Gun range inside Vault Arms in Tyler. 

With a mission to protect students and educate their leaders, Vault Arms is offering free basic handgun fundamental courses to all teachers and administrators.

The Tyler business, which sells firearms and offers a gun range for local residents, is hosting the classes in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Uvalde.

The firearm business took to their social media platforms to announce the new offer that will start in mid-June. The courses are open to educators such as teachers, substitute teachers, homeschool teachers and all types of administrators from any school district, local or non-local.

The goal is to prepare the educators and educate them on the basics of firearms, including safe and effective handling. The courses will provide them with skills and knowledge in case a threat occurs on campus, said James Dufner, range manager at Vault Arms.

“We’re offering a basic fundamentals course just to give teachers a foundation where they can build further knowledge. We want to get them familiar with firearms, so possibly in the future they can take their license to carry class and if their school board allows it, have them carry it in their classroom where they have some kind of protection,” he said.

The classes will be two hours long from 5 to 7 p.m., can hold up to 24 students each and will start on June 17, said Dufner.

Other classes will be on June 20, 24, 27 and July 1, where attendees will be learning the basics with a ‘dummy firearm’ such as how to stand, how to properly grip a firearm, and other basics.

Dufner also mentioned classes will only be in the classroom rather than the range.

The courses are designed for those who have little or no knowledge of firearms or who just want a refresher on the basics. The goal is to leave the course with being comfortable on the fundamentals and without fear on how to use a handgun.

“If we can just do this regular basic class to get them to be more comfortable with firearms to where they are not scared of them, that’s what we want to do,” Dufner said. “We want to get as many people behind this as we can to try to help, that’s all we’re trying to do is help. We’re not in it for money, we’re just trying to keep our kids safe, that’s our main goal here.”

Educators will also receive a 10% discount on range time, handgun rentals and anything they might need for the range, Dufner said.

Dufner said the first class is currently full but the other dates are still open. He also mentioned how the business decided to do it right now due to summer vacation availability for educators.

“We thought it would be a good time for teachers to be able to come in because there’s no school right now and we want to try to get as many teachers as we can to get involved with this,” he said.

The courses are offered at no cost. Dufner emphasized that the business is doing whatever it takes to help with protection and prevention of anything happening around the area.

“We have a bunch of people that work here who have young kids and we would hate for something like this to happen anywhere around here,” Dufner said. “If we can train some of our teachers around here to be more prepared for something, then we’re going to do it and we will do it for free.”

To register for the free courses, you can go to https://bit.ly/3atX5xn .

For more information on what the business offers, visit https://www.vaultarms.com. Questions or concerns? you can call the business at (903) 871-1221 or go in-person at 417 W. Elm St. in Tyler.