After last week's school shooting in Florida, the same debates ignite all over again: Do we arm teachers? Should assault rifles be banned?
While activists and politicians wage a war of words, Calvary Family Martial Arts and Fitness in Colorado Springs recognizes that another school shooting could happen anytime. They're doing what they can to prepare kids and adults for the new normal in our country -- active shooter situations.
Saturday's session focused on everything from how to run away from a shooter to physically confronting a gunman.
Among those in attendance was Tracy Stephens, an elementary school music teacher.
"It's awfully scary -- all of the shootings that are happening that seem to be becoming more and more and more instead of less and less and less," Stephens said.
"Everyone thinks that all these bad things happen to other people but they never think that it's going to really happen to me," Jordan Andrews, a high school senior helping out with the session, said.
Andrews knows better. He said "you never know" where an active shooter might target.
While a lot of people are asking themselves what they would do if they ever found themselves in such a situation, Stephens and Andrews are spending their own time preparing rather than waiting to find out the answer.
"Knowledge is power and I think that it's absolutely important for teachers to know what to do and to have those tools in their toolkit if they ever should need them," Stephens said.
One of the prominent techniques taught by the instructor, Isaac Costley is "distract, attack, smother and cover." If a shooter enters a classroom, students and teachers would first distract the gunman by throwing things at them. The teacher then quickly assigns some students to aim low and others to aim high to knock the gunman to the ground together. Finally, everyone would jump on the gunman -- or smother and cover them -- while the teacher disarms them.
Stephens and Andrews said the technique is great to learn but they both hope they never have to use it.
