{"id":910,"date":"2019-06-25T15:52:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T15:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/?p=910"},"modified":"2019-07-09T22:42:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T22:42:08","slug":"a-glock-in-every-classroom-texas-districts-radical-fire-back-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/2019\/06\/25\/a-glock-in-every-classroom-texas-districts-radical-fire-back-program\/","title":{"rendered":"A Glock in every classroom: Texas district\u2019s radical FIRE Back program"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"by Harlin Dongbetter<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A school district in Texas has begun a radical new program to deter school shooters, called FIRE \u2014 Firearm Imminent Rescue and Escape. Every classroom in the district will be equipped with a Glock 9mm pistol in a wall niche behind glass \u2014 like an emergency fire extinguisher, to be used only in the event of an active shooter. All K-12 students will undergo a mandatory 12 hours of FIRE-Back training.<\/span><\/p>\n

I sat as a guest in the back of the room for one of the first sessions \u2014 the pilot program tested out in summer school at Harvey Sander\u2019s 4th-grade class at Davy Crockett Elementary School in Corsicana. Mr. Sanders introduced me, Brian Hawthorne \u2014 an Xe veteran and NRA member contracted by the district, decked out in full black tactical gear \u2014 and guest of honor Lester Bludworth, the last surviving Marine from the battle of Wake Island. Mr. Sanders had the students stand for the national anthem, followed by the pledge of allegiance, then Mr. Hawthorne took the stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKids, just call me Sarge,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hear to tell you, you don\u2019t have to be victims in a school shooting. If you hear shots ring out in the cafeteria or hallway \u2014 oh, what\u2019s that?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shots rang out in the hallway \u2014 Hawthorne\u2019s assistant firing blanks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShots fired! Shots fired!\u201d yelled Mr. Sanders. “What do we do?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDuck and cover!\u201d shouted the students, diving beside their desks, covering their tucked heads.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Sanders slammed the door shut and locked it. \u201cNow I will get the Glock,\u201d he said, pulling a small chained hammer out from the niche door. He smashed the glass with it, pulled out the Glock and racked the slide, blood dripping from his hand. He had cut it on a shard of glass.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hard banging on the door. Mr. Sanders moved toward it, a \u201cschool shooter\u201d visible in the window. They exchanged fire with the blanks, then Mr. Sanders groaned \u201cI\u2019m hit!\u201d, dramatically toppling over an empty desk and onto the floor, the Glock skidding from his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019ve got a problem,\u201d said \u201cSarge\u201d Hawthorne. \u201cYour teacher is down, and the shooter is blasting down the door. So we need a hero here. Somebody to grab the gun and return fire. Do I have any volunteers?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

All the boys and about half the girls enthusiastically waved, shouting \u201cMe! Me!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The WWII veteran cried, \u201cGod bless you, kids! God bless you Americans<\/em>!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hawthorne was choked up, too. He finally recovered enough composure to tell them that the DSDS (Designated Secondary Defense Shooter) and a backup would be chosen after live fire practice at the gun range field trip next week. But for now, he chose a boy in the front row, Jimmy Looper. \u201cSave the day, Jimmy,\u201d said Hawthorne.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jimmy crawled over the\u00a0 \u201cdead\u201d body of his bleeding teacher and picked up the Glock, accidentally firing it. If it had been a real round, he would have suffered the infamous \u201cGlock leg.\u201d He then struggled a bit to aim and fire the gun with his tiny hands, but finally got off several wild shots of the low-powered blanks at the \u201cactive shooter\u201d in the window, who fell back, playing dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cExcellent, excellent!\u201d said Hawthorne, leading the applause. \u201cYou can all get back in your seats now. I\u2019ll take care of Mr. Sanders. It\u2019s important to take care of the wounded as fast as possible.\u201d He got a rag and staunched the dripping cut on the teacher\u2019s palm. A girl in the front row started hyperventilating. \u201cJust don\u2019t look,\u201d said\u00a0 Hawthorne. \u201cIt helps to get used to the sight of blood. But that just comes with training and experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThats right,\u201d said Mr. Sanders. \u201cIf you feel like you\u2019re going to throw up, just take deep breaths and recite the pledge of allegiance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut in reality, Jimmy,\u201d continued Hawthorne, \u201cyour shots were all over the place, and you may not have eliminated the threat in time. We might have to scale down to .380 for these classes. But marksmanship is very, very important, whatever caliber you shoot. To help us with that today, we\u2019re honored\u2026\u201d <\/span>He introduced the WWII veteran again, with a brief history of the siege of Wake Island, the isolated Pacific outpost taken right after Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had had volunteers like all you, we might have kept Wake Island from the Japs,\u201d began Mr. Bludworth. \u201cBut I got to say, you kids today have it good compared to what we had. We were unprepared and under equipped for the Jap invasion. Why? Because the liberals killed our defense budget. There weren\u2019t enough Garands and machine guns to go around, so some of us only had rusty old farm guns. Me and a few others got single-shot, break-open .30-06s. In a fight, we filled our cheeks with the cartridges, like a chipmunk with nuts, ejected a round, then put our lips on the scalding breech and spit in the next round. That was our \u2018semi-auto.\u2019 Lost a few buddies that way \u2014 choked to death on their own ammo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou want a one-shot kill? Aim for the eye. Goes straight through to the brain, do not pass Go, do not collect a hundred dollars. Of course, it\u2019s a lot harder with slant-eyes. They got a narrower aperture and they squint really tight in combat. But I ain\u2019t going to lie to you, all the Nip races \u2014 Jap, Viet Cong, Chinaman \u2014 are tougher to kill than a pissed-off boar hog on jungle juice. I think it\u2019s their diet, raw fish and scorpions, they \u2014 \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Sanders interjected to thank him, then was saved by the bell. The students filed out in an excited mood, several boys jealous of Jimmy Looper, claiming they could have shot better. I left with the impression that they would not only be well prepared, but positively eager for action. Who said there would never be another Greatest Generation?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Harlin Dongbetter A school district in Texas has begun a radical new program to deter school shooters, called FIRE \u2014 Firearm Imminent Rescue and Escape. Every classroom in the district will be equipped with a Glock 9mm pistol in a wall niche behind glass \u2014 like an emergency fire extinguisher, to be used only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1008,"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/1008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewashingtontoast.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}