Chicago Teachers Taking Free Concealed Carry Classes

by Tom Knighton: When we think of anti-gun cities, Chicago sits right in our Top Five list. However, since the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v Chicago, the city has been far more open to guns than some of us would like to think.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. It’s far from a pro-gun city by any stretch of the imagination. However, you actually can have a gun there, which is a major step forward.

I wonder if that, coupled with brutal attacks like Parkland, is why so many teachers are taking advantage of free concealed carry courses.Local teachers are taking gun safety training into their own hands.

Recent school shootings are making more and more people in the classroom on edge and one Crystal Lake gun range decided to do something about it, offering training for school employees – free of charge.

Brian Pacheco says he’s spending two days of his spring break at “On Target” gun range, learning the rules of gun safety and gun shooting. He’s part of a pilot program that lets school employees learn the ropes of gun ownership for free, and it started after a continued call to arm teachers in schools after shootings in Parkland and Maryland.

Tom Dorsch is the Director of Operations at “On Target”. He hopes these educators leave the range knowing two things about gun ownership.

“Humility and responsibility. The awesome responsibility it takes to be a permit owner, and the humility to know what that gun is possible of doing,” he said.Being a permit holder in any state is an awesome responsibility. Even carrying in a state with constitutional carry is a huge responsibility.

Every time you leave the house with a gun on, you’re under a microscope. Even if you never draw your weapon, even if no one knows it’s there, you’re under it. If you screw up, you’re providing ammunition to those who oppose citizens carrying firearms at all.

Luckily, the vast majority of people who carry a gun legally act accordingly. The rates for lawful gun carriers committing crimes are very, very low. In fact, there’s a better chance of a police officer or a judge being a criminal than someone with a permit.

Unfortunately, all these teachers learning how to be concealed carry permit holders won’t be able to use their newfound skills at work. That’s because so many states bar licensed gun owners from carrying on school grounds, including staff. That means if an active shooter walks into a Chicago school and begins murdering kids, the teachers aren’t going to be able to do a damn thing.

When you hear the phrase “armed teachers,” understand that pretty much no one is talking about forcing teachers to carry a gun. We’re talking about teachers like these and thousands of others, all across the nation, being allowed to make that choice for themselves.

These teachers clearly have made up their minds. They don’t want to be victims, and they don’t want their students to be either.

The question is, will anyone let them be anything other than a victim?
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Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger at Bearing Arms. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia and contributes to PJ Media.

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