Texas gun store owner calls to arm teachers, offers them concealed-carry discount

A gun store owner near Austin, Texas -- who has previously refused to do business with Muslims or Obama-voting liberals -- is offering teachers a discount on training for conceal-carry permits because he believes the solution to mass shootings is to have more guns in schools.

Keller's Riverside Gun Store owner Crockett Keller told KRLD on Monday that the recent slaughter of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut had prompted him to offer a special deal to teachers.

"As we do with veterans, I would offer them a discount," Keller said. "Our normal rate is $110. So, I would give them a rate of $90. If they are teachers, we would be more than happy to do that."

"I think we need to lobby our various state governments to allow teachers to be armed," he added. "We have airline pilots that now carry pistols or weapons of some sort -- firearms -- and same thing to, I think, need to happen in these gun-free zones that are so dangerous."

But Houston Federation of Teachers President Gayle Fallon told the station that the idea of arming teachers was crazy.

"I knew this would come up at some point, there would be people who think the answer is to put guns on campus," Fallon explained. "Frankly, I think it’s absurd."

"In a lot of cases, the perpetrator is a kid. Look at Columbine, it was a 14-year-old kid. You tell me a teacher is going to look in the eyes of a 14-year-old and pull the trigger — it’s not in their emotional make up."

Keller, however, insisted that any place without guns was "at risk."

"I don't go to Mexico anymore because I can't carry my weapon there," the Texan said. "It's a killing field within itself. We need to start thinking out of the box and deal with this violent culture."

In a radio advertisement for concealed-carry classes last year, Keller vowed not to instruct anyone who was a "socialist liberal and/or voted for the current campaigner-in-chief."

"Also, if you are a non-Christian Arab or Muslim, I will not teach you the class," he said in the ad. "Once again, with no shame, I am Crockett Keller. Thank you and God bless America."

The Texas Department of Public Safety briefly investigated Keller but dropped the investigation after they said he "affirmed that he would not refuse instruction to anyone based on national origin, race or religion."

Keller's Riverside Gun Store continues to sell a T-shirt that reads: "If you are Muslim and will not pledge allegiance to the United States of America, I will not sell you any firearm or accessory. -Crockett Keller, Jesus Akbar."

Republican Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert on Sunday also said that schools would be safer if the principal at Sandy Hook had been armed with an M4 carbine assault rifle designed for urban warfare.

"I wish to God she had had an M4 in her office locked up," Gohmert opined. "So, when she heard gunfire she pulls it out and she didn’t have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands, but she takes him out, takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids."

Listen to this audio from KRLD, broadcast Dec. 17, 2012.

Watch this video from KVUE, broadcast Oct. 27, 2011.