents involving K-12 schools. Many of these incidents were gang-related, many involved adults attacking other adults over personal issues and in several incidents the shooters were restrained by teachers.
It is childishly naïve, unrealistic and dangerous to believe that an arbitrary designation – “gun-free zone” – will deter an evil or sick individual who is determined to bring harm to others.
In fact, in some recent shooting incidents, we’ve seen unarmed individuals who take it on themselves to fight back against the would-be mass shooters. In the attack on the California synagogue in spring 2019, an army veteran ran toward the shooter, spooking him and causing him to flee. Another armed individual – an off-duty border patrol agent – was on scene as well and rushed outside and fired at the suspect’s car. At the STEM school shooting in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, student Kendrick Castillo rushed toward one of the shooters, giving other students a chance to flee and paying with his life.
No, the best deterrent to prevent a mass shooting or to defend against a mass shooter is the armed individual. In contrast to the “gun-free zones” concept, which has proven beyond a doubt to be a failure, the idea of armed resistance has proven to be effective in preventing school shootings. Recent research has shown that the number of people killed on campus where the teachers carry guns is zero. That’s right: zero. None. This is why more and more parents, even parents who dislike guns, want armed school staff on hand to protect their children.
Day Two
Day Two started with a review of Day One and some more dry fire exercises.
After a bit more practice with the long-distance shooting, we did the POST + 2 qualification. Without naming names, I will say that not everybody passed. This is a difficult qualification even for experienced shooters. For staff who are required to pass, this means that they have to try again at a later time. And while some law enforcement agencies may allow for less than 100% passing scores, FASTER does not.
Which brings us to another objection to arming staff. Some opponents say that proponents of armed staff “want all teachers to carry guns”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Only individuals who are already concealed carry permit holders (which requires an FBI background check and minimum training requirements) can apply to be concealed carriers in their schools. The school board approves the person to carry, if it determines that the individual has the mental, emotional and other qualities to be an armed defender.
After the POST qualification, we worked on some more skill development including shooting around cover, shooting from a chair, weak hand shooting and concealment drills.
After lunch, we split into two groups and put all of our firearms and ammunition away. For the duration of the afternoon, we had a session with one of the instructors on Active Shooter and Force on Force. We learned about how SWAT teams clear rooms and techniques for evaluating threats. We used Airsoft guns and “simunition” to run through a couple of scenarios. As a “responder” in one of these scenarios, I got a taste of how a police officer must feel going into an unknown situation. Even though I knew I was perfectly safe, I still had adrenaline pumping and my senses were on high alert. I thought this part of the training was well worth the time investment.
The other portion of the training was in the Active Shooter Simulator. In this, you are in a room with a giant video screen. You are assigned a role, and you armed with a simulated gun. These scenarios are intense and realistic and can include “shoot/no-shoot” decision processes as well as how to de-escalate a situation. We all ran through four scenarios and at the end of each we were evaluated by a police instructor.
Training tools like this are great for skill building and what I would call “thought-training”. The thought-training involves assessing risks, shoot/no-shoot decisions, evacuating rooms, communicating with the subject if possible, using cover and concealment and shooting fast and accurate when you need to.
The final aspect of the training that was interwoven through the afternoon was the medical first aid training. We reviewed our tourniquet applying skills and I will say, practice is important.
At the end of the day we had our wrap-up. I felt that the FASTER Level Two course was well worth the time and money investment.
To learn more about FASTER, visit their website. To donate to help sponsor an educator to go through the program, donate here.
At the end of the day, it’s all about keeping kids safe in a broken world. Armed staff is just one part of a multi-layered school security plan. I would like to see every school board authorize armed staff, and for those individuals to be able to take advantage of this world-class training.
By Richard D. Turnquist
August 26, 2019
