815: Teachers Packing HEAT - Crazy Idea or Common Sense?

Brian Nichols  
What if the heroes who could save students lives in the critical first moments of a school shooting? Were actually already there on the campus? Yeah, let's talk about that. Instead of focusing on winning arguments, we're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics, teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, hey there, folks, Brian Nichols, here on The Brian Nichols Show. And thank you for joining us on a horse. Another fun filled episode. I am as always your humble host. Joining us from our lovely cardio miracle Studios here in lovely Eastern Indiana. And yes, The Brian Nichols Show is brought to you by cardio miracle but also The Brian Nichols Show is powered by amp America really excited to be part of the amp America team. You're gonna go ahead and check out some awesome articles, opinion pieces, and more. Also just stay up to date with what the heck is happening in the world today. Because yeah, the news is going a mile a minute, head over to amp america.com also yours truly excited to be one of the flagship shows over at amp America. So one more time amp america.com. And also, quick shout out to not just the entity that powers The Brian Nichols Show but also powers yours truly cardio miracle I've been using cardio miracle now for about seven months, folks, and I've said it time and again the cardio miracle difference is 1,000% real I'm saying that as someone who insanely differences for myself now, the secret ingredient is nitric oxide and the benefits to nitric oxide plus a slew of I think it's 50 plus other amazing also very tasty natural ingredients which by the way pause there are so many entities out there that like promote these like very delicious and healthy supplements. It tastes like garbage. I had this one it's a green powdered one tastes like coconut throw up No, no, thank you none of that cardio miracle delicious XR 10 from a taste standpoint, but also 10 on a 10 from the outcome standpoint for me, better sleep at night better pump at the gym, and also is the number one thing my doctor loved. That was a lower blood pressure. And I have a family history of lower of high blood pressure that is so low blood pressure. I'll take it Yes, please. So if you want to experience the cardio miracle difference for yourself, well head over to our show notes link is right there. But also just at the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash heart, you're going to be brought over to our friends at cardio miracle.com where you can go ahead and use code TBNS TV ns, The Brian Nichols Show for 15% off your order now, not only do you get 15% off your order, but there is a 100% money back guarantee. So you literally have nothing to lose except for what those sleepless nights, the high blood pressure folks reclaim your heart health and do so with cardio miracle link in the show notes, folks, cardio miracle is quite literally the best heart health supplement in the world. So I'm asking you to please experience the difference for yourself during the 10s of 1000s of other folks like yours truly, who are experiencing the cardio miracle difference for themselves. Your heart will thank you. And speaking of hearts thanking you how about the hearts of parents out there? Who let's just say the worst the unthinkable? Happens a school shooter going to their kids school. Now, you hear that? And instantly, just the worst case scenarios instantly pop up. But what if? What if the people who can actually help protect those kids and help save? Yes, the hearts of those parents were actually in the school to begin with? Yes, the very teachers who are teaching the kids maybe can help protect them to discuss that and more. Looking at the world of faster joining us here on The Brian Nichols Show from Colorado, Laura Karna welcome The Brian Nichols Show. Hi, thanks

Laura Carno  
for having me. Appreciate it.

Brian Nichols  
Looking forward to having you on the show. And yeah, talking about a super important topic but also, gosh, Lauren's gonna say a pretty darn awesome solution that you are bringing to the table here with faster but before we get there, I want to do the audience a favor and then as to get to know you, Laura. So please do us a favor, introduce yourself what's going on in the world of Colorado as it pertains to a to a rights and we're looking specifically at schools but also how you found yourself now being the face of this organization faster? Yeah,

Laura Carno  
so it's been an interesting journey in Colorado with gun rights where it used to be a conservative state with lots of gun freedoms here. And in 2013, things changed pretty big. Where Michael blue Bergen his, his folks came in and proposed all of these bills and through our legislators, and in 2013, we ended up with, we now have magazine limitations here, we have universal background checks and putting air quotes around that. And that happened in 2013. We ended up recalling two state senators in 2013, over there gun control votes. And it was kind of quiet for a few years after that. But man, it came back with a vengeance. We have a huge anti gun majority in our state legislature. And this is the year they are going hard after it. I participated in those recalls in 2013, which was great fun, it was my TV and radio commercials. I got my first death threats and all kinds of stuff. It was very educational, a very educational year for me to see just what the anti gun the so called peaceful. And when when their policies were threatened. So after our recalls, I was contacted by some folks in Ohio Buckeye firearms Association who started faster saves lives in Ohio, in the days following Sandy Hook, and they said, Hey, you should come see what we're doing out here in Ohio, went to a faster class there came back here, I was a woman on a mission to make sure that the school staffers here in Colorado who are armed and we've been doing this for 20 years, we've had the law here in Colorado, we wanted to make sure they had access to the best possible training, not just adequate training. So we put together a great program with active duty law enforcement instructors. They're all SWAT guys, they've, they've trained eyes. They're they learn every day on the job. So we have a great program. We're entering our eighth training year this year.

Brian Nichols  
Wow, eight years? Well, there's a lot to unpack there, Laura. But first of all, thank you right now, we teased this before we hit the record button. But like the whole point of the show, right, is to bring solutions to the table, that are solving the very real problems we see out there but doing so overtly outside of the realm of using Government Solutions, because anybody who's dealt with government can tell you firsthand that the best way to not get a problem solved is to go through the channel of going through government to get it fixed. But the best way the truly best way for us to solve these problems is to take up you know, the problems ourselves and to try to find those solutions and what you're bringing to the table here with faster. And I really want to dig into this because for me a a solution standpoint, this not only seems like the no brainer answer, like does, this is the common sense way to deal with school shootings. But also, this is something that it's it's become more of a topical conversation. And I hate that it has because we've seen this become more and more prevalent in our society today. But consistently, we've seen this after every school shooting, there's always the traditional argument of ban the guns, don't ban the guns. That's literally the debate. it devolves into nothingness every single time. And yet the problem still exists more on that right there speaks to why faster is so important. Because, yes, the problem is still going to exist, but what are we going to do about it? It's like, I was working with a company and they lost like all of their sales development team. And and they were like, well, what should we do? Like it's only our sales guys, and like your sales guys are gonna have to start doing some sales calls. And that was because you just have to bring a solution to the table, you can just throw your hands up and be like, Oh, no poor us. Like we actually have to solve these things. So Laura, I say all that kind of walk through faster, like what was the genesis of faster? Obviously, you mentioned what happened in Sandy Hook that? Well, I think a lot of people up in terms of this is an issue, especially as we're talking about mental health issues, but our kids, they're not protected. What are we gonna do here? What was kind of the thought process to building faster and actually getting parents now to be on board with what 10 years ago would have been, I daresay, very radical solution. Right,

Laura Carno  
and our allies 20 years old, and that if you look at that time, and that was right after Columbine, and the law was kind of passed fairly quietly from what I understand from people who are paying attention to legislation at the time. But we we protect all of our most valuable things with armed guards, or banks or members of Congress or state legislatures, the lingerie department in the department store for goodness sakes, there is an armed guard in the department, clothing and the laundry that's in there. Why is it that this separate building that's called a school that houses our children and in my case, my grandchildren, they're far more valuable than any of those other things. I talked about the money in the bank or members of Congress or whoever. What Why is there this Um, this concern about people No, you can't have guns in schools. When we got over it when we were talking about air marshals after 911, we got okay really quickly with on, you know, every 10th flight or something like that there's a dude that's concealed carrying a firearm. I think everybody felt great about that. So, eight years ago, when we started this in 2017, it's at the time, it seemed more more extreme to people fast forward eight years, it feels very mainstream. Obviously, there are a lot of people still against it, there are the the the folks that work for these organizations that do gun control, lobbying for a living, there are those professionals who are against it. But whether you're a Democrat mom or a Republican mom, you want your children coming home alive every single day, not most days, every single day is not too high a bar. And so I think in Colorado, because I do stuff like this, I talk to people and talk about the policies and what goes on in schools. And I think we've been able to really move that needle, along with, you know, it's the same needle that's been moving nationally, you know, people with their parents of school aged children or not, are becoming more and more comfortable with it. And if you are a parents of school aged children, you are even more comfortable with our staff in schools. So it's really been a very evolving policy and in a positive way, very much

Brian Nichols  
so. And let's dig into faster, right, because faster is, and correct me if I'm wrong, but more or less, we are empowering the actual teachers, the faculty and staff at these schools to feel much like you articulated with the Air Marshal, right to have a weapon that they will have concealed, whether that's in their desk, on their person, whatever it may be. And if I'm wrong in the details, please correct me later as we go on. But like, the idea being that if the proverbial blank was to hit the fan, and a school shooter was to show up, that instead of waiting for 510 15 minutes for police, armed services to show up, we have people in the building who can actually defend themselves. Right. And you said it earlier, Laura, that like the fact that we defend so much with armed guards, whether it's our banks, or lingerie departments, what, like the fact that we will do all of that, and yet we don't have the same intensity in protecting our children. It leads me to say maybe there's some other questions that we need to be asking, but let's kind of dig into faster what, how does it how does this take place? Right? How does how does a school district get faster? incorporate into their security protocols? And then to the teachers? How do teachers become part of this faster? I guess, curriculum, if you could.

Laura Carno  
Yeah. And so I'll take a step back to sort of identify some some terms. So faster Colorado, our organization is at its base, a training organization. So when people say they need to get faster in their schools, what they really need is for their school to adopt these policies. So the way that the law works is that school boards make the decision. So it's a very local control kind of thing. So when a school board makes a decision that their school is going to have armed school staff, they go through a process of selecting the people. And I think that's what a lot of people are wondering, how does that how does that happen? So first of all, these are all volunteers. They are hand picked. They go through vetting processes, like written applications, panel interviews, additional background checks, those kinds of things. And then once they pass the vetting process at the school, and they become part of that arm team, they have to get training. So they can go wherever they want to get training, we think we have put together the the best training program that is focused on ARM school security teams, and they come through our class, they do this every year, they have to get re qualified and get additional skills every year. But that's essentially how it goes. These are all volunteers. They are not just teachers, only 40%. About 40%, or teachers 60% or some other position than teachers. So we have lots of janitors and coaches and principals and we've had a lunch lady and a school nurse, nurse, but people from all walks of life in the school are eligible under the law and then whoever whoever it works out, however it shakes out of each individual school district and is without the complement of people. Are who our arms.

Brian Nichols  
Very cool. Okay, so now you mentioned you guys are a training organization. So let's talk about the training. What are you teaching faculty staff, which by the way I love it's not just teachers, janitors, health instructors, gym teachers, yeah, like get them all jacked up, ready to roll. But like, talk to us, what what, what does the actual courses look like? What does the actual trainings look like? And how are you applying those specific trainings? To? Yeah, pretty like, not dangerous, but like a very delicate environment, you have little kids running around. So how

Laura Carno  
does that look? Yeah, and let me say one thing about, you know, coaches and janitors, because they, we always seem to get coaches and janitors with every, every, we find a lot of people who have a second career in education have their first career in the military. And so that tends to lead to a mindset saying, you know, sign me up, I want to protect children. But the training, so I mentioned that all of our instructors are active duty law enforcement instructors. So they are anything from Academy directors, to swat commanders and SWAT team leaders and that sort of thing. We actually have a medically trained person on our team as well, who runs a battalion for a fire service. He's also a marine and a firearms instructor. But he has our all of our medical curriculum, and he obviously can help on the line because he's a firearms instructor as well. But this is the same stuff that they're teaching in academies and in law enforcement in service training on how you stop an active killer. So when when people who are concerned about this say, Well, how good could they be the same thing? Your training cops? Well, yeah, it is actually the exact same thing that they trained cops on how to stop active killers. It's the same guys doing it. And we even train at law enforcement training facilities. So they have access to the same equipment, the same facilities, we have police simulators, all that kind of stuff. Wow.

Brian Nichols  
Okay, so this might be a step away from the conversation, but more so. Laura, is it more? So? And this is just general theme? Is it just that we all are realizing? I don't know. 2024? That like, nobody's coming to save you? Right? Like, there isn't some proverbial person out, you know, miles away riding a big shiny horse coming in to save the day, there's no UFOs coming down to, you know, take us to their leader and be like, that's your leader. But another none of that. We are at the point where more and more folks I think are going to wake up and say, yep, it's go time. Like, we got to be the ones to protect ourselves, protect our kids, protect the things that really matter. And I think, man, it does it stink, I was gonna say it stinks that we're at this point, but I kind of think it's the opposite. Right? And here's why. Because, in my experience, and I'd love to hear your experience, Laura, but like, I used to see it all the time I would I I'm a political right. I love talking about the issues, the problems, the solutions, and I would go talk to my friends. And it would just be like, Oh, Ki dokie. Brian, like, that's great. Like, can we go talk about, you know, the football game that's on right now? Or like, can they go go to the bar, all that stuff. And now I'm seeing all those those friends who just thought I was out to lunch because I was so invested in politics and solutions. Now the other ones saying, dude, I was listening to your show the other day, love that person who was on talking about XYZ solution. We got to really implement that now when I'm like, Where have you been, but to the point where I think it's just that more and more folks are looking around, realizing that we have a geriatric president who, you know, it's Joe Biden, and you look at our, our betters, our rulers, our leaders. I mean, not trying to get political in the philosophical sense here, but we're a libertarian show and your governor Jared Polis, I've heard time and again, touted as being the most libertarian governor in America. I don't think that's true. I look at him and I say, um, maybe the exact opposite, because, you know, the fact that you guys are bringing faster to schools is almost in a direct response to the legislation that's been coming down from Jared Polis. So yeah, I say all that like, is it a good thing that we are at this point now, where so many folks are, in fact, starting to wake up, writing's on the wall, no one's coming to save us. But now we are bringing solutions, real tangible solutions that that to the table that we can start to implement right now. Yeah,

Laura Carno  
and let me give some context to that. I agree with you that we are getting more self reliant. And I think that's a good thing. In the early days of these policies in Colorado, the early adopters were rural schools, and what did the rural schools have in common? They were 20 3040 minutes away from law enforcement. They're in these sprawling counties with a couple sheriff's deputies and you're lucky if somebody's close by more likely he's going to be, you know, 20 3040 minutes away. So they did the math very early on that they are their own first responders and they needed to make accommodation for that. What's happened is that it's moved into the suburbs. So Colorado Springs which is a it's not as big as Denver, but it's a pretty big metro area. They just released the their response times within the city of Colorado Springs is something like 1314 minutes. That's not okay. And then if you do the math, just on some more recent than Columbine school shootings here in Colorado, Arapahoe high school, there was a school resource officer there it took him 46 seconds to sprint toward the sound of what was going on in the library. And he got there the killer took his own life, but it wasn't in time to save Claire Davis. She was shot and subsequently succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. fort that was 46 seconds STEM school shooting. Just five years ago, Kendra Castillo, an 18 year old student lunged at one of the two shooters, taking the fatal shot to his chest saved a whole roomful of children. That happened in seconds, the only person who could have saved Kendrick Castillo was Miss Harper, the teacher in that room, had she been able to be armed. So so when you look at these big response times people say, oh, yeah, that makes sense. You don't have anybody around you. But then when you look at how quickly these things happen, it actually were Kendricks wristband on my wrist to remind me, he's the spirit of what we do, no child should ever have to make that decision to lunge at a shooter to save his friends. Adults should be doing that well trained adults should be doing that. And so So yeah, it's it's a pretty interesting thing to see how this evolution has happened. And and we've seen faster train schools move from just mostly rural, into suburban schools.

Brian Nichols  
Laura, we are at that part of the show where we start to wrap things up and to the audience. Now we have a national actually, we have an international audience, which is pretty darn cool. But for the folks listening here in the continental United States, who are like, this sounds freaking awesome. Sign us up yesterday at our school. What's the process? How can parents get involved? How can administrators school faculty staff, how can they all get involved? Laura, the floor is yours.

Laura Carno  
You need to do is figure out what is it like in your state there 3032 34, something like that states that have some lawful process to allow arm stuff in school. So find out what that is in your state. And then, you know, reach out to me my our website, by the way is faster. colorado.org reached out to me and I, between us and the folks in at faster saves lives in Ohio, one of us will know if there's something going on in your in your state where somebody's already trying to push this. Is there a faster or faster type presence in your state that sort of has all of this organization already put together that you can plug into a referred to faster as primarily a training organization earlier, but holy cow do we know a whole lot more than that, because we know all of these folks that we've trained over the years. And so we do know a lot about what's going on. But first find out the law and then, you know, help get you plugged in to some efforts that are going on in your state. And every time I'm on a show like this that has some international reach, you know, who I always hear from is people from Australia. Who say Don't let happen in the United States. What happened in Australia?

Brian Nichols  
Yes. Oh my gosh, we actually I forget his name. But we had a gentleman on the show back during COVID. And his his Twitter name was Liberty down under I think it was and more or less during the COVID insanity. He said the same thing. He's like, Don't Don't let what happened here happened yet there because you guys are even though we see all the non freedom, non Liberty things. He's like, You guys are still the bastion of freedom and liberty. We

Laura Carno  
have a second we have a second amendment, at least at least we have an opportunity for things like the Bruin decision here where they just don't have that opportunity in places like Australia.

Brian Nichols  
Never say it couldn't happen here because you look around especially now. I moved from Big Blue City Philadelphia to lovely Eastern Indiana and that was entirely intentional because I watched it happen firsthand. And I saw in my home state of New York State it happening and I couldn't raise a family there. Laura like I made a conscious decision that I was not going to raise my family in areas that I can't put my myself and my family in the best position, not just for success, but also for for safeties for security. Now, we talk about and by the way we do final thoughts here. So I'll do my final thought. And I'll turn things over to you to wrap your end up. But like we we talked about wanting to to bring, bring solutions to the table, but you can't do it through a one size fits all approach, right? It has to be targeted. And we've seen time and again, where our betters in government have tried to solve these problems by doing these cookie cutter approaches. And it doesn't work that way, right. And looking to when I moved out of the Big Blue City, watching the cookie cutter approach, fail time and time and time again, I said, No, no more of this. Like if I need to go to an area where I can make sure that my family is safe and secure, I want to go to an area that I know we have the best opportunity to grow. And the safe and secure standpoint, it's not a matter of me sacrificing freedoms, but rather being able to actually take advantage of freedoms like to be able to defend myself and my family to be able to go to a gun store and get a gun if I need to, without a waiting period or without all the nonsense and the red tape that usually would go through if you're in a red, or big blue area. So I say all that. It's so important for us not just to talk about these issues and bring solutions to the table. But this again, we talked about this a few years ago, but being around people who are at least build your network with those who think like you who encourage you to go down these paths of freedom and liberty and help build the right solutions. It's important to be around those who also are in the positive mentality of bringing solutions to the table versus just saying, problem. What are we going to do about it? So I say all that, Laura? Yes, thank you for what you're doing faster. Thank you for bringing solutions to the table. And thank you for for, you know, helping actually give parents like me an option now to say there are choices school districts can take versus a one size fits all approach. That's my final thoughts. Laura, what do you have for us on your end today?

Laura Carno  
Yeah, you know, for folks that think this is an odd policy. I would ask them this question. If gunfire started at your kids school, at your grandkids school, what is the school's plan? If there is nobody armed there, and I don't mean one guy who's 46 seconds away. If there is nobody armed there, what is going to happen to your children and your grandchildren? What Kate, what we see keep happening is these teachers and coaches and counselors and janitors, put themselves between bullet. We know that these school employees have the right mindset to save lives, because we see them keep doing it. We see them giving up their lives. In an attempt to save children. We want them to have the tools to be able to stop the killer to save your kids and have a chance to go home to their own family at night.

Brian Nichols  
Laura Karno the organization is faster, faster, Colorado. It's been a pleasure. Laura, thank you so much for joining us. And folks, if you got some value from today's episode, which let's be real. I know you did go ahead and give it a share. When you do please tag yours truly over on Facebook as well as on Twitter x.com at be Nichols. Liberty, Laura, where can folks go ahead and follow you follow faster Colorado if they want to learn more and stay in touch?

Laura Carno  
Yes, faster. colorado.org and we're on Instagram, Facebook and acts as well. Follow us find us. Shoot me a note through the website. I'm happy to talk to anyone out there.

Brian Nichols  
Also Laura's got a website, Laura karno.com. I'll include that link in the show notes as well, Laura, it's been an absolute fantastic conversation. And folks, thank you for listening to the show. Now you know the drill folks, you've watched the show you listen to the show. But that means that there are folks out there who have not yet watched or listened to the show, so you need to show them where they can find us. So if you want them to listen to the show, your favorite audio podcast platforms, Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube music, I prefer podcast addict wherever it is you get your podcasts, hit subscribe, hit download all unplayed episodes. Reason being. We have over 800 episodes here of The Brian Nichols Show going all the way back to 2018. So I guarantee as you dig through there specifically as we're talking about to a issues, you know, all the stuff from school shootings and more all those conversations very nuanced and contextual, discussed over at the show, Brian Nichols show.com find all those at your favorite podcasting platform, video version of the show, YouTube, YouTube rumble, Ben Swan, sovereign x.com and Facebook. Yes, all five platforms, we are uploading the entire video version of the show. So if for whatever reason we get nuked on one platform, you know where else to find us. So please go ahead, give us some love over there, hit that little like button, hit the notification bell as well and also head down below in the comments. Let us know your thoughts. Do you wish that faster was a type of program that was actually being taught or you know, implemented at your school where your kids are going to school? Or if you're in school? Was it something you wish you could see happen? Let us know your thoughts and hey, maybe if you want to go ahead and get something started, go ahead and reach out to Laura. I bet she has some good ideas of where to start. With that being said one last final thing, please support the folks who support The Brian Nichols Show, and that is our sponsors. So whether it's cardio miracle evil CBD liquid freedom energy T BNC technology advisors or more, please go ahead and support them because they're the ones who helped us keep the lights on. So with that being said, that's all we have for you today. Brian Nichols signing off here in The Brian Nichols Show for Laura Karno. We'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai