Children as young as four are being taught what to do in school gun attack

A former American police officer is teaching children as young as four what to do in the event of a school shooting.

There have been 316 mass shootings in the US this year alone and 525 children of primary school age have been killed or injured by guns.

Active shooter drills are now a common part of the curriculum but there is little political will by the Donald Trump administration to change the current US gun laws.

Instead of banning deadly ‘weapons of war’ from the streets, children are being taught how to tackle an active shooter.

Former SWAT officer Joe Deedon said gun possession in the US was ‘part of our heritage’ and the weapons ‘aren’t going anywhere.’

Mr Deedon, 38, runs TAC*ONE Consulting who provide Active Shooter Training at schools in the US.

Young children are taught to follow their teacher away from danger, holding hands as they go like ducklings follow their mother.

He said it was ‘age appropriate’ but kids as young as four already knew they might have to avoid ‘a bad person.’

He told the Mirror: ‘They are so sharp, some even know the proper words for it, answering ‘in case someone tries to shoot us.’

Since the Columbine shooting in April 1999 that saw 12 students and one teacher murdered, the advice had been to hide.

Mr Deedon said that now was the time for youngsters as young as ten to be taught ‘more options’ including tackling a gunman who is brandishing a loaded weapon.

He continued: ‘It’s just being realistic, the students have been the missing link for 20 years.

‘Kids can be a very good asset and the training is changing.

‘We are not advocating being a hero but sometimes when in a deadly situation to fight is the only option.’

Mr Deedon, who owns 25 guns himself, appeared on Good Morning Britain and clashed with hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.

He disputed their statistics over the number of massacres and instead of blaming the gun, claimed failures in background checks and mental health provisions were fuelling the rise in mass shootings.

Ms Reid lambasted the former cop from Arizona, saying: ‘They are ten year old children.

‘I cannot believe how it doesn’t frighten the life out of a ten year old to think they are sitting in class and they have to have on their minds the possibility that someone might come into their school, armed to the teeth, in order to kill them and they might have to take down that individual.

‘They are children, they shouldn’t have to think about this.’

Mr Deedon said the kids were not traumatised by his lessons, adding they were a continuation of drills that had been part of school life since Columbine.

He added: ‘For the last 20 years, we have been indoctrinating them into this anyway and we gave them one option – to hide in the corner.

‘All we are trying to do is give them more options.’

Mr Morgan pointed out that an average of 32,000 people die from guns in the US each year.

He then questioned why America had not done more to ‘remove some of the weapons of war from the hands of deranged young teenagers.’

Mr Deedon replied: ‘It’s part of our heritage, it’s a recreational sport. I love shooting them and I don’t commit crimes with them just like the other 99.9% of law-abiding gun owners.’

Mr Morgan pointed out that the UK is currently in the grip of a knife epidemic and said the answer was to increase the punishments for carrying a blade.

He added: ‘We try to be tough on knife crime. We don’t sit there going “hey, we have a right to bear knives”.

‘We would think that is ridiculous.’