Active shooters are people or groups who intend to kill people in a confined area. Such people randomly kill individuals in public places after making them hostages. These criminals don’t follow a definite pattern or method to decide their target. The whole active shooter situation lasts for around 10 to 15 minutes, but with every passing time, people get close to death. The 15 minutes of an active shooter incident can give lifetime trauma to you. So it’s better to prepare oneself beforehand by signing up for offline or online active shooter response courses.
According to the reports, in 2013, around 66.9% of active threat events ended before police arrival in the United States. Even the majority of casualties in violent events are from active shooter incidents. The active shooting training provides prevention, awareness, preparation, and response methods against active shooter incidents. In order to decrease active shooting incidents government has initiated active shooter response training. One can take online active shooter response training in case of lack of time. Currently, the training is optional, but many companies and business owners have started facing citations due to breaches of government guidelines.
ALICE – The Tool to Tackle Active Shooter Incidents
One can consciously tackle a life-threatening situation through active shooter response training. ALICE is an acronym offered by navigating 360 to tackle active shooter incidents.
A in ‘ALICE’ stands for Alert. A person can easily survive and escape active shooter incidents with observation and alertness. So it’s very necessary to be alert about the surroundings.
L is for Lockdown, which means that one should immediately lock and barricade the room or place when trapped in an active shooter incident. Locking the room or building is very effective if the attack is inside.
I define Inform. If possible, once reaching a safe place or escaping the active shooter location, one should immediately inform the police and update them about the on-ground activities. Apart from the police, also call other emergency helplines like an ambulance.
C means Counter. However, fighting with the shooter without any training or weapon is madness, but if your life is in imminent danger, you must take your chance and fight back against the shooter. Your life depends on speed and actions, so you should aggressively throw punches and things at the shooter.
E stands for Evacuate. If you are far away from the shooter or hidden from the vicinity of the shooter, then you can take the risk and try to escape or evacuate the place. However, this can be risky, so you should only do this if you are at a safe distance from the shooter.
The Bottom Line
Currently, the government has relaxed people and organizations regarding active shooter incident guidelines by making training optional. But it’s essential and mandatory for business organizations and workplaces to get their employees and volunteers trained either through offline or online active shooter training. Active shooter training helps increase civilian response to active shooter situations and decreases casualties. Defender School LLC is the best to get yourself, your employees, and volunteers trained for active shooting incidents. They teach practical armed and unarmed skills and techniques through offline and virtual mediums.