Devin Standard is an NRA Certified pistol instructor, a semi-skilled hunter, a defense industry executive and a family many who strives for Liberty rather than security in his life-time. He wishes the same for you and yours.

(Editor’s note: This article was a submission by GunsAmerica contributor Devin S. Standard, a high-tech defense industry executive, counter-terrorism consultant and volunteer NRA firearms instructor who writes about his adventures with firearms. Mr. Standard wishes you Liberty rather than security in your lifetime and he is willing to help you find weapons and tactics training for your family, your school or church group.)

Senseless violence, bloodshed, mayhem and death, mostly preventable, darkened the doors of another college campus this week. Whether the evildoer was a terrorist, a criminal, mentally ill or a spurned lover, it makes no difference as we must stop giving them the time and opportunity to spill the blood and splatter the brains of innocents.

I have a son in college, a daughter who is a high school senior and a son who is a high school freshman. I love them, as you love your children, and as such am seriously concerned about the criminally negligent liberal logic, policy decisions and mentality, which all help to create gun-free zones, passively naïve students and teachers, as well as insufficient and inadequate responses to active shooter attacks.

It is time to stop creating nearly cost-free, killing zones on campuses around the United States. The government has proven that it cannot protect you, and your loved ones 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per yea. In a nation of 320 million people with 1 million sworn law enforcement officers, a couple of million security guards, 12 million hunters, 22 million veterans of the armed forces, 11 million licensed concealed carry practitioners, 5 million NRA members and 99,000 schools, our students and their parents, deserve better.

I suspect, that 99.9 percent of law-abiding gun owners, carriers, competitors, and enthusiasts would gladly engage in a gunfight with a child-murdering madman (or madmen) at the peril of our own lives, if we could mitigate the slaughter of innocents. Note: I say mitigate because I am talking about reducing the body count from 30 to 20 and 10 down to 5, 2, 1, or less and not eliminating them entirely. Perfection should not be expected in this, or any other endeavor, and we must be realistic.

Leftwing Democrat dreams of creating “safe” institutions of learning by the creation of laws, regulations and “Gun Free Zone” signs is an abject failure; proven by the deaths of far too many. It is time we Americans act like our brave forefathers and take an active role in the vigorous and armed defense of innocents. It is time to understand that all adult Americans are obligated, as a duty of citizenship, to participate in the day to day defense of our families in concert with law enforcement.

If we want to stop the escalation of the body count at schools, churches and other “safe” places we need to relegate gun control and its related theories to the ash heap of history.

We need to immediately undertake the following 12 actions:

• Eliminate “Gun Free Zone” laws from all schools, churches, playgrounds, parks, and other public properties.
• Deputize all able-bodied, and willing, American adults and train them, and equip them for active shooter response. Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) is an effective and existing model of citizen disaster response volunteers working under the auspices of FEMA and trained by local firefighters and police. Firearms training and active shooter response should just be another series of training modules undertaken in concert with local 1st Responders.
• Invite these new Volunteer American Deputies, part of CERT; or not, to assist school and church security in armed patrol and armed response to active shooters.
• Indemnify these volunteers, as we indemnify Good Samaritans who render first aid to traffic victims, during the course of active shooter incidents.
• Create a FRS radio network, and a badge identification program so police, firefighters, school staff and Volunteer American Deputies can easily identify and communicate with one another during any future incidents.
• Make all existing concealed carry licenses good nationwide and welcome law-abiding gun carriers as opposed to scorning them. If you come from a state with no license requirements, such as Vermont, you would have reciprocity as well.
• Create a nationwide action shooting league which competes in Counter-Active Shooter contests thereby giving these Volunteer American Deputies a place to practice and hone their life saving skills.
• Create Counter-Active Shooter Merit badges for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Explorers and teach them how to defend themselves and their school mates.
• Teach marksmanship and firearms safety in all schools so the children will be familiar with firearms, able to understand what they do, how they operate, when they are empty, jammed or malfunctioning. Make it a graduation requirement. There are plenty of NRA certified instructors who would be happy to donate time to this effort.
• Require law enforcement and military members, retiring after 20 years of service, to serve an additional 5 years in school security in order to qualify for their pensions. I suspect most of these honorable folks would be proud to serve in this capacity.
• Harden all class rooms. NIJ IIIA armor defeats most handgun and shotgun rounds and is inexpensive. Armor all class room doors and school exterior doors.
• Teach every child to be vigilant and to be ready to fight instead of allowing himself/herself to be slaughtered like an animal. Make unarmed self-defense, escape and evasion part of gym curriculum.

Having worked in the defense and law enforcement industries for a decade, as well as having participated in competitive shooting sports and having attended a large number of firearm training schools, I am certain that the vast majority of our industry partners would gladly step up and help in the equipping and training of our new Volunteer American Deputies.

Let’s stop creating victims and start, personally, participating in the defense and safeguarding of our loved ones together with law enforcement and other responsible adults. Let’s teach our children to actively participate in their own self-defense rather than allowing them to be passively herded to their deaths. Go out and convince your congressman, your school board and your local sheriff or police chief. We can stop the madness with American courage and action. We are not a nation of sheep.