A common customer: Educators.
Many of the executives in the active-shooter-defense industry who were interviewed for this article said they did not support more gun restrictions.
Mr. Czyz, the owner of the protective glass company in Syracuse, said the gun debate “has blinded” many schools and businesses into overlooking practical steps they could take, while the broader issues remained mired in politics.
“Should we start addressing gun laws and mental health? Yup,” said Mr. Czyz, a former homicide detective. “But we have been having the same stupid argument since Columbine in 1999.”
Mr. Czyz added that he did not support a ban on military-style rifles because he “does not trust the government” to carry that out effectively.
Maria Cloonan, an administrative assistant at a school in western Massachusetts, said some staff members were worried about the psychological impact that active-shooter training could have on students and faculty.
“Some folks think the training is too strenuous on kids and staff,” said Ms. Cloonan, who serves on her school’s “safety team.”
But she said she believed that such training was helpful. Two years ago, when she was director of a nursery school in a church in Springfield, Mass., Ms. Cloonan hired a firm run by two former local law enforcement officers to train her teachers how to deal with a shooter. She had grown nervous because of increased crime in the city.
“We hope and pray this doesn’t happen to us,” she said. “But we also hope a child never has to use an EpiPen, but if they do the training kicks in.”
Mr. Keegan, the associate superintendent in North Syracuse, said that he thought there should be tighter gun restrictions but that the issue felt distant from his daily reality.
“We certainly hope for greater levels of gun control, but that is not something that we are going to hang our hat on,” he said.
Still, each year, his schools are adding more intense security measures. This fall, for example, North Syracuse has started posting armed officers at its elementary schools, in addition to the middle and high schools.