Ohio to purchase ‘shoot houses’ for training school staff in firearm use

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio has approved the $78,000 purchase of two mobile homes for training public school staff with firearms in the event of an active shooter.

The Ohio Controlling Board, which handles making adjustments to the state budget, approved public safety officials’ request for $78,028 in March to purchase two “mobile modular shoot houses” to train public school staff who are permitted to carry firearms.

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House Bill 99, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in June 2022, allows school boards to arm specific staff members and mandates training requirements for those individuals. The law does not mandate the arming of school staff members but leaves the decision to local school boards.

Armed staff members are required to complete at least 24 hours of initial training and eight hours of annual requalification training, according to Ohio Department of Public Safety spokesperson Jay Carey. Under the law, the training must include four hours of scenario-based training, which Carey said the Ohio School Safety Center (OSSC) strives to make “as close to the real thing as possible.”

“Currently, we have movable canvas walls that can be configured to simulate responding to an active shooter in a school, like walking down a hallway, but there are limits,” Carey said. “The modular mobile shoot houses offer several advantages like doors and windows so armed school staff can practice opening doors and looking through windows just like they would find in a school.”

Carey said the OSSC is in the early stages of procuring the custom shoot houses from Kontek Industries, a North Carolina-based security service company, and hopes to have them incorporated into training this summer.

Kontek has over 40 systems across the country used in training efforts of law enforcement and civilians in response to an active shooter threat. The mobile modular shoot houses debuted in 2019.

The shoot houses can be set up in a large outdoor space at schools for training (without the use of lethal ammunition), and if there is inclement weather, the units can be moved into a large indoor space such as a gymnasium, according to Carey. The shoot houses will also be used for live-fire training courses at a firing range.

Currently, there are 67 schools and districts in 36 counties that have submitted rosters of staff that are permitted to be armed, but not everyone is on board with arming teachers and other staff.

“We have very serious concerns about asking educators who already have a lot on their plate, and who have a primary responsibility of educating children, to take on the dual role of serving as armed security guards,” said president of the Ohio Education Association Scott DiMauro.

DiMauro said the OEA would “rather not” see teachers or any school employee carrying weapons except trained security professionals, such as school resource officers. But if school boards are going to allow armed staff, he feels it's better that the staffers complete simulated training.

“If you compare Ohio to other states that do that, I don’t think there’s another state in the country that has training standards as weak as Ohio’s,” DiMauro said. “Given the incredibly high life and death stakes we’re talking about here, if any teachers are going to be authorized to carry weapons, they need to be trained in way more than 24 hours.”

Joe Eaton is the program director for FASTER Saves Lives, a firearms training organization that has worked alongside around 3,000 school staff members across 23 states. He called 24 hours an “adequate” training requirement and said the decision should be up to each school. He also estimated that about 5% to 15% of staff members in a given school are interested in firearms training.

“[Many teachers] will willingly go stand between someone with a rifle and the schoolkids and they’ll give up the last few minutes of their lives to buy the kids a few more minutes,” Eaton said. “We owe it to them to give them every opportunity they want to take to be able to go home to their families at the end of the night.”

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A large amount of the staffers that enter Eaton's firearms training program are already concealed carry license holders, he claims. But Eaton said armed staff members do not replace law enforcement or school resource officers, though they add an additional safety layer.

“Most of the studies on these past events, especially in schools, has determined that the killers are looking for a place where they assume they will meet no resistance to carry out their crimes,” Eaton said.

Armed school staff will complete training through the Ohio Department of Public Safety or an alternate training provider whose courses meet the requirements of OSSC's curriculum.

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