The Active Shooter Looking Glass

I believe all law enforcement officers and first responders should attend John Giducks seminar on the Terror at Beslan. It's an eye opener.

Gun Free zones aid in the 'sucess' of active shooter events

All law enforcement should be ready for this. Unfortunatley, "Denial" seems to be among the civilian population and police executives!!

I agree with BruceB. A good fisherman fishes where the fish are.

It totally amazes me that there are people who are so naive as to believe that by declaring an area a "Gun Free" zone, active shooter incidents can be prevented. The "Low Lifes" and "Crazies" of the world are going to do what they want regardless of the consequences. Come on Bill, BruceB, you've been living in Fantasyland to long. It's time to move back into the real world.

I agree with my friend in HI. Come on guys, these people want to kill... Do you think that they are really going to be detered by a "No gun zone?" We better get ready!!!!

RTW653 - Bill and Bruce are using irony to point out that gun free zones only disarm the innocent people, not the criminals. EVERY school or campus shooting was in a "Gun Free Zone".

Pete - I want to thank you for a very well thought out and to the point article. Unfortunately there are many places in our nation where the "it can't happen here" mentality reigns supreme. One such place is Washington state. The same state that gives it's universities the ability to have dedicated campus police "just in case" something goes wrong, yet denies the community and technical colleges the same ability and gives them unarmed security officers and "Gun Free Zone" signs instead. Places like South Seattle Community College where the college administrators would rather rely on officers from SPD instead of pushing for their own campus police officers. I'm not trying to beat up on SPD here but let's face the facts - many of them can't even find the campus without a map, let alone find the time to go to the campus and walk around with the security staff so they have a better idea of what the campus is like "just in case" something happens. SPD officers who have a 5 to 10 minute response time instead of a 2 minute response time the on campus officers could have. SPD officers who don't have the first clue how the grounds are laid out, where the buildings are located, what they are like inside, the areas that offer good approach, cover and concealment from a gunman inside and the places they can be seen coming a mile away. SPD officers who are going to need time to figure out where they need to be and how to get to a gunamn in a situation where every pasing second gives the gunman another chance to kill another innocent person.

On a campus where you can easily find 100+ people sitting around in several different areas, they would rather keep non-commissioned and unarmed security officers to "protect" their campus, officers whose only response to an active shooter is is to stand there and watch people die or be killed themselves in a useless attempt to do something to try and save some of those kids. I would say "Denial" is alive and well and living on those campuses. Too bad its going to take another massacre like VA Tech or Beslan before the people responsible for administering those campuses will finally realize "it can never happen here" is wishful thinking.

Denial is what led us to September 11th, I don't know what else it will take for cops to take this seriously. Maybe I should say Mayors, county councils or whatever the politicians call themselves. Training is a must.

I work at a High School as a "Security Monitor" we are unarmed and for the most part untrained to defend against such an attack. We do have an SRO (school resource officer) on hand for most of the school day. We have practiced a "Lock Down Drill" on a regular basis, but in my opinion it is a useless drill because there are too many unlocked doors and entrances for someone to enter the bldg. Thge drill is practiced as a measure to comfort the people who do not realize the actual potential danger of what might actually happen, in a real life situation our school is at the same risk as any other school. Although the "drill" is a step in the right direction, other more profound measures should be taken, but in administrations opinion they do not want to give the appearance there is a possible problem. Something needs to be changed, but as we all know, that only takes place after the fact.

I'm a young officer here in Kansas and I think this message needs to be conveyed to everyone involved. While attending classes at the local community college I have had classes with two people that I thought capable of an active shooter incident, and while working in law enforcement I've dealt with another whom I think will be an active shooter it is only a matter of time. The thought scares me that there are still people who have their head buried in the sand. The campus I attended have full time security officers, many of which are LEOs in other areas or have been in the past, and they refuse to have them be armed. Having dormitories on campus, and being in close proximity to the largest city in Kansas, the idea of not arming the people who are responsible for the students safety is completely asinine in my opinion, but hey what do I know.