Whether it’s a student that has been bullied, an employee who has been terminated, a customer with a grudge, or just someone who wants to shoot people, the result is usually the same. Lives changed forever!
Mass shootings are no longer rare; they occur on a daily basis. Whether or not it received national news coverage doesn't change the impact it had on the victims, their families, and the organization where it occurred.
Mass shootings are defined as four or more people, excluding the shooter, being shot in a single event. Source: gunviolencearchive.org
Individuals that commit mass shootings come in all ages, ethnicities, genders, and from any socioeconomic status. The shooter often plans out their attack months in advance and prepares for it over several days.
In retail shootings, the shooter will shoot at random, frequently his target is a stranger. In shootings at schools, places of worship, and commercial businesses, the shooter is often known and targets specific individuals.
They can look like anyone; and come in all ages, ethnicities, genders, and from any socioeconomic status. However, one thing most mass shooters have in common is at least one of these traits.
Sometimes individuals may exhibit certain types of behavior that may be an indicator of potential violence toward others. While some types of behavior are difficult to see, others are quite obvious.
Learn MoreTargeted active shooter attacks are not spontaneous; they are often well planned out weeks or months in advance by the shooter. There are five stages the shooter will go through before they commit this horrific act.
In the fantasy stage, the shooter fantasizes about the event. He may spend hours online looking at other mass shootings and idolizing other shooters. He might also draw sketches of how he imagined the shooting would transpire and how he would be immortalized in time. Sometimes he will share his fantasies with others or post them online.
In the planning stage, the shooter determines what he plans to do, where and when he will do it, and how he will obtain his weapon and travel to the location. He may spend hours writing down the details of his plan and may discuss his plans with others.
This is the stage where a shooter starts to put his plan into motion. This includes acquiring weapons, maybe by stealing them from friends or family members. Depending on the targeted location and accessibility, the shooter may plant additional weapons or explosives in and around the area before the attack.
This is the event itself. As he arrives on site and produces his weapon, he goes into a tunnel vision stage, knowing that he has a short amount of time to kill as many people as possible before he is stopped by law enforcement, a citizen, or he kills himself.
If the shooter does not have a specific target in mind, he will shoot the first person he sees, and if he has a target, he will shoot anyone that stands in his way of getting to that target.
Although an active shooter attack can occur anywhere, certain places are often chosen by the shooter when their goal is to kill as many people as possible before they are stopped. Places that are designated as "gun free zones" may be one reason why the shooter chooses these locations. Other factors like accessibility to the target, methods of escaping, and response time by law enforcement may also be considered.
It doesn't matter the size or type of an organization; they all have one thing in common: People. The more people, the greater the number of potential victims. Therefore, every organization should be prepared to deal with an active shooter attack.
How prepared is your organization to deal with such an event if it happened right now? Take this 10-question interactive online assessment to find out.
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