Mass Shootings: The Evolution of Tactical Response (Part 5 of 7)

While the old saying "when seconds count, the police are only minutes away" may be true (which is why I always encourage people to be able to protect themselves), the way that tactical response to active shooter incidents has evolved over the past couple of decades has been truly phenomenal.
Decades ago, if a caller were to report a "man with a gun", one officer would be dispatched to figure out what was going.  Reports of "shots fired" may have elicited a two officer response.  Should the situation have been a yet untermed "active shooter scenario", a perimeter would have been set up, a request for additional back-up would have been issued, a negotiator may have been thrown in for good measure, and a SWAT team may have been (eventually) sent if necessary (and if the incident was in a suburban or rural area, the SWAT team may have had to be sent in from the nearest large city).
Fast forward to the most recent mass shooting in Connecticut.  Within moment of a report of a school shooting, multiple agencies were dispatched and within a half hour (obviously a response still too slow to save lives although the immediacy of the response has been preliminarily credited for stopping the slaughter of even more people), the place was crawling with local police, state police, FBI, SWAT, and a myriad other agencies.
The response to an active shooter event has evolved so precipitously because of a number of findings from previous incidents, namely:

• Most active shooters aren't in it to take hostages, they want the highest body count possible.
• Most active shooters have the means to do a lot of damage quickly (semi-auto or full-auto firearms take only seconds to take out a wide swath of people).
• Most active shooters don't care if they die at the end of their spree and many will even commit suicide when they are finished or confronted.
• Most active shooters target places that are physically isolated (schools, buildings in suburban or rural areas, etc) which means a longer period of time before law enforcement arrives.
• Most active shooters target places where they are fairly certain their victims won't be able to defend themselves (hence the element of surprise and the choice of "gun free zones").

With these findings in mind, planning has now turned toward an immediate and coordinated multi-agency response featuring:

• Education of people who may be targeted for a mass shooting event (with training, planning, and info like this provided)
• Collaborative planning between law enforcement and public entities is now a given (example here).
• Training, planning, drills, and exercises between multiple response agencies is now a given as well (info here).
• Training and consulting on the topic of active shooter incidents is now a cottage industry (example here).
• Of course the debate on the most effective strategies for active shooter response continues (example here).
• The current trend is for immediate action rapid deployment tactics when it comes to active shooters.
• And there is a massive amount of information on the topic which can easily be found online.
• Of course the best response is an immediate response (as in this case).
• For more on this topic, check out this podcast.

Mass Shootings: Soft Target to Hard Target (Part 4 of 7)

Most mass shootings take place in areas considered "soft targets".  These are places with lax security or no security at all.  These are places where people are distracted and where people generally feel safe.  These are places where such crimes "never happen here".  Obviously we've seen that mass shootings can happen anywhere and everywhere and that no place is safe from being a target--not your home, not your local mall, not your local movie theater, not your workplace, and not your kid's school.
Here's how to change the places you frequent from soft targets to hard targets:

• Ask if there is a mass shooter plan in place at your workplace, your kid's school, and other places you frequent.  Ask for a copy of the plan so you will know what measures have been put in place for this type of situation.
• If there isn't a plan available (say at your local shopping center) ask why not and encourage them to work with their local law enforcement agency to create one.
• If you are in charge of your workplace/school's security planning, be sure to work with your local law enforcement agency AND be sure that you keep some parts of your plan confidential (you don't want every part of your plan to be known by potential attackers).
• Drill/exercise the plan.  Often.  Not only can drills and exercises be conducted "in house", many towns and cities have city-wide, even region-wide active shooter exercises and will often welcome all players that are interested in participating.
• If you see something, say something.  Better to report something that turns out to be nothing than to not report something that turns out to be tragic.
• Allow a way for your employees/students/the public to easily (and anonymously) report concerns to you (via an app or a link on your website).
• Encourage your employees/students to report situations that could blow up into something bigger (ie: an employee recently took out a restraining order on her ex husband, etc).
• Have a security team and share information with them daily (ie: with a "pass down" log of some sort.  Be sure to give them a picture of both the person who took out the restraining order, as in the example above, and a photo of the person who they took the order out on).
• Consider having armed security.  In this case, I don't mean arming teachers who have no desire or experience with firearms, but having qualified, trained, and armed security personnel (obviously you will want to require ongoing training and practice).
• Don't make your school/workplace a "gun free zone" with big signs advertising the fact.  That just makes the facility a target for people who want to be able to shoot up the place with no chance of being stopped.  
• Take appropriate physical security measures as they pertain to your workplace: install a monitored security camera system with backup recording, install metal detectors, install hidden panic alarms in work spaces, require all people to wear photo ID badges, create safety barriers (with solid furniture, bulletproof glass partitions, etc), etc.
• Hire a professional security firm to create and test a security plan for your business.
• Get in the habit of locking doors and have entry systems that require a keycard/retina scan/etc.
• Be sure that each office/room is securable (solid doors, solid walls if possible, secure locking system, etc).
• Practice evacuating from your home/school/office building in multiple ways (out the door, out the window, from the roof, etc).
• Look at ways to increase security in concentric circles.  You want to make the central part of your building as secure as possible yet you also want to ensure the entrances and exits in the building are also secure and don't forget that you can add security features to the perimeter of your property as well.
• Make checklists for people to follow in a crisis.  It sounds obvious but people might forget to call 911 in the midst of a crisis or they may forget to lock the windows during a building lock down.
• Be consistently inconsistent.  If people can set their watch by your workplace/school activities that means you are a better target.  Don't be a better target.
• Institute a series of codes.  This can happen at home (have code words for various situations) and at work/school (you don't hear someone saying over the hospital PA system "someone is dying in the ICU...you hear a "code red" or "code blue" called.  This is an excellent way to warn your staff without alarming the possible assailant).
• Make security a priority/hot topic in your workplace/home.
• Utilize a variety of warning systems to communicate with others.  Twitter, email, text messages, etc, can be used to warn others away from your building or to ask for someone to call for assistance as well as give law enforcement up to the minute information during an event.
• Consider teleworking and off-site working, varying work hours, etc.
• Encourage personal security for all students/employees/family members.  This may mean physical self defense classes, bringing in security experts to make suggestions/answer questions, etc.
• Keep hazardous materials/hazardous items secured (this means everything from locking up your firearms to securely locking up fertilizer or chemicals in an outbuilding).
• Be extra vigilant when it comes to students/employees/family members who are: suicidal, have spoken of or acted on violent tendencies, recently divorced/in a custody dispute/recently broke up with their SO, have a history of domestic violence, have a history of mental illness, have recently been fired or reprimanded, etc.
• Encourage all forms of safety in your school/workplace/home: have working smoke detectors, have accessible first aid kits, have adequate lighting both inside and outside, lock up valuables, have charged fire extinguishers, take "safety walks" regularly around your building/property, etc.

It's a shame that we can no longer live as obliviously as we once did.  I'm from a generation where the old farmhouse was never locked, a shotgun or rifle often hung across the back window of my truck (also kept unlocked), school was an open building where anyone could come and go, neighbors kept an eye on everyone, and the biggest news was a Friday nigh fistfight at the bar.  Those days are long gone and now we have to live and work in basically a fortress in order to ensure (or ensure as much as possible) our safety.

Mass Shootings: How to Protect Yourself and Your Family (part 3 of 7)

First the bad news:

• Whether or not you become a victim of a mass shooter is pretty much unavoidable.  A mass shooting is a random event and therefore, there is no way to "improve your odds" of avoiding such an event.
• Whether or not you live or die during a mass shooting is also random luck or the opposite thereof.
• If you are being specifically targeted, it's a pretty good bet you will die (as in the case of mass shootings where domestic violence is the impetus and the shooter is targeting specific people at the beginning of his rampage).
• NO ONE--no expert, no educator, no survivor of such an event--can tell you that if you do this, that, and the other thing, you will survive a mass shooting event.  Every event is different so tactics that worked in one event may or may not work during a different event.
• Mitigating a mass shooter event is also pretty much impossible (there are a few things that can be done which we will discuss tomorrow).  It isn't like wearing a helmet to prevent injury when riding a bicycle or wearing a seat belt to mitigate the damage of a car accident.

There are, however, a number of things you may want to consider when it comes to mass shooting events:

• Avoid places where mass shootings may be more likely to occur (malls, schools, public places with lots of people, etc).
• Avoid situations where a mass shooting may be more likely to occur (contentious work places, being part of a tenuous domestic violence situation or being around others who are in this type of situation, etc).
• Be aware of your surroundings and note things that seem out of place (if it is 85 degrees outside but a couple of people are wearing large, heavily padded trench coats at the mall, you may want to become concerned).
• Be aware of your surroundings and note where exits are, note where good places to hide are, note where you could take cover if necessary, and note what items you could use as weapons.
• Make sure you know your workplace/school's mass shooter plan and be ready to follow it.
• If you hear shooting, take cover.  Better to be a bit embarrassed if it turns out to be a car backfire than the opposite--wandering around looking for the source of the sound only to find out there really is  an active shooter situation unfolding.
• If you find yourself in a mass shooter situation, consider hiding.  This works if the shooter hasn't already seen you and if you don't have the option of escape.
• If you are hiding, the more "stuff" you have between you and the shooter, the better (ie: walls, locked doors, darkness to keep the shooter from seeing you, a locked door that has also been barricaded, etc).
• If you find yourself in a mass shooter situation, consider running.  If you have an avenue of escape, depending on what is happening, you may want to run and leave the area (consider a moving target is more difficult to hit than a stationary target, consider also that you could end up running into other shooters if this is a coordinated attack).  
• If you find yourself in a mass shooter situation, you may have to decide whether to fight.  This is a last resort, especially if you are bringing only your fists to a gun fight, but if you are face to face with the shooter there may be no other option.
• Stay low.  There is a reason that people "hit the deck" when shooting starts, it makes you a smaller and more difficult to hit target.
• Consider being armed.  Obviously bringing a gun to a gun fight evens the odds a bit, but if you do decide to arm yourself with a firearm you need to consider a myriad other things: you must practice regularly, firearm concealment and firearm retention are imperative, shooting targets is way different than shooting at A) a human being, and B) a human being who is shooting at you trying to kill you.  Consider taking as many tactical firearms classes as you can.
• Be sure to call 911 or text message for help ASAP.  You want help on the way while you are figuring out what to do.
• Put your cell phone on silent, you don't want a ringing phone to give your location away or draw attention to you.
• If you are running away from a shooter you want to stay low if possible, and you want to run in a zig zag pattern instead of a straight line.  You also want to run from cover to cover so that you will have something to block any shots being fired at you.
• Consider ways to distract the shooter if possible (pull a fire alarm, for example).
• Consider all exit possibilities (windows, fire doors, rooftops, etc).
• When TSHTF, consider other options: talking to the shooter, throwing anything you have at hand at him, playing dead, etc.
• Realize that in the midst of a traumatic event, your mind is going to freak out on you.  Some people freeze, some people faint, some people throw up, you may get tunnel vision, you may try to rationalize what you are seeing as something else...since this is a situation that has never happened to you before and it is traumatic, you simply will not be able to plan ahead for how your mind will react.
• Pay attention to warning signs--this could be anything from another student joking about shooting up the school to a co-worker who has been "normal" all along but suddenly becomes abnormal.

The bottom line: there are a few things you can do to give yourself an advantage in an active shooter situation.  Unfortunately active shooter situations are all different, they all unfold differently, and luck plays a big part in the outcome.  Practice can help, especially with children, so be sure to practice "lock down" drills, play the "what if" game with them, play hide and seek (which is actually a game based on very real survival skills), play tag, and practice awareness.

The best news of all: random shooting events, while they tend to be on the increase and make the evening news for days on end, are still quite rare. The the possibility that you will be involved in a mass shooter event is statistically very, very unlikely (less than 100 people have been killed by mass shooters each year compared to the average 35,000 people who die each year in car accidents or 25,000 people who die each year from falls). 

Mass Shootings: The After-Action Report (Part 2 of 7)

After every major event--whether it is a mass shooting, a plane crash, a natural disaster, or a terrorism event--there is a set order for things.  First response, then recovery, of course there will be investigations conducted by various entities (depending on the event this could include local law enforcement, hospitals that were involved, the FBI, NTSB, CDC, FEMA, etc), followed by a gathering of data and information, and concluding with a quality improvement process that looks at what happened, why it happened, how the event could be prevented or mitigated, and improvements that could be made to future responses.  These "hotwashes" and "after action reviews" as they are called, are a tried and true way to learn and improve from each event.  Of all the things I miss about my previous work, being a part of these types of review processes is probably what I miss the most.
When you gather responders together after an event it can be both cathartic (oddly enough my first thought when I heard the news about yesterday's shooting was 'I hope the disaster mental health folks show up on scene ASAP', yet one lesson learned from previous disasters) and enlightening (there is ALWAYS something new to learn from each event. Always.).  The after action review process allows everyone who responded to an event (or in the case of a large event there will be representatives from each responding agency) to gather together and discuss what happened, discussed what worked with their response, and discuss things that could have been done better.  The "lessons learned" then impact everything from how emergency responders are dispatched to how on-scene command works to better ways to stage for the incident to tactical applications, etc.
This is why law enforcement response has changed drastically when it comes to school shooting incidents (due to lessons learned from Columbine), why the New York City hospitals were able to evacuate seemingly effortlessly during Hurricane Sandy (due to lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina), and why processing bodies and dealing with family members of the dead is now a streamlined process (due to lessons learned from 9/11, Oklahoma City bombing, the tsunami, et al).  All of these improvements have been built on what worked and what didn't work during past disasters.
And now for some light reading:

• Columbine After Action Report
• Virginia Tech After Action Report
• Northern Illinois University Shooting After Action Report
• Fort Hood Shooting After Action Report
• 5 Lessons Learned from the Platt Canyon School Shooting
• UT Austin After Action Report
• ACA Shooting After Action Report

Mass Shootings: A Review (Part 1 of 7)

In an effort to be useful at this time of (yet another) horrific mass shooting, I present to you a seven part series on mass shooting incidents.
Let's start with a review of notable mass shootings (ie: shootings with more than ten victims):

• September 6, 1949: Camden New Jersey random shooting; 13 dead
• August 1, 1966: University of Texas at Austin shooting; 16 dead plus shooter
• July 18, 1984: San Ysidro McDonalds shooting; 21 killed plus shooter
• August 20, 1986: Edmond Oklahoma post office shooting; 14 dead plus shooter
• August 19, 1987: Hungerford England random shooting; 16 dead plus shooter
• October 16, 1991: Luby’s Diner shooting; 23 killed plus shooter
• March 13, 1996: Scotland school shooting; 17 killed plus shooter
• April 28, 1996: Australia resort shooting; 35 killed
• April 20, 1999: Columbine school shooting; 13 dead plus two shooters
• September 27, 2001: Swiss Parlaiment shooting; 14 killed plus shooter
• April 26, 2002: Germany school shooting; 16 killed plus shooter
• September 1, 2004: Beslan Russia school shooting; 380 people killed
• April 16, 2007: Virginia Tech school shooting; 32 killed plus shooter
• April 3, 2009: Binghamton New York immigrant center shooting; 13 dead plus shooter
• April 30, 2009: Azerbaijan school shooting; 12 killed plus shooter
• November 5, 2009: Fort Hood Texas soldier processing center shooting; 13 dead
• July 22; 2011: Norway summer camp shooting; 80 killed
• July 20, 2012: Aurora Colorado movie theater shooting; 12 dead
• December 14, 2012: Connecticut elementary school shooting; 26 killed plus shooter

From these incidents we can draw the following information:

• Of these 19 incidents, 11 took place in the United States, 1 in England, 1 in Scotland, 1 in Germany, 1 in Australia, 1 in Russia, 1 in Azerbaijan, 1 in Switzerland, and 1 in Norway.
• Of these 19 incidents, 10 took place at educational institutions, 4 at public places (restaurants, resort, movie theater), 3 at government facilities, 2 were random neighborhood shootings.
• Of these 19 incidents, 6 took place in April, 3 took place in July, 3 took place in August, 3 took place in September, 1 in March, 1 in October, 1 in November, and 1 in December
• Of these 19 incidents, 1 took place in the 1940s, 1 took place in the 1960s, 3 took place in the 1980s, 4 took place in the 1990s, 7 took place in the 2000s, and 3 took place in the first two years of the 2010s (and there are still 8 more years to go in the 2010s!)
• Of these 19 incidents, 17 were committed by a single shooter, 1 was committed by two shooters, and 1 was committed by a group of shooters

And more information:

• There were 16 mass shootings in the US in 2012
• Here is a Guide to Mass Shootings in America
• And another excellent list of mass shooting incidents in America

Another Mass Shooting...WTF Is Wrong With People These Days???

I was just sitting down to type out a blog post that would say something about the active shooter situation at the Clackamas Mall in Oregon a couple of days ago.  I mean really, what more is there to say?  This seems to be a monthly occurrence these days.
So I click on the TV which is the "background noise" to my writing and take a seat at my desk.  Then all Hell breaks loose as reports start coming in about a school shooter which has, at this minute, killed approximately 27 students and adults in Newton, Connecticut.  To which all I have to say is WTF is wrong with people these days???
As of now the situation is still unfolding and there are no answers as to the who or the why of the shooting but as is almost always the case in these situations: it took place at a location where there is a better than average chance that no one will shoot back at the shooter, it took place at a location where people are pretty much oblivious to possible danger, and it gives the shooter an international stage (for whatever purpose...infamy, etc).
So for lack of anything better to write today, here's some random thoughts:

• I would rather home school my kids than send them to a public school these days (yes I realize my kids are long past being home schooled and yes I realize that this is simply not an option for many parents).
• If I was a teacher I would be armed every damn day regardless of what the rules are.
• No, even with such a hideous event happening, I still won't give up my guns.
• No, I don't think gun control will stop such incidents.
• Even though this isn't a uniquely American occurrence,  Americans tend to have much more proclivity towards random violence than many of the third world Hell-hole countries I've been to.
• There needs to be a way to prevent this and if it means having a prison-like fortress with armed guards and metal detectors at every school--urban and rural--than so be it.  I don't like the thought at all but I like the thought of little kids being slaughtered much less.
• Law enforcement as well as school staff continue to upgrade their training in response to these scenarios.  Unfortunately improvements generally tend to come from after-action report.  After-action reports come after such events have occurred.
• Kudos to the quick, multi-agency response by law enforcement and kudos to the principal who seems to have taken steps to warn the school that there was a dangerous situation unfolding.
• I am praying for everyone who was impacted by this situation.  I can't begin to imagine how the parents and relatives of the teachers are feeling right now.
• You can take this free active shooter course from FEMA online.

Right now, everything is speculation.  News is coming in in bits and pieces.  More on this topic tomorrow...

10 Christmas Gifts for the Prepper

Sorry for the dearth of posts recently--it's getting kind of hectic around here due to the holidays.  So in the spirit of the holidays (and due to the fact that the spouse has nixed some of these ideas that I figured would be fine gifts for a few people on our list), I present to you some holiday gift suggestions for the prepper on your list:

1. Firearms.  Fortunately I have a bunch of nieces and nephews who are at the age where a 22 rifle or a coveted .30-06 will make them jump up and down with glee (obviously you want the parents to be OK with such a gift and you also want to know for a fact that the parents will provide proper training and supervision if you are to give such a gift to anyone under 18 years old).
2. Gift cards.  I like to semi-direct the purchase of (what I consider to be) good gifts by giving specific gift cards (Bass Pro Shops, REI, etc) instead of just giving a prepaid visa card.
3. Toys that require imagination and activity.  As a rule I never give video games as gifts and will only give tech products if it is required (like a kid whose computer recently crashed or something).  Instead I prefer to give such "old fashioned" things like chemistry sets, telescopes, fishing poles, and other items that make the kids learn something and do something besides wiggling their fingers for hours on end.
4. Annual passes.  If you have a friend or family member who has a particular hobby or interest, consider giving annual passes to the local aquarium, the local shooting range, or the local ski area.
5. Tactical gear.  For the right person (in our case, my side of the family and not the spouse's side), cool tactical gear is always a hit (flashlights, knives, EDC stuff, holsters, etc).
6. Experiences.  Probably one of the best gifts you can give (at least it is something that won't get re-gifted, put away in the garage and never used again, or Craigslisted) is an experience.  From the big and expensive cruise for the parents, to the cool and slightly less expensive, depending on where you live, deep sea fishing trip, experiences are a great gift idea.
7. Practical stuff.  Often the most difficult people to buy for are the elderly.  They pretty much have everything already and are seldom craving for the newest hot tech item so what do you get them?  If you know their habits, consider filling up their freezer with a side of beef, providing gift certificates for their favorite restaurant, or providing gift cards/gift certificates to their local grocery store.
8. Gold.  There are times when you will have to produce an "appropriate" gift (which, I have been told is something that does not require ammunition).  In that case I prefer to give something with a "wow" factor and a high social acceptablity factor; this means gold--a gold chain, a gold bracelet, or gold earrings (14 to 24 carat).  Not only is this an appropriate gift but it will also hold its value over time (and can be used in a barter/survival/bribery situation ..I just don't happen to mention that fact when I am giving the gift).
9. Disaster preparedness supplies.  This will probably only go over well with people who have recently been in or come near a disaster (which makes them both aware of possible dangers and aware that they need some gear to weather a future disaster).  These items may include: a NOAA weather radio, a hand crank radio, a case of MREs, etc.
10. Other useful stuff.  Again, you have to know the person in order to know what they would find useful, but some of the most popular gifts we have given to people have been a food dehydrator, tools, a pressure cooker, an auto emergency kit, etc.