At Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, the first 911 call was made after about five minutes, and the first officers arrived at the school less than four minutes later. Even so, 20 children and six adults died. In Parkland, Florida, the gunman killed 17 people in just under six minutes.
Even in Uvalde, where police have been criticized for waiting more than an hour at the scene, the gunman is believed to have fired more than 100 rounds in the first three minutes, according to a state report.
“Timing is all that matters,” said Mr. Irvine. “It’s that simple.”
Of the eight school employees being trained, Mandi was somewhat of an anomaly. She was the only woman in the group. Several others were administrators (one superintendent, one principal) rather than teachers.
In other respects, she was typical.
Everyone felt comfortable with guns. Mandi described hunting with her husband and shooting at a gun range on the weekends. He said he had taken other firearms classes, including concealed carry training, one of the prerequisites for participating in FASTER.
Like others, he worked in a rural area, where carrying guns into schools is more common, in part because of longer police response times. One training group, from Oklahoma, estimated the response time in their area 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 bring guns into schools,” said Mark, a middle school teacher in Ohio who described measuring the hallway of your school to determine to what extent. he needed to learn how to shoot.