Nearly 50 people, including nine teachers, attended a Saturday concealed weapons class at a Colorado Springs hotel.

They learned safety, firearms laws, how to pick a weapon and all about ammunition. They also learned about the responsibilities that accompany gun ownership, especially if you carry a concealed weapon.

Eric Jones, a trainer with Rocky Mountain Gun Owners told students that having a concealed weapon doesn’t mean showing it off to friends, or waving it around in a fit of road rage, garnering chuckles from the crowd.

“It’s about leaving it concealed until it’s a life-or-death situation and you have to do what no one wants to do and shoot someone,” he said.

It’s a brutal concept, Jones said, but those interested in pursuing a permit need to keep it in mind.

“A lot of people walk out of the class and decide not to carry,” Jones said.

On teacher at a recent class told Jones she couldn’t wrap her head around all the issues that come with a concealed weapons permit, he said. Instead of a firearm, he recommended she pursue hand-to-hand self-defense classes.

In part because of recent events and proposals to regulate firearms that followed, there is more interest than ever before in gun classes, organizers said.

Twenty children and six adults died in a December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.. In Colorado, past gun violence and the shooting in a crowded Aurora movie theater over the summer keep the subject at the forefront of discussions.

About 300 Colorado teachers, administrators and school employees traveled to Broomfield last week for a concealed weapons and school safety class.

Educators who take classes aren’t generally willing to identify themselves and those at Saturday’s class were no exception.

“The teachers’ union is not friendly to this.” Jones said, adding that they take the class for the same reason anyone does: “They don’t want to be a victim.”

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is the state’s largest gun group, and holds three to four classes a month.

“Right now there’s a huge demand for them, so we’re doing a lot more,” Jones said.

The lectures and slide presentations aren’t the only training available, and Jones said he pushes live-fire training as well.

“Train, train, train,” he admonished his students on Saturday during the four-hour class.

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