In 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the first 911 call was made about five minutes later, and the first police officers arrived at the school less than four minutes later. Still, 20 children and 6 adults were killed. In Parkland, Florida, a gunman killed 17 of him in less than 6 minutes.
The gunman is believed to have fired more than 100 shots within the first three minutes, even at Uvalde, where police have been accused of waiting at the scene for over an hour, according to state reports.
“It’s all about time,” Irvine said. “It’s that easy.”
Of the eight school personnel trained, Mandy was in some ways an anomaly. She was the only female in the group. Some others were administrators, such as superintendents or principals, rather than teachers.
In other ways she was typical.
Everyone had some comfort with the gun. Mandy hunted with her husband, she said, and she spent weekends shooting guns at the range. She said she took other firearms classes, including her training on concealed carry, one of her prerequisites for joining FASTER.
Like others, she worked in rural areas where carrying a gun at school was more common. Her one group of trainees from Oklahoma estimated the response time in the area to be at least 22 minutes.
Mark, a middle school teacher in Ohio, said of measuring the hallways of his school to determine how far apart they were. He had to learn to shoot.