It’s never a good time for stories like this. But it’s good to have a plan for when, not if, it happens again. As pro-gun folks with carry permits, we know it could happen to us. But we hope and pray it doesn’t. But we plan in case it does. It is time for schools to wake up and make serious plans for an active shooter situation.
Last fall, I had a chance to interview Ed Monk of Last Resort Firearms Training. Monk spent 24 years in the Army before taking a job in a public high school in Kentucky. Before his first year of school started, he learned the protocol for an active shooter at that school was to close the doors and huddle the students into a corner away from the door. He realized from his Army training that the opposite of what a group should do is unless they all want to be victims.
Monk has gone on to study mass shootings, whether they happen in schools, shopping malls, or churches. He recently published a book on his study called First 30 Seconds, which is available on Amazon.
He’s determined that time and math are the things people need to know and brace for. The longer an active shooter gets to shoot, the more victims there are. Very logical, I know.
But his studies say that if someone is stopped in this act within 30 seconds, then there will only be single digits of victims. (I’m calling them victims if they’re shot, not if they pass away from being shot. Many people survive gunshots.) That’s what his stats say. More people get shot in the first couple of minutes, then the number of victims slows down.
In First 30 Seconds, Monk also gives us several options to make it easier for first responders to navigate through a school that may have areas for younger grades and older grades, or the arts hall or English wing.
He also points out that there has not been a single incident where a civilian has shot the wrong person, but police officers have shot the wrong person. When the police get to a scene, there’s lots of chaos. But when someone, say a teacher, is able to respond with force, they don’t accidentally shoot someone else.
Often, we hear that teachers don’t have the training needed to use a firearm. But teachers often are required to have a master’s degree in order to have a job. They should be able to learn to operate a handgun.
Some folks don’t comment about what happens until 72 hours after the incident, and there are more details. By then, the anti-gun narrative is already out there. We will learn more about the murderer and his/her motive as time passes. From the video posted on his/her YouTube account, which was taken down, we can see that this person was anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and wanted the President to be dead.
Until then, hug your young ones and loved ones. Say a prayer for the victims. Stay vigilant for our rights. And buy a copy of Monk’s book, First 30 Seconds.
