Active shooter / mass casualty attacks have happened at every type of school from elementary to university. Interestingly, when think about active shooter attacks at colleges, we generally think of those campuses that have housing. In many active shooter events that have occurred on college or university campuses, there has been housing and, in some cases, the attacks started in the dorms before moving to another part of campus with a significant time difference between first victim and “main” attack (Virginia Tech in 2007 is a prime example of this). The Umpqua Community College attack that happened on October 1, 2015 doesn’t have that dorm or housing component, leaving most people to feel like the response should have mirrored or been very similar to response for a high school or middle school attack. The reality is that response protocols shouldn’t be different for varying settings. Response protocols should be generally the same: get on scene as quickly as possible, move to the sound of shots, neutralize the shooter. Be alert for explosives, tend to the wounded. That “broad stroke” response doesn’t change whether you’re responding to an elementary school, middle school, high school, college, university, shopping mall or nursing home.
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The remainder of this article is part of the book "Active Killers and the Crimes They Perpetrated," available in print or ebook via Amazon.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
