In Missouri, more teachers will be armed when schools open their doors this year. Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, nine states have passed laws allowing teachers to have firearms in school. Educators have been attending target practice and other training programs to learn how to defend themselves and their students in the case of a school shooting. 

According to CBSNews.com, these teachers are armed anonymously, and only the local police and school board will be aware. In Missouri, local school boards decide whether faculty can be armed, and 12 of the state's districts employ teachers who are getting weapons training at Shield Solutions in West Plains. 

"We've taken people who have never really handled a handgun at all and given them this training and turn them out to where they score a 90 percent," said former Highway Patrolman Greg Martin. The program includes five hours in the classroom and 35 hours on the gun range. "We make it as realistic as possible because in the event that that happens, God forbid, we want them to be ready."

According to the article, an administrator said she chose to go through the program because she's from "a rural school. And the response time is so slow to get any law enforcement help...I felt it was important, if I was able to help and do something to protect our kids."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor