In Columbine’s wake, the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) developed the rapid deployment first-responder team tactic currently in use throughout the nation. But in many, if not most, departments, officers from the SWAT team conduct the active shooter training program.
Read More →After Columbine, American law enforcement was forced to take a long, hard look at active shooter response. Now a new report challenges our current thinking on response to such incidents.
Read More →The active shooter phenomenon has a certain "copycat" quality to it — a deadly game won by causing the highest body count in the shortest amount of time before police can stop them.
Read More →
The conference portion of the 2007 TREXPO East offered a little bit of something for every attendee. Once primarily SWAT oriented, the TREXPO conference now includes classes of interest to tactical medics, SWAT operators, patrol officers, and gang officers.
Read More →
At about 9 a.m. on April 16, snow was flurrying down on the Virginia Tech University campus. The flakes drifted lazily into the trees. Students walked to class. It was pretty. It was peaceful. It was the kind of scene that a college catalog photographer prays for. Just minutes later, the peace was broken.
Read More →"When you aren't practicing somewhere someone is and, when you meet him, he will win." This thought-provoking saying was passed along to me many years ago by Terry Thorpe, a warrior friend who lost his courageous final battle with Agent Orange.
Read More →All of the experts agree that America will experience more “active shooter” situations in schools in the near future. What can you, an ordinary first responder, do to prepare a response to a school shooting or hostage situation at one of your local schools? Plenty.
Read More →Ever long for "the good old days?" I know that some of you do. But before you decide to switch places with yesterday's cop, it's important for you to know that you have much better tools and tactics than we did 30 years ago.
Read More →Prior to the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, school-based law enforcement personnel were not trained to deal with an active shooter on a school campus.
Read More →It was March 21, 2:55 p.m., spring was in the air in the remote north woods of Minnesota, and the students of Red Lake High School were anxiously awaiting the sound of the bell. What they heard instead was explosions out in the hallway.
Read More →