Tag Archives: Active Shooter

Defensive Conundrum

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So I will soon be joining the millions out there without a job. Amazingly enough, rather than bad times almost everybody at my hotel is being sacked because the hotel is going into renovations. The sheer stupidity of shutting down right before the tourist season with at least three major conventions coming to the area during the same season and leaving over a hundred people without jobs has not ran well with the working bees. Hell, people are pissed off and they are vocal about it leaving me wondering if somebody may actually work out his/her anger into a full revenge mode.

Of course the same management that made the decision of sacrificing the goose of the golden eggs has prepared itself in the event of a really pissed-off worker deciding to use them as target practice with the poster pictured above which details how to respond to an active shooter. Also some cute card-sized instructions have been passed along so you can pull you bifocals and read them as soon as you hear the detonations. That and 911 is pretty much all the permitted defense we are entitled to in a Gun Free Zone because as sure a Christ made little apples, Security (Me and my fellow officers) is not going to risk becoming a receptacle of bullets for anybody at work. Callous? you betcha but I kinda value my life first and foremost and unarmed heroics make for a nice obituary and a widow but not much else.

Thankfully in Florida we are allowed to have our weapons secured in our vehicles at work. Not that it will make a whole lot difference if I happen to be one of the first unlucky ones that face an active shooter but if I am spared of the initial volley, I can always make a bee line for the parking lot, retrieve my sidearm and take a defensive posture (And you thought I was going for the heroic shit and save the day? Nope!) It was my custom to leave my vehicle keys in the locker so I would not lose them during the active shift, but after the announcement that we were out, I carry them with me all times. I also try to park as accessible as possible to the work area and my awareness of everything and everybody has grown  a hundered-fold. Still it is a incomplete solution to a serious compounded problem created by silly job and legal politics. Then again it will be over in 2 weeks. Till then, prayer is in the procedures instead of a gun.

The Active Shooter and the Civilian Action.

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So I get to work the other day and I find myself staring at the above poster. I had to smile sadly and think of those that will actually read this and think that nobody will get hurt or die by simply following the instructions. But I must remain quiet and share with nobody the reality of what could be done because it is not politically correct.

Although published in many places, the obvious went unnoticed by the “expert” Talking heads of the Media. If you please, read the following extract from the L.A. Times regarding the massacre at Binghamton, N.Y

The first 911 calls started coming in at 10:30 a.m. from inside the building, said Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski. The calls were in broken English, he said,and dispatchers could not at first determine where the calls were coming from or what they were about.

Police arrived at the scene at 10:33 a.m. Unsure whether the gunman was still inside the building or holding hostages, police did not enter for 45 minutes, after a SWAT team had arrived.

Three minutes was it took for the police to arrive. But by then, the murderous bastard was finished killing 12 innocent people. And nobody is going to say that three minutes is a bad response time for police, just the opposite, it was an exceptional police response that beats by a mile most major cities’ police departments. But unfortunately it was not fast enough. And please do not start with why they did not go ahead and entered the building. I have no internal info, but I bet you dollars to donuts that Police Management has not even began to think about changing training and response procedures for Active Shooters and no sane rank and file LEO is going to commit suicide as much as he or she would want to save lives. And trust me, after hearing some of the stupid things Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said on a press conference, I am sure this is the case.

So, what are you going to do if you must gather or visit a Gun Free Zone and an Active Shooter decides to do his thing? Plan ahead, Pray a lot and hope it happens on your day off. At least that is what I do, everybody else must fend for him/herself and we must be sure to thank our local representatives for those beautiful shooting reservoirs when only the criminal or the deranged are allowed to carry a gun.