At least 12 school districts in rural Colorado have armed teachers and staff to protect themselves and students in the event of a Sandy Hook-style attack.

The move comes as rural districts weigh police response time, which is up to “60 minutes” in some instances, and the cost of hiring/paying a security guard.

According to the Denver Post, teachers and staff in the Briggsdale School District in Weld County welcome the move toward arming up. Briggsdale Superintendent Rick Mondt said, “There’s a bunch of us out here in a kind of no-man’s land.”

El Paso County’s Hanover School District is another district in which teachers are being armed. Hanover school board member Randy Underwood believes that “even the hint that some school personnel are willing to draw weapons to secure the safety of students will make a prospective attacker think twice before acting.” He added, “I think posting signs saying this is a ‘Gun-Free Zone’ has been a disservice and puts people in danger. It just makes a school a soft target.”

Retired teacher and current gun control proponent Eileen McCarron opposes the idea of teachers being armed for self-defense. She said, “Throughout the day, teachers are in close proximity to students, in addition to accidents we are placing loaded weapons inches from individuals who have far less restraint than adults. The idea of having teachers carrying loaded weapons in the classroom is ludicrous.”

McCarron did not cite an instance where an armed teacher in any school district in any state has had his or her gun taken away by a student and used with bad intent. There are, however, a myriad of examples of people storming into schools where teachers are unarmed, shooting both teachers and students at will, and stopping only when police arrive.

Colorado law currently bars “firearms in the classroom but does allow for security personnel to be armed.” The rural districts are using this law to their benefit by training certain teachers and staff to be security guards, thereby meeting the state’s threshold for legally carrying guns on campus.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.