Reality Check on Protecting our Schools from Active Shooters!

So a few days ago my wife tells me about this speaker who is coming to our daughters school to talk about what steps need to be taken to protect our kids from "Active Killers". I really wasn't interested, but she insisted and last night I went, after hearing this guy speak for two hours, I really had my eyes opened about the harsh reality we live in and the uncertainty we have about how to handle these acts of violence that are acted upon our children by our children.

The speaker is a retired 33 year veteran Swat Team point man, who has had extensive training by the FBI and Secret Service. Everything he presented was based on empirical evidence and studies, so he was not offering opinion; just facts. I wish I could recite all of the facts here, but I haven't studied this issue for over 20 years like he has, so I am going to recommend that you call your school district and have him brought in to speak. His name is Jesus (Love that) Villahermosa and can be reached at http://www.crisisrealitytraining.com/

He is from Washington and has dealt with school shooters before, his son was actually involved in one in 2007 at Foss High school. He made it perfectly clear that their is no common denominator in school shooters other than being boys. 98% of them have been males. Many of the shooters talk about what they are going to do to their friends well before they act out on it. One of them who is prison admitted he told 12 people, because he was hoping they would stop him, but nobody cared enough to try.

From the New York Times Oct 2017 Article:
"Four years before Adam Lanza massacred more than two dozen people in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, police officials were warned of his homicidal plans, according to documents released by the F.B.I. this week.

In one entry dated Dec. 26, 2012, 12 days after the shooting, a man said he had been privy to a conversation in which Mr. Lanza said he had an assault weapon and was planning to kill children at Sandy Hook Elementary School and his mother."

I had convinced myself that Prozac of Adderall or some other drug had something to do with this. We talk about mental health issues as to being the underlying problem, but the truth is we all have some type of mental health issue and we don't go around shooting up schools. Yes some are worse than others and it might be the cause, but on a whole it is not the issue. Nor are pharmaceuticals, lack of a father or anything else you can think of. Like I said the only common denominator is that they are mainly male.

Virginia Tech Shooter Hui Cho

Hui Cho Was spotted before the shooting with a twin shoulder holster and two guns laying targets down on the ground. The witness thought to herself that was a odd thing to be doing and a waste of ammunition. Cho was preparing, because he knew his schools policies were to duck and cover, so he was practicing to shoot people while they were laying down.

What we need to be asking ourselves is what have we learned from these shootings. The answer is multifaceted, but generally speaking when you are near a shooter your best bet is to run and run in a zig-zag motion, because bullets fly in a straight line. The other big thing is to be locked down, a school shooter has never been able to enter a room that was secured. He can shoot through the door, but has never breached the door.

He also talked about single points of entry, locked class rooms, and applying this laminate on the schools windows. This laminate keeps the glass from shattering and allowing entry. This is how Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook, he shot out the window and walked through the frame. These things are your best bet to stopping the shooter from entering our schools to begin with.

What is he enters the school - I had been thinking that arming our teachers was a good idea, but he brought up some interesting points as to why it is a horrible idea. You need to ask yourself are you prepared to kill a child? What if the shooter was one of your students would you be able to pull the trigger or what if you missed and killed another student. As soon as this happens and it would, you would be liable for the death of the innocent child. Not to mention being sued for everything you own.

The facts are that even our trained police miss 85% of shots fired and they are trained to be in these situations. Do you really think a teacher is going to be able to handle it. It has been shown that the best way to bring down a shooter is by tackling him. Many kids have been killed because they hid under desks instead of putting themselves in a position to tackle the shooter as he entered the class room.

These protests to end school violence are really about taking away guns, well they need a reality check because that isn't going to happen. We need to focus on the necessary steps to prepare and protect our children while they are in school. I am all for armed guards and Police officers in our schools. I know we need to find the money to pay for it, but I am sure we can put our heads together and come up with a solution. The last thing we should ever think about when sending our children out to school is if they are safe at school.