Ignatius Piazza, Where Do We Turn?

Ignatius Piazza agrees: Terrible atrocities like the one Americans were forced to witness on the 16th of April in Virginia cause many different reactions. Typically, the primary reaction is the need for something, sometimes advice, maybe companionship, solace or guidance. Occasions like this cause us as Americans to turn to family; cause us to turn to friends; an unfortunately increasing number turn to psychologists and therapists; an even more unfortunate number turn to lawmakers. What is it which causes this final reaction? What makes people think that lawmakers have the cure-all to hideous problems like this? Whatever the reason, citizens want an assurance that such an act couldn’t happen again, and recently, many lawmakers have been all too willing to fulfill that assurance.

Enter Dr. Ignatius Piazza. Piazza is the founder of Front Sight Firearms Training Facility. Front Sight is an acclaimed firearm training resort-style school near Las Vegas, Nevada.

If times like ours force Americans to turn to experts for advice, Dr. Ignatius Piazza is the man we should be talking to: not only is he a Four Weapons Combat Master himself (an extremely difficult, rigorous testing of firearm proficiency), but Front Sight trains and graduates more fully trained firearms users than all other firearm institutes in America combined.

Very recently, Ignatius Piazza has decided that Front Sight will be taking an entirely new approach to the problem of violent gun deaths in schools. Piazza announced that Front Sight will now be offering free firearms training to any school administrator, teacher, or full time staff member designated as school Safety Monitors. Obviously, â€oeSafety Monitorâ€� is not a title one affixes to oneself to get free training. Applicants must submit a letter requesting training on school letterhead signed by the top school district official and designating the applicant as the school's Safety Monitor.

Ignatius Piazza’s approach is not a unique one. His motivation has numerous precedents, though publicity for their success is low, because the answer is not what legislators want us to accept: gun control; it is gun responsibility. As Ignatius Piazza himself says, â€oeThe problem is not guns. Guns don't cause these incidents to occur anymore than cameras cause child pornography or automobiles cause traffic fatalities. Israel had the right answer. Society is safer when we train and arm our law abiding citizens.â€�

The example Ignatius Piazza references, Israel, is an interesting one. In the early 70’s, Israel was facing terrible a terrible dilemma in the form of armed terrorist attacks on schools. Obviously, there was a public outcry for gun control. But the Israeli government did not act hastily. They considered all options and decided that the most effective method to prevent hostile gun-carriers was to have responsible, capable gun-carriers to deter them. Israel adopted the solution of arming and training its teachers. School shootings stopped.

Of course, this is news that Americans don’t ever hear, solely because it means that gun control does not work and gun training does. And that is the last thing gun-control legislators want the citizenry to realize: that responsibility and gun training are the keys to preventing violent gun deaths.

So what should Americans do? Should we turn to our gun-control-crazed legislators and ask them to stop law-abiding citizens from carrying any and all firearms while waiting for the law-breaking citizens to take advantage of the fact that no one carries firearms anymore? Or should we turn to Ignatius Piazza and Front Sight and train our teachers and administrators in effective, responsible handling of firearms to prevent such atrocities from occurring ever again?