School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

MY continuous research for my Management Of Workplace Violence and Violent Student Management training programs take me to many sources, the most recent of which was the June, 2008 edition of Law and Order Magazine.  Captain Stan Duncan, a veteran of 29 years with the Sarasota (Fla.) Police Department, authored a compelling article entitles Pre-incident Behaviors of Active Shooters and I thought I would share with you some of the conclusions of the fine captain’s studies and experiences.

 

Before I begin, however, I might mention that, if you step back in time a bit and peruse some of my past postings on the pre-incident danger signs, you will find some of the sociological predictive factors.  Combining those with what I am about to write should give you an enhanced ability to observe, study and prevent catastrophic mass murders in our school buildings.  As you will see at the conclusion of this post, establishing an open atmosphere that accommodates the phenomenon of students and teachers alike reporting on dangerous attitudes and behaviors, both inside and outside the school house, and acting decisively in tandem with police, can spell the difference between calamity and a peaceful resolution.

 

BEHAVIORS THAT ALL MASS MURDERS/ACTIVE SHOOTERS SHARE

 

1. Active Shooters (AS) are not impulsive.  99% plan their attack way ahead of time.  Perhaps years.  In doing so, there are a series of actions they take that have common linkage from one AS to another. Some of these are easy to detect, others are not.  Detecting them will take a common effort between students, parents, teachers, school administrators, the community and, of course, local, state and federal law enforcement.
2. Firearms:  A great majority of Mass Murderers/Active Shooters train assiduously with firearms, probably the same weapons they use to commit mass murder.  Many school shooters were members of Shooting Clubs or practiced at public ranges.  One Active Shooter (AS) in 1996, just before he massacred dozens of students, was warned at the range, because of his obsession with rapid fire, that he was firing too many rounds too fast into targets. 
3. Access To Weapons:  In 2002, before killing 16 students at his prep school in Germany, Robert Steinhauser joined two gun clubs.  Like other AS, this gave his legal access to weapons and ammunition.
4. Training Sites:  I write a lot about training.  It’s what I do – training.  My philosophy has always been we might not be training ourselves to survive but the Bad Guys are always training themselves to kill us.  Klebold and Harris (Columbine, 1999) filmed themselves training themselves in undisciplined methods in remote areas.  Since we are talking about School Shootings, we need to concentrate on the tendency of younger Mass Murderers.  Fact is, many younger shooters want to conceal their training and possession of firearms because they are more likely to have committed crimes in obtaining these weapons.  They are not going to risk getting detected or arrested by practicing at a public range. 
5. Super-Interest In, Possesion of, and/or Active Practice With Guns:  Once again, I have written about the AS’ fascination with guns in past posts.  For instance, two young boys, 11 and 13, aced 5 students and severely injured 10 others with weapons they were given by parents when they were 6.  One was taught to shoot by his mother and formally trained in a 3-week course.
6. MENTAL ILLNESS.  True, mental illness is the one factor that ALL Mass Murderers (AS) share.  Mental Illness and a predisposition to firearms is a deadly and highly predictive combination. 
7. ACTIVE SHOOTERS (90%) SUFFER SOME TYPE OF EPISODE OF REJECTION.  Unable to cope with the episodes after a period of anguish, many turn to their pre-disposition to guns and violence. 
8. RED FLAG CITY:  Doubtless the equation of a history of mental illness, a pre-disposition for firearms (and firearms “training”), combined with the proximity to a personal crisis create a Red Flag that should never be overlooked.
9. STRESS INOCULATION TRAINING (VIDEO GAMES).  My last two posts discussed the benefits of Stress Inoculation or Dynamic Simulation Training for teachers and responding police.  Fact is, though, Active Shooters have been putting themselves through this type of training for years in our video arcades and their private rooms on PC’s.  Check out video games like Postal and Postal 2.  Or check out Super Columbine Massacre, or Counterstrike.  These lay out the ground plan for school districts and inoculate vulnerable youngsters with the desire, need and finally the ability to create mass murder in our schools.  Young men who are habitually aggressive, especially those who have been shut out of the mainstream of popularity, are especially vulnerable to the aggression-enhancing effects of repeated exposure to these games.
10. ACTIVE SHOOTERS RARELY PLAN TO ENGAGE POLICE RESPONDERS IN EXTENSIVE COMBAT:  We know this by virtue of the types of equipment (no body armor, no first aid equipment, no food, etc.) shooters bring to the scene.  Evidence points to the fact that Active Shooters plan maybe a superficial return of fire, followed by skulking off and committing suicide.  The relevance of this might be that the sooner the school and the police can respond to a possible or active shooting and the sooner police can confront the killer the sooner the episode will end and the fewer the death toll will be!

 

Stay Safe.

 

Hammer

 

 

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