The Academy District 20 School Board is considering the possibility of allowing teachers and staff to concealed carry on campus through the Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response (FASTER) program, or one like it.

Partnering with FASTER Colorado and empowering designated teachers and staff to defend against threats to student safety is the right move.

Colorado law allows school districts to authorize staff members to carry a concealed handgun as a school security officer, so long as they undergo annual training and requalification.

FASTER Colorado provides this necessary training led by active-duty law enforcement personnel. We, the Colorado State Shooting Association (the state association of the NRA) sponsor school staff members to receive FASTER training.

These concealed-carrying security officers are more than just that. They are teachers, coaches, counselors, administrators, school nurses, and other staff members who have dedicated their lives to making a positive impact on students’ lives.

It is too common that we hear of these selfless individuals throwing themselves defenseless in front of attackers to protect their students. Many of them are willing and qualified to carry a handgun to defend their students if they need to.

We hope that need will never present itself. Unfortunately, it is unrealistic to assume it won’t.

According to Education Week, there were 38 school shootings in 2023. Closer to home, on March 31, 2023, law enforcement arrested a former D-20 student after he admitted to planning shootings in several D-20 schools. A search of that suspect’s bedroom uncovered a map of Timberview Middle School and a manifesto outlining his intentions.

The fact that this would-be killer was apprehended before he could bring his heinous plans to fruition is nothing short of a miracle.

It would be foolish to assume that the next one will be caught before something terrible happens. The school board must take action.

Arming trained staff members has proven to be the most reliable method of keeping students safe.

The primary alternative — posting “gun-free zone” signs at every entrance — has been a disaster. This approach only manages to inform attackers that there is nobody in the school with the means to stop them.

In fact, a 2018 study conducted by the Crime Prevention Research Center found that gun-free zones were the targets of 96.2% of mass public shootings over a 17-year period.

Another alternative is to have school resource officers (SROs) on campus. SROs are a good thing. There have been cases of SROs stopping school shooters. However, D-20 doesn’t have enough of them to staff every school. These officers are also easy to identify. If an attacker can find out the whereabouts of the SRO, they can either plan to target the SRO first or start the attack in a part of the school that is far away from that individual.

By allowing staff members to carry concealed handguns, schools can add an extra layer of security, ensuring there are qualified staff ready to respond in every school at all times.

This creates a situation where an attacker has no way of knowing who is or isn’t equipped to stop them.

These conditions produce a strong deterrent. There are at least 30 school districts in Colorado, and many more across the country, who allow staff members to concealed carry.

None of them have experienced a shooting.

In a city with an average response time of 14 minutes for a priority 1 police call, our students deserve the superior level of security offered by this practice. It’s time to stop holding our breath, hoping the inevitable doesn’t happen to us, and make sure it doesn’t.

As a father living in District 20 and a representative of our members in all 64 counties — many of whom live in school districts that have successfully implemented the FASTER program — I am confident that sending my children to school in District 20 will be much safer if the board adopts this policy.

Huey Laugesen is a resident of Academy School District 20 and executive director of the Colorado State Shooting Association (the state association of the NRA).

Huey Laugesen