concealed gun
A newly-formed group in Federal Way has a plan to put armed volunteers in each of the city's public schools. (AP Photo/file)

Federal Way group pushing for armed volunteers in schools

BY Brandi Kruse  on February 18, 2013 @ 3:37 pm (Updated: 3:55 pm - 2/18/13 )

A newly-formed group in Federal Way has a plan to put armed volunteers in each of the city's public schools.

The group, which will meet formally for the first time on Tuesday, calls itself the School Alliance for Every Student's Tomorrow (SAFEST).

Mark Knapp, a firearm attorney who heads the group, said unpaid volunteers would be the most cost-effective way to prevent a mass shooting like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

He told KIRO Radio's Dori Monson Show that the volunteers would be trained to the same standards as law enforcement and would also undergo a psychological evaluation.

Knapp said that armed volunteers in plainclothes would be more effective than uniformed officers on campus.

"Because any active shooter has to reckon with the fact that he's going to be met with deadly force if he goes into a school," Knapp said. "He doesn't know where, or when, or from whom that force is going to be applied."

The Federal Way Police Department is opposed to the idea. A police spokesperson tells KING 5 that it already has resource officers in each high school and is prepared to handle a mass shooting scenario.

Brandi Kruse, KIRO Radio Reporter
Brandi Kruse is a reporter for KIRO Radio who is as spontaneous and adventurous in her free time as she is on the job. Brandi arrived at KIRO Radio in March 2011 and has already collected three regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her reporting.
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Comments (65)


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  • hpitantso wrote...
    Sound like a race
    February 18, 2013 10:57 pm
    Too make the first kill.FWSD has not had a school shooting in need of these old farts, which means not needed.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • getitallright wrote...
    hpitantso- You've outdone your previous idiotic comment
    February 19, 2013 1:36 am
    "FWSD has not had a school shooting in need of these old farts, which means not needed...." Tell that to the Sandy Hook parents.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hpitantso wrote...
    getitallright wrote...idiot like you
    February 19, 2013 4:32 am
    Are old farts going to match gun for gun etc...Bushmaster AR-15 AK-47 or 30+ clips are you a member of this "vigilante" group that wants in Federal Way Schools?, do you have students,that attend these schools, does (SAFEST) have students in schools? Will there be diversity or just white men with guns? If I thought this made sense I be a Idiot!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • circuitfr wrote...
    hey hpitantso
    February 19, 2013 6:28 am
    and any other person here who acts like they even know what a gun is. It is a "magazine", not a CLIP. You sound so stupid when you've never shot a gun. Bushmaster is also a manufacturer. They are no different than ANY other producer of AR-15's, but you use "Bushmaster" like "Xerox" for copiers. Fact is, rifles, and ALL rifles cause an insignificant amount of the gun deaths. Handguns are used in 95+% of all these shootings. Columbine, Virginia Tech, etc..etc... The fact is, statistically, the shooters are going to have handguns. Also, you act like if someone has a rifle, that a handgun is no match. Most modern handguns in 9mm can carry 17+ rounds. I'll take my chances breaching the classroom in sandy hook with 17 rounds against his AR in close quarters. I'm pretty sure my gun kills too. The Sandy Hook shooting had very little to do with the type of weapon he had. It had to do with the age group of students he shot. He was MENTALLY toast. Beyond gone, yet our prescription society decides to medicate and his crappy parents decide to make poor choices. 99.99999% will never go to shooting kids, even most crazy people. Most school shootings are revenge, high school, college, etc...for feeling pooped on. The fact is, since he was willing to go to a grade school with any less chance of any type of resistance, he could of brought in his grandpas old 6 shooter and killed 26 people. Who was going to stop him? 100 pound female teachers and 6 year olds?
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  • circuitfr wrote...
    finally
    February 19, 2013 6:34 am
    if "Bushmasters" are so evil, how to you explain Virginia Tech? A frieking .22 pistol. The lowliest of all handguns. I little .22 caliber, usually the first gun a 5 year old shoots. The next one, a 9mm. Do very small calibers, yet killed so many people? Why? Because even a .22 is deadly. In fact, one of the common calibers to kill. Are we going to ban .22 guns? The cheapest, smallest common caliber in production? The point is ALL guns KILL. That is their point. I would have more respect for anti-gun points of view if you at least said, ban ALL guns, go into EVERY house, and take EVERY gun. Complete disarm. At least I could take you seriously that you really did care about people and wanted to "protect" them. Spouting retarded ideas of ban 30 round mags and bushmasters is emotionally charged and doesn't solved anything. Either your for or against guns. If Adam's mother hadn't had the AR-15, and had a .22 instead, he would've grabbed the .22. *maybe* 23 die instead of 26, but in your mind, that's acceptable?
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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    You Left wing Parrots don't want a solution to this. You don't want this stopped
    February 19, 2013 6:14 am
    All you mindless useful idiots want is the end of gun ownership. You Parrots are sickening. Using the deaths of children to advance the political agenda of your Dear Leader Obama!

    The destruction our our US Constitution and all of us Americans dependent upon your Dear Leader just as all you mindless morons are. All the while conveniently leaving out the fact that only criminals will have guns if your Dear Leader and your beloved Liberals gets his/there way.

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  • hpitantso wrote...
    circuitfr wrote...
    February 19, 2013 12:48 pm
    Apple and oranges schools are not prisons people before personal weapons of mass distruction is the focus of school grounds
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • rational wrote...
    hpitantso
    February 19, 2013 5:54 pm
    ...people before personal weapons of mass distruction is the focus of school grounds

    So what you're saying is you don't want the children protected. Got it. But next time there is a shooting at a school and someone demands to know why, you be sure to step forward and say you didn't want the children protected. You explain to those parents why their children are dead because of progressives like yourself.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hpitantso wrote...
    Vigilante justice from Groups like (SAFEST)
    February 21, 2013 12:46 pm
    Only idiots who think vigilante groups like (SAFEST) are the annotated justice of our kids safety. If this is so they should be pulling their kids out now and home schooling them. Are these idiots in the FWSD hallways now with there egos on their hips? NO! Looney bugs also should use the tag Far Right losers rational
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