At Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, the first 911 call was made after about five minutes, and first officers arrived at the school less than four minutes later. Nevertheless, 20 children and six adults were killed. In Parkland, Fla., a gunman killed 17 people in just six minutes.
Even in Uvalde, where police have been criticized for waiting at the site for more than an hour, the gunman is believed to have fired more than 100 rounds within the first three minutes, a state report. According to.
“Timing is all that matters,” said Mr. Irwin. “It’s that easy.”
Mandi was, in a way, an anomaly among the eight school staff being trained. She was the only woman in the group. Instead of teachers there were many other administrators – a superintendent, a principal.
In other ways, she was unique.
Everyone had some comfort with guns. Mandi described hunting with her husband and shooting at gun ranges over the weekend. She said she has taken other firearms classes, including concealed carry training, which is one of the prerequisites for attending FASTER.
Like the others, she worked in a rural area, where it is more common to carry guns in schools, partly due to longer response times by police. One group in training in Oklahoma estimated the reaction time in its field to be at least 22 minutes.
“The last thing I want is for people to think we’re just a bunch of gun-toting teachers who want an excuse to carry guns into schools,” said Mark, a middle-school teacher in Ohio. , who described measuring his school hallway to determine this. He had to learn to shoot.