A teacher, administrator, security officer, and even a school police officer can be “qualified” (e.g., meet the state or local training standard) to carry a gun inside a school simply by hitting a stationary paper target (e.g., 33 of 38 shots from 15-yards in Florida). A teacher won’t have 45 seconds to line up a stationary target exactly 15-yards away, and if 5 bullets miss, they could each fatally strike a bystander student.
While many police departments and school districts conduct dynamic active shooter training, individual performance during these sessions is not quantified and used as a pass/fail for qualification to carry a firearm.
Instead of counting holes in a stationary paper target, scored firearms qualification tests for someone carrying a gun inside a school should replicate real-world environments. Scoring should be based on speed and accuracy with deductions or failure for misses or friendlies hit.
Comments