The issue of whether teachers should be allowed to carry guns in schools is not going away anytime soon in Colorado.

On Saturday, more than 400 educators — two-thirds of them women — from throughout the region will gather at the Centennial Gun Club for a free conceal-carry class, the largest one-day training session ever in Colorado, organizers say.

While politicians are reluctant to announce any bills before the legislative session begins in January, it is expected that a measure or two that could allow teachers to carry guns in school will be introduced.

This past session, a bill that would have left it up to school districts to decide the issue was killed by Democrats in committee. A similar proposal was defeated the year before.

“I think it is definitely a political topic, and certainly the folks on the Second Amendment side of the issue strongly believe it’s a potential deterrent,” political analyst Floyd Ciruli said of guns in schools. “I can’t imagine they won’t introduce it.”

Paul Stanley, manager of Centennial Gun Club, said the class was a response to ongoing school shootings and other places that have been deemed gun-free zones throughout the country. Aside from trainers, Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler and Arapahoe County Sheriff David Walcher will be on hand to lead sessions on legal issues.

“We look at gun-free zones and see too many instances of predators and deranged people who want to make their last blast in an area where they can wound and kill people,” Stanley said. “Training our educators on how to use firearms safely will help them gain confidence and competence in the handling and use of firearms and could prevent the next Columbine, the next Sandy Hook.”

But first they have to be able to do so legally.

According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, eight states allow school personnel to carry guns in some form or fashion, whether they are concealed or stored in a lock box.

State Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, has supported legislation in the past that would have allowed individual school districts to decide whether teachers can carry concealed handguns at schools. But his measure was defeated.

Harvey says his wife is a teacher and that he has two kids in school. One of them attends Arapahoe High School and was across the hall when Karl Pierson opened fire in December 2013, killing student Claire Davis.

“Creating safe zones does nothing but ensure nobody is there to confront a criminal when he enters the schools,” said Harvey, who is term-limited. “My wife is a sitting duck, and my kids are sitting ducks.”

However, anti-gun groups strongly disagree, saying there are better ways to address school violence, such as increased security measures and better training for school staff members to recognize students who might be at risk for violence.

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence says efforts to do away with the federal Gun-Free School Zone Act, passed in 1994, are dangerous and counterproductive and that teachers aren’t trained like law enforcement on how to use guns, according to the group’s website.

Andy Pelosi, executive director of the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, believes using law enforcement for school resource officers and having trained security guards are better ways to ensure student safety.

“We don’t think teachers charged with teaching our students should be defending them as well,” Pelosi said. “We don’t believe the answer is to have teachers be armed.”

Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said there have been cases in which teachers’ guns have gone off accidentally at school.

He believes the vast majority of teachers would prefer to have trained police or security officers at schools, people who know when to shoot and when not to and who have had real-life experiences dealing with a gunman.

“There are clearly people who want teachers to carry guns, but the teachers I’ve talked to don’t” want to, he said. “There’s a lot we can do. It seems to me one of the last things on that list is bringing in more firearms to schools.”

Texas is one of the states that allows teachers to carry concealed guns in schools. Most of the districts in that state that allow guns in schools are rural, where law enforcement response times can be 20 to 30 minutes in some cases.

Jane Urschel, deputy director of the Colorado Association of School Boards, said the organization supported a measure last year to allow someone at a rural school to legally carry a gun because of the concerns of some small and out-of-the-way districts.

“We went to the table with two superintendents,” Urschel said. “What they said was … they wanted the right to have one more way to protect children in the event they are in harm’s way.”

Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or twitter.com/cillescasdp