As we have come to know “active shooter” events, the primary location is a school or other educational institution and the perpetrator is someone who has a grudge either with someone in the school’s/institution’s employ OR the perpetrator is somehow emotionally/mentally imbalanced. This perception is likely attributable to the fact that prior to the Columbine High School incident, mass killings in any given area received limited exposure in national news outlets. As was discussed in the section on Columbine, it broke through the exposure barrier and really put an active shooter event in the living room of every home in America. Thanks to news helicopters and satellite broadcast television, every citizen in the nation could watch and hear as gunshots continued to be fired inside the high school; each of them potentially representing another dead student. The public outcry that followed about police response protocols caused a change in response tactics coast to coast. For all that, the training and protocols largely focused on getting into schools in a quick fashion to neutralize a shooter and save the lives of children. CHIDLREN… the emotional anchor that causes all parents to react with horror when a threat is presented AND the singular characteristic of an active shooter event that makes it acceptable to not attempt to arrest an active shooter; just neutralize him (or her).
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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.
