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Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Self-Initiative Project Podcast.

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I’m your host, Jim O’Brien.

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Hey, hey, and welcome back to episode 45. You know, we’re kind of taking on

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a serious subject this time.

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Well, all of our subjects are serious, but I think this one is on the top of

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all of our minds, especially in light of all the media play that it gets or

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seemingly gets these days and has been for a while.

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But we’re going to talk about active shooters in this episode,

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and we’re going to expand that to include active killers, because really at the end of the day,

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for us to wrap our minds around it and to respond and to get in the right mindset,

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it really doesn’t matter what the tool is that’s being used to.

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Inflict the damage or to kill someone.

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So we’re going to talk about it in the context of active killers in general.

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But I do want to start out by talking about active shooters,

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because again, this is what we see in the news, specific here to the United

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States for the most part.

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I mean, this is a country of guns. We were founded on that.

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And, you know, we have the Second Amendment of the Constitution protecting it for us.

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So it makes sense from that perspective. But we also have to realize there is

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an agenda and a narrative playing out through the news outlets.

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And I don’t want to go too far down that rabbit hole.

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But yeah, we’re going to talk about active shooters. So what is an active shooter?

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And I want to start off by giving the Department of Homeland Security’s definition

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and then the FBI, and they’re basically one in the same.

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And I’m actually going to read this from the PDF that the U.S.

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Department of Homeland Security puts out, an active shooter, how to respond.

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PDF overview, and it’s available online. You can find it really easily.

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An active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting

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to kill people in a confined and populated area.

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In most cases, active shooters use firearms and there is no pattern or method

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to their selection of victims.

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And as I said, the definition provided by the FBI pretty much the same.

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They define an active shooter generally as an individual actively engaged in

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killing or intending to kill people in a confined space or other populated area.

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And so I just want to take a moment here to talk briefly about mass shootings.

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While they may be related, they are not necessarily the same things because

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not all active shooter scenarios result in mass shootings.

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And the definition for a mass shooting is kind of wonky, but basically it’s

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something like three to four people killed.

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I can’t remember if that includes the perpetrators or not, but not all active

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shooter scenarios, as you may not know, don’t qualify. They may not qualify as a mass shooting.

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So I only point that out because I want you to be careful when you read online

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statistics and have conversations with people that they are not the same thing.

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An active shooter scenario is talking more about the individual and the mass

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shooting, or the mass shooter, if you will, you can kind of think of as the outcome.

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And they’ve got some criteria around that, but it seems to flux a little bit.

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So I thought I’d start out by give you some stats.

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And most of these stats I’m taking straight from the FBI.

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I figure, you know, I try to do at least some research when I talk on these

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topics that are academic in some ways, or at least provide some data academic

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to be reviewed from an academic standpoint.

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I think the FBI stuff is pretty decent, at least in my mind.

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So that’s what I’m going off of.

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I guess in 2019, they did a 20-year review on active shooter incidents.

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So they covered the years 2000 through 2019 in covering this 20-year review.

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Now, they also put out stats for the year 2020, which I’ll talk about here in

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a minute, but it’s kind of separate from this 20-year review,

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so I just want to throw that out there.

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And again, this was published, apparently, it looks like in May of 2021,

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so while it covers only up through 2000 through 2019.

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It was published or maybe last updated in May of 2021, and all this stuff is

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readily available online.

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And these aren’t all the stats. These are just stats that I thought were interesting

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that might cause you to raise an eyebrow.

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And the numbers seem to point to the fact that active shooter situations are

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on the rise, and I guess they have been throughout history.

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I’ve often wondered if they’re really on the rise or if it’s media portrayal

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of the number of events occurring.

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There seems to be some evidence that they’re definitely up.

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And, you know, active shooter or mass shootings, if you will,

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or combination, whatever.

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And again, I don’t want to confuse the terminology, but they’ve happened throughout

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history multiple times. So this isn’t anything new.

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Things, I think, kind of changed in the media with Columbine more recently.

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But even going back to the tower shootings on the University of Texas from 1966,

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which we’ll talk more about here in a few minutes,

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you know, that was really, I’d say, and by all reports, you know,

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the tower shooting at the University of Texas in 1966 was really the first thing.

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Shooter slash mass shooting where the media was in full effect and providing

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that a lot of spotlight at the time, right?

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But I wanted to go over these statistics at least, at least a few of them that

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I thought were interesting from the 20-year study covering 2000, I’m sorry, to 2019.

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So in that 20 years, there were 333 incidents with 2,851 casualties.

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That’s excluding the shooters.

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And again, I’m taking this right out of the report, but I want to be sure you

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know that this is directly out of the FBI’s publishing public report.

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There were, out of the 333 incidents, there was 345 shooters, 13 of which were female.

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Now, when I saw that females were involved in active shooting whatsoever,

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I was kind of surprised by that.

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But yeah, there were 13 females involved in those incidents.

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And a good portion, I’d say about a third of the 345 five shooters committed

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suicide, which is also something interesting to note.

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And there’s more details around that.

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Additionally, I thought it was really interesting that California appears to

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have suffered in that period of time the highest number of active shooter incidents.

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Coming in at 42. Really interesting considering they have some of the tightest

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gun control laws in the country, certainly now.

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So I thought that was interesting.

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Also to note, most active shooting incidents are driven or run primarily by whites.

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And contrary to what you might think or you might have picked up or sensed in

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the media, most shootings have not occurred in schools, whether it’s, you know.

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Through high school or college even, but actually in businesses.

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And they break down businesses a couple of different ways the FBI does.

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One is open to pedestrian traffic and then closed to pedestrian traffic.

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So a couple of quick examples, and they give some in the report,

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but a couple off the top of my head is an example of open to pedestrian traffic would be a bar.

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And I’m sure you’ve heard of some of the active shooter scenarios that have

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occurred in bars around the country.

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And then closed to pedestrian traffic would be something like in a warehouse.

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And no, I’m blanking out on an incident that happened in a business closed to

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pedestrian traffic, but you get my drift.

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Interestingly enough, the second highest

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occurrence of active shooter scenarios still not in schools the second highest

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occurrence of active shooters is just in open spaces and of course you remember

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from 2017 the guy up in the hotel shooting down in the crowd in las vegas right yeah

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And that caused quite a bit of spike in some of these numbers that you’ll find here.

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But the pre-K through 12 is the third highest volume of active shooter incidents.

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So I thought that was interesting. First is businesses open to pedestrian traffic. Second is open spaces.

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Third is pre-K through 12 schools. And fourth is businesses closed to pedestrian traffic.

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So that’s kind of the ordering there. Let’s talk about 2020 and probably won’t

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go in quite as much depth there.

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But in 2020 alone, there were 40 active shooter incidents in the United States.

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It covered 19 states for the year 2020. 20, there were 164 casualties excluding

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the shooters in those 40 incidents.

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So, you know, things at least as of last year seem to point that things continue to be on a rise.

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It seems like, you know, if you just gloss over your eyes and kind of look at

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the data, it seems like the numbers are usually in the 20s now more recently, right?

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But we have had some spikes into the 30s and 40. So there’s cause to be concerned for sure.

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And, you know, people are wanting to know what we can do about it.

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And I hope to share my thoughts on that and plan to here coming up.

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So let’s talk about some traits of the active shooter.

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And there was a report put out by Lexapol, which evidently put out a report

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focused, centered around, this was back in 2018.

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So not the most recent, but fairly recent, I suspect still holds quite a bit of merit to it.

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But this was a report put out in 2018 by Lexapol, and it was,

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you know, referencing FBI data statistics.

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Interesting that 62 percent, and I could have guessed this, right?

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Everybody says it all the time.

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And there is an important distinction here, but they said that 62 percent of

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cases, they have some sort of mental health issue.

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Now, I get it. it’s important to note that mental health is not the same thing as mental illness.

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Mental illness means someone’s been, you know, I’m paraphrasing here,

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but it means you’ve officially been diagnosed with a problem,

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right, and have a mental illness.

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You’ve been officially diagnosed with a mental illness.

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Mental health is, you know, you’re stressed out at work or you’re having a hard

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time in your personal relationships, either with your spouse or your domestic

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partner, that sort of thing.

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You know, stress, right? Like, especially now with things going on,

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people are got a lot of stress. And I would contend that stress as a whole seems

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to be going up over recent years too.

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So that makes sense that 62%, at least as of 2018, and again,

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I think this holds water, have some sort of mental health issues.

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Quite a few of them, and I don’t recall the percentage offhand,

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but again, all this information is available online.

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A good number of them have either.

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Been a victim of some sort of bullying, you know, when we talk about our children

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or they are some sort of bullying, even in their adult life,

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a good portion of them have been in some sort of abusive relationships.

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And then the really high number, at least it struck me as such,

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was 80% have some sort of personal grievances, right, with someone.

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And I think of, well, I know, again, I think the report references it.

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Again, a lot of people think it might be racially inclined or something like

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that, but this is more on a personal level, like the person feels they’ve been

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slighted or disrespected or turned down,

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you know, whatever the case may be, but 80% have some sort of personal grievances.

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So we, and we’ll talk about some events that have happened over the years coming up.

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But, you know, when Columbine happened, I think that was 1999,

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if memory serves, we decided to start taking these things, these events super seriously.

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And through that tragedy, you know, there were some programs created,

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one program in particular from the Department of Homeland Security,

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which I mentioned earlier.

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But, you know, people started having more conversations and figuring out what

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needed to happen to help curtail or reduce the number of these things.

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And so the Department of Homeland Security created a program,

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which many of you may have heard of, called Run, Hide, Fight.

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And it was just that your first line of defense is to get out,

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get away if you can, right?

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Just get out, take people with you if you can, but your goal for yourself should

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certainly to be to run and get away.

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Next being hide. If you can’t get away, then don’t be standing out in the hallways,

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you know, find a room, barricade yourself in the room.

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Don’t stand in front of doors because doors can and are shot through.

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Barricade with heavy furniture, you know, get in there and hide in the corners

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out of sight, be quiet, turn off your cell phones, hide.

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Now I do want to throw this in there.

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And some people have given this bad piece of advice and you can find articles

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and you can even find a few videos out there on the interwebs.

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There are some folks that have suggested that you should play dead,

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and that’s part of the hide part, I guess.

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I don’t know. Or maybe you can’t get away and you just figure you’ll just lay there.

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That has proven to be unsuccessful, and there’s been many victims not come out

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of situations like that.

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And there’s even, I’ve seen a video and I can’t for the life of me remember

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where it was or who it was talking, but they even talked about the people that

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slumped over their school desks or laid on the floor dead.

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The active shooters actually came by to shoot them and did.

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And we have to remember, you know, the mindset of an active shooter is to shoot

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as many people as possible in the shortest period of time because they know

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they’re on borrowed time the moment that they start even before they pop off that first shot.

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And law enforcement’s talked about that.

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So playing dead is not a good option. It is not a good thing to take out of

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the playbook, so I highly do not recommend playing dead.

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But again, going back to the Homeland Securities method, run first, hide second.

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And then the last is if you absolutely must, if you find yourself in a situation

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where you couldn’t run away.

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Maybe they came in and found where you were hiding and you have absolutely no

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choice, then you should look to engage with them and fight.

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And we’ll talk about more of that coming up.

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So as I think I mentioned when I first started this chat,

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So I think it’s important that we evolve the conversation from just active shooter.

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Look, we’re a country founded on firearms, right?

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And thank goodness we are, in my opinion. That’s one of the freedoms that are

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afforded to us by the Constitution of the United States and living in a free

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country that we made for ourselves.

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But that aside, I think it’s important that we expand this conversation and

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our mindset to think in terms of active killer.

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Because at the end of the day, while yes, active shooting is a thing here stateside

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because we’re a gun, you know, we got a lot of guns in the country.

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It could be any tool. And I’m going to talk about some things to prove that very point.

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Because, you know, if you look in the full, if you look at the full context

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of things, it’s, it’s not about just, it’s not just about guns.

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So, you know, when we think of active shooter scenarios, we think of Columbine,

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we think of Sandy Hook, we think of Virginia Tech, but there’s been so many other acts of.

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Dare I say, active killer.

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And I found this on a website, at least the story in part, and I found it a

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couple of different places. And so the story varies a little bit.

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But evidently, the first reported attack on a school was actually in 1764.

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And as the story goes, as I found here on officer.com,

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it talks about that in 19, I’m sorry, in 1764,

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in July of 1764, four Delaware American Indians entered a school house in Pennsylvania

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with the intent of killing those that were inside.

00:18:45.135 –> 00:18:49.135
And when they came into the school, when the four American Indians came into

00:18:49.135 –> 00:18:55.215
the school, the schoolmaster confronted them and they shot him and scalped him.

00:18:55.335 –> 00:18:57.155
So they killed him immediately.

00:18:57.515 –> 00:19:04.895
They then proceeded to scalp 11 children, if you can imagine such a horrific act,

00:19:05.523 –> 00:19:11.803
These four American Indians then, as the story goes, scalped 11 children,

00:19:12.243 –> 00:19:18.163
nine of which succumbed to their wounds, and then they kidnapped another four.

00:19:19.543 –> 00:19:24.263
And from there, I don’t know where the story went. I didn’t go much past that.

00:19:24.723 –> 00:19:29.903
Another source I found said that it was three Indians and there was a total

00:19:29.903 –> 00:19:34.263
of 10 people killed, which would still make sense because if nine kids die,

00:19:34.323 –> 00:19:35.423
plus the schoolmasters.

00:19:35.523 –> 00:19:40.823
So a little variance there is there are in stories from days so far gone,

00:19:41.043 –> 00:19:43.203
but, you know, a horrific event, right?

00:19:43.423 –> 00:19:50.083
And while they shot the schoolmaster, they scalped the other 11 kids.

00:19:50.083 –> 00:19:56.723
The first, as reported by website Newser.

00:19:58.383 –> 00:20:01.883
America’s first school massacre, still its deadliest,

00:20:02.343 –> 00:20:10.563
a gentleman by the name of Andrew Kehoe in 1927 drove to a school in Michigan

00:20:10.563 –> 00:20:18.283
in 1927 and detonated a bomb that killed 45 people, including 38 children.

00:20:18.283 –> 00:20:22.063
And, you know, they say if you want to kill a lot of people at one time,

00:20:22.243 –> 00:20:24.683
either bombs or guns are the way to do it, right?

00:20:25.023 –> 00:20:29.363
There was no guns involved here. This guy had some homemade explosives.

00:20:29.563 –> 00:20:31.223
So I thought that was interesting.

00:20:31.463 –> 00:20:35.423
So, again, another incident early on in our history were no guns involved.

00:20:36.423 –> 00:20:39.063
And this isn’t all about schools, right?

00:20:39.083 –> 00:20:42.763
It’s just that a lot of shootings have taken place there, but still not the

00:20:42.763 –> 00:20:46.483
majorities. Some of these I just thought were interesting because they’re,

00:20:46.483 –> 00:20:49.583
you know, they’re hugely profound in our history.

00:20:49.803 –> 00:20:53.903
The next I referenced early was the Texas tower shooting of 1966.

00:20:55.675 –> 00:21:01.575
And that was when Charles Whitman killed 14 people and wounded another 31.

00:21:02.055 –> 00:21:05.575
And if you haven’t heard of that story, I’d look it up.

00:21:05.775 –> 00:21:10.895
And again, that was kind of significant because while it certainly wasn’t the

00:21:10.895 –> 00:21:16.435
first active shooter scenario and wasn’t the first mass shooting in American

00:21:16.435 –> 00:21:18.315
history by any stretch of the imagination,

00:21:18.315 –> 00:21:23.775
we’ve had some horrific events going back even as far back as 1920.

00:21:23.775 –> 00:21:29.475
If you look on Wikipedia, but certainly this one, I think, takes note.

00:21:29.615 –> 00:21:37.215
I mean, even in my lifetime, just because it was when the media got a hold or something, right?

00:21:37.355 –> 00:21:39.755
And this one got all kinds of media news press.

00:21:39.975 –> 00:21:47.555
So the Texas Tower in 1966 with Charles Whitman is a significant shooting event for sure.

00:21:48.415 –> 00:21:55.535
The next you might remember because it’s where the terminology got coined, I think, going postal.

00:21:55.815 –> 00:22:00.195
I don’t know if you’ve heard that before, but I think I’m pretty sure it’s where

00:22:00.195 –> 00:22:04.035
the terminology going postal came from.

00:22:04.035 –> 00:22:15.555
In August of 1986, a gentleman by the name of Patrick Henry Sherrill was a United States postal worker,

00:22:15.875 –> 00:22:22.715
postal service worker, and he killed 14 employees before he took his own life, and that was in 1986.

00:22:24.347 –> 00:22:28.927
So another significant event with firearms involved.

00:22:29.207 –> 00:22:33.147
And then, you know, more recently, we have the Virginia Tech Massacre,

00:22:33.387 –> 00:22:39.147
which I believe still remains the largest death toll for schools to date.

00:22:39.967 –> 00:22:45.567
Sandy Hook, which we’re all familiar with. Again, the University of Texas tower

00:22:45.567 –> 00:22:50.187
shooting ranks in that top three of deadliest attacks, at least on schools.

00:22:50.187 –> 00:22:54.967
And then that’s followed by Columbine, which again, that was,

00:22:54.967 –> 00:22:59.667
let’s see, that was April of 1999.

00:23:00.387 –> 00:23:05.487
And I remember that almost like it was yesterday. You know, the next thing we

00:23:05.487 –> 00:23:07.167
got to talk about is knives, right?

00:23:07.167 –> 00:23:14.287
Now, as I’ve come to understand, there have only been, and I’m looking here,

00:23:14.747 –> 00:23:19.407
approximately seven mass knife attacks in the U.S.

00:23:19.527 –> 00:23:22.607
Since like 1901 or something like that.

00:23:22.607 –> 00:23:29.767
But one of the more recently, at least, was at the Lone Star College in Cypher

00:23:29.767 –> 00:23:36.347
back in 2013, around about April of 2013.

00:23:37.647 –> 00:23:43.047
Wound up wounding 14 people, two of which were seriously.

00:23:43.347 –> 00:23:52.327
So here stateside at a college campus, some kid wielding a knife injures 14 people.

00:23:52.607 –> 00:23:58.767
Back in around March of 2014, a group of knife-wielding men,

00:23:58.827 –> 00:24:02.007
and this probably crosses into terrorism, right?

00:24:02.087 –> 00:24:06.187
And there’s specific definitions for terrorism, but I’m going to bring it up

00:24:06.187 –> 00:24:08.647
anyway just to talk about the power of the knife.

00:24:08.907 –> 00:24:13.647
And approximately, there’s probably at least five individuals involved with this.

00:24:13.807 –> 00:24:20.987
But in China, in a train station, they killed at least 29 people and wound up injuring them.

00:24:21.323 –> 00:24:27.783
More than 130 others, and you can find this online. I happen to be looking at

00:24:27.783 –> 00:24:32.123
an NBC News website, talking about it, referencing.

00:24:32.803 –> 00:24:38.303
And, you know, more recently, just in June of this year, in fact, 2021.

00:24:39.363 –> 00:24:44.823
CNN published an article entitled, As America Struggles with Gun Violence,

00:24:45.063 –> 00:24:48.523
China Faces Its Own Public Threat, Mass Stabbings.

00:24:48.523 –> 00:24:51.923
It’s interesting to note how

00:24:51.923 –> 00:24:55.043
many mass stabbings have occurred in

00:24:55.043 –> 00:24:58.063
China and some other countries too and you know they’re

00:24:58.063 –> 00:25:03.823
they have very tight strict gun laws in China as I’m sure you can imagine but

00:25:03.823 –> 00:25:15.463
there a number of active killers with knives is is incredible including a in In November of 2018,

00:25:16.223 –> 00:25:22.363
a 39-year-old woman with a knife burst into a playground of kindergartners in

00:25:22.363 –> 00:25:27.383
southwest China and managed to slash 14 children.

00:25:27.383 –> 00:25:35.383
And what’s interesting, too, that same year, the same day in 2012,

00:25:35.383 –> 00:25:38.683
when 20 students were shot at Sandy Hook,

00:25:39.023 –> 00:25:48.203
there were 22 children stabbed at an elementary school somewhere in China the very same day.

00:25:49.590 –> 00:25:54.710
So what’s the point of bringing all this up? Well, it’s not just about the object,

00:25:54.910 –> 00:25:56.350
the tool that’s used, right?

00:25:56.550 –> 00:26:03.930
Guns are, yes, a tool of choice here in America, but active killer could be any tool.

00:26:04.090 –> 00:26:08.990
And it’s more about the intent and the heart and the mental status of the person

00:26:08.990 –> 00:26:15.410
behind that tool that really is the part that we need to be addressing and talking more about.

00:26:15.670 –> 00:26:18.510
And we’ll talk more about that here in a few minutes, too. So,

00:26:18.530 –> 00:26:26.370
you know, China actually has examples of knife wielding, cleaver wielding, axe wielding.

00:26:26.530 –> 00:26:33.130
And even a case I read, I saw where an individual had used a hammer to inflict

00:26:33.130 –> 00:26:36.110
injury to at least eight different people.

00:26:36.490 –> 00:26:40.630
So, again, it really is not about the tool. Certainly, again,

00:26:41.230 –> 00:26:45.050
you know, you can inflict more damage with better tools.

00:26:45.050 –> 00:26:47.810
But again it’s about the

00:26:47.810 –> 00:26:50.750
individual the evil the heart the intent

00:26:50.750 –> 00:26:53.770
the mental health the mental status whatever you

00:26:53.770 –> 00:26:56.750
want to call that’s that’s all behind it

00:26:56.750 –> 00:27:00.890
and then of course you know more recently just christmas here in wisconsin we

00:27:00.890 –> 00:27:06.210
had the crazy drive his suv through a bunch of christmas paraders right and

00:27:06.210 –> 00:27:10.450
we see how that went you know not a gun anywhere to be found he just simply

00:27:10.450 –> 00:27:14.990
drove over a bunch of people during a Christmas parade. It’s crazy.

00:27:15.841 –> 00:27:19.501
I oftentimes say it, you know, the world’s crazy and going to hell in a handbasket.

00:27:19.701 –> 00:27:22.501
I don’t know how else to look at it sometimes.

00:27:23.081 –> 00:27:27.521
But I wanted to present with you some, you know, certainly some events that

00:27:27.521 –> 00:27:29.881
we’re all familiar with or more familiar with.

00:27:29.981 –> 00:27:33.681
And then some things that have occurred through history. And believe me, there’s a lot more.

00:27:33.901 –> 00:27:39.481
I mean, again, the active shooters alone in that 20-year study said there was

00:27:39.481 –> 00:27:42.441
333 plus the 40 from last year.

00:27:42.441 –> 00:27:49.441
That’s 373 events, active shooter in 21 years here in the States.

00:27:49.481 –> 00:27:54.241
But my point is, is that the conversation and the mindset and being prepared

00:27:54.241 –> 00:27:55.881
is a much larger subject.

00:27:56.121 –> 00:27:59.861
And that’s why I think it’s important for us to talk in terms of active killer

00:27:59.861 –> 00:28:07.001
and not active shooter by itself. Because again, that’s kind of slanted to an

00:28:07.001 –> 00:28:10.341
agenda side, especially when it comes to the news media.

00:28:10.481 –> 00:28:13.501
So why am I here? Why do I have an interest in this?

00:28:13.641 –> 00:28:17.501
Well, you know, it’s top of mind for a lot of people, and it just so happens

00:28:17.501 –> 00:28:22.161
that I’m one that believe that I have the right and the responsibility for my

00:28:22.161 –> 00:28:24.181
own personal safety and self-defense.

00:28:25.131 –> 00:28:31.311
And, you know, if I wasn’t single, I would have that same responsibility for

00:28:31.311 –> 00:28:32.911
my significant other as well.

00:28:32.951 –> 00:28:36.751
So I take responsibility for it. And so I’ve gotten some training.

00:28:36.891 –> 00:28:40.151
And, yeah, I have a martial arts background and a background in Krav.

00:28:41.031 –> 00:28:42.551
What little bit there is of it.

00:28:42.611 –> 00:28:45.591
But I’ve actually been through some active killer defense.

00:28:45.811 –> 00:28:50.331
And I want to talk to you a little bit about that and talk about some programs

00:28:50.331 –> 00:28:54.251
that are available out there. So I’ve actually been through this particular

00:28:54.251 –> 00:28:57.331
program twice and it was early on, but it’s great.

00:28:57.411 –> 00:29:01.331
I’m sure they’re still evolving it and trying out new techniques and new things

00:29:01.331 –> 00:29:06.531
because we’re like everything in life, including some things currently that are going on.

00:29:06.711 –> 00:29:10.031
We’re learning as we go, right? No one’s a master of an expert,

00:29:10.031 –> 00:29:13.551
but there are some people that are getting really, really better at it.

00:29:13.651 –> 00:29:17.631
And if nothing else, these people are making you think about it and making you

00:29:17.631 –> 00:29:21.691
consider doing things you might not have ever had before. So I’ve been through

00:29:21.691 –> 00:29:23.691
active killer defense training.

00:29:24.331 –> 00:29:28.611
The two courses that I took, and yes, I went back and took the same one again

00:29:28.611 –> 00:29:29.851
because I thought it was good.

00:29:30.031 –> 00:29:35.851
And look, if you take a seminar once, you know, repetitiveness is key when it

00:29:35.851 –> 00:29:40.651
comes to these sorts of things. But I trained with Ryan Hoover at Fit to Fight

00:29:40.651 –> 00:29:42.591
up in Charlotte, North Carolina.

00:29:42.611 –> 00:29:47.651
He has an active killer defense program. I highly recommend it.

00:29:48.111 –> 00:29:52.811
They not only talk about mindset and situational awareness and what goes down

00:29:52.811 –> 00:29:55.891
in an active killer scenario. They teach you defense.

00:29:56.191 –> 00:30:01.471
Yes, it means you getting engaged and having the mindset that you’re going to

00:30:01.471 –> 00:30:05.431
go home safe and protect yourself and maybe others at all costs.

00:30:05.431 –> 00:30:09.611
And then the great thing about it, too, is it covers some basic trauma care,

00:30:09.711 –> 00:30:11.631
which is really important if you think about it.

00:30:11.651 –> 00:30:15.171
And I’ll tell you more about that, why that’s important here coming up.

00:30:15.631 –> 00:30:19.331
There’s some other programs out there I want to mention. Obviously,

00:30:19.711 –> 00:30:23.011
the Department of Homeland Security has their Run, Hide, Fight program.

00:30:24.231 –> 00:30:28.031
If you’re not going to go seek out specific training on how to fight or how

00:30:28.031 –> 00:30:33.811
to combat active killers, active shooters, then at least become familiar with

00:30:33.811 –> 00:30:35.331
the Run-Hide-Fight program.

00:30:35.611 –> 00:30:39.631
It’s meant for the general populace because they know that most people aren’t

00:30:39.631 –> 00:30:41.831
going to seek out that specialized training.

00:30:42.151 –> 00:30:46.171
So at bare minimum, I recommend the Run-Hide-Fight program.

00:30:46.764 –> 00:30:50.784
Not that it’s a great program in and of itself, because I think there’s so much

00:30:50.784 –> 00:30:54.284
more beyond that, like the fighting piece that everybody needs,

00:30:54.424 –> 00:30:58.964
but also the trauma care as well. But it’s certainly still an option.

00:30:59.124 –> 00:31:03.624
And then one other that I’m vaguely familiar with is one called AVERT.

00:31:03.724 –> 00:31:07.364
It’s one that I’ve been wanting to check out for some time now.

00:31:07.364 –> 00:31:12.644
And AVERT stands for Active Violence Emergency Response Training.

00:31:12.924 –> 00:31:17.304
And it goes above and beyond the basic run, hide, fight.

00:31:17.504 –> 00:31:26.104
So my point is there’s examples of three approaches, three training opportunities that you have.

00:31:26.244 –> 00:31:30.044
There’s others. I know some other Krav schools out there across the U.S.

00:31:30.144 –> 00:31:35.484
Are doing active shooter, active killer training. So I’m sure you can find something

00:31:35.484 –> 00:31:39.544
in your area, but either way, hopefully this stimulates you to get to thinking

00:31:39.544 –> 00:31:42.404
about what you need to do for yourself and your loved ones.

00:31:43.224 –> 00:31:47.164
Another opportunity that I’ve had, and I think I’ve talked about this before

00:31:47.164 –> 00:31:49.864
on one or more of my previous podcast,

00:31:50.204 –> 00:31:54.884
is I had the opportunity for the county that I live in to participate in the

00:31:54.884 –> 00:31:59.684
Community Emergency Response Team, or the CERT program for the county,

00:31:59.804 –> 00:32:01.164
and it’s basically free,

00:32:01.424 –> 00:32:05.524
provided by FEMA, I believe it is, and you learn all kinds of cool stuff, right?

00:32:06.604 –> 00:32:10.904
Which I highly recommend if it’s available in your area or anything like it.

00:32:11.144 –> 00:32:14.744
But again, it’s the Community Emergency Response Team, CERT,

00:32:15.144 –> 00:32:18.724
usually at the county level, provided at the county level. It’s over the course

00:32:18.724 –> 00:32:24.024
of seven or eight weeks, at least it was for me at the time I went through it a few years back.

00:32:24.609 –> 00:32:30.009
But the outcome of that relative to active shooter killer situations is that

00:32:30.009 –> 00:32:37.669
afforded me the ability to volunteer at a county level to participate in some

00:32:37.669 –> 00:32:39.489
active shooter killer scenarios.

00:32:39.489 –> 00:32:42.829
And so I’ve actually had the fortune of, and,

00:32:42.969 –> 00:32:47.249
you know, it’s scary stuff when you’re going through it, but I’ve had the fortune

00:32:47.249 –> 00:32:53.249
of doing three training exercises at the county level across departments as

00:32:53.249 –> 00:32:54.729
far as first responders go,

00:32:54.909 –> 00:32:57.369
whether it’s law enforcement or fire, EMT.

00:32:57.369 –> 00:33:01.389
The first one was actually in an elementary school, and I think it was during

00:33:01.389 –> 00:33:02.929
the summer, so they weren’t in session.

00:33:03.089 –> 00:33:07.329
But in either case, whatever the time of year was, I can’t remember off time,

00:33:07.569 –> 00:33:11.869
this particular elementary school in a town near me was closed.

00:33:12.469 –> 00:33:17.389
And multiple municipalities, cities, counties came for the training exercise,

00:33:17.389 –> 00:33:18.709
and I was one of the volunteers.

00:33:19.775 –> 00:33:25.035
And it was in an actual elementary school. It just happened to be closed down, as I mentioned.

00:33:25.255 –> 00:33:31.395
And I had a couple of scenarios that I was able to see things from those angles.

00:33:31.595 –> 00:33:33.895
The first one was just a bystander.

00:33:34.275 –> 00:33:39.015
And I don’t even know entirely what the scenarios were that they had fed to

00:33:39.015 –> 00:33:41.795
first responders at that time, law enforcement.

00:33:42.175 –> 00:33:46.875
But I was upstairs on the second floor, back in the back of a classroom with

00:33:46.875 –> 00:33:51.195
one other person. and we were just kind of supposed to be innocent bystanders.

00:33:51.995 –> 00:33:57.075
And we had to wait on law enforcement to come through, right? And they come through.

00:33:57.335 –> 00:34:02.155
And even in these training exercises, you know, their adrenaline spiked and they’re jacked.

00:34:02.415 –> 00:34:05.795
So you want to comply, as I always recommend with law enforcement.

00:34:06.155 –> 00:34:09.655
So I got to see them operating at that level. And I wasn’t a victim.

00:34:09.835 –> 00:34:11.875
I hadn’t been shot or hurt anyway.

00:34:12.315 –> 00:34:16.295
But they had to engage me and figure out whether or not I was a good guy or

00:34:16.295 –> 00:34:18.895
bad guy. So I got to work that side of the street.

00:34:19.635 –> 00:34:23.155
And we worked three scenarios that day, if memory serves.

00:34:23.375 –> 00:34:27.715
The second one was I was still a bystander, but I was…

00:34:28.580 –> 00:34:33.460
In an area in a position of the school building where some stuff was happening.

00:34:34.020 –> 00:34:39.940
And to make a long story short, ultimately, I got bum rushed by a county SWAT

00:34:39.940 –> 00:34:44.980
group coming through and wound up getting to feel like what it was like to have

00:34:44.980 –> 00:34:48.700
a knee in my back of my neck and get handcuffed.

00:34:48.940 –> 00:34:52.680
And again, they have their protocols and procedures, and I’m not going to talk

00:34:52.680 –> 00:34:56.200
about that because that’s their stuff that I would, you know,

00:34:56.280 –> 00:35:01.140
if we talk about their stuff, we compromise their procedures and their safety, quite honestly.

00:35:01.660 –> 00:35:04.920
But, you know, they have their way of going about things. So in that scenario,

00:35:04.960 –> 00:35:07.900
they couldn’t determine if I was a good guy or bad guy.

00:35:08.500 –> 00:35:13.240
Where I was standing was next to what appeared to be a bad guy,

00:35:13.420 –> 00:35:15.520
which they had not cleared and checked out yet.

00:35:15.520 –> 00:35:22.640
So they treated me as though I was potentially bad, though they weren’t certain,

00:35:22.920 –> 00:35:25.940
which is a lot of times the case for law enforcement, right?

00:35:26.240 –> 00:35:29.700
So I got to experience the knee in the back of the neck and it was fine.

00:35:29.820 –> 00:35:34.440
It was not as bad as I’m sure it might be in the real deal, but it was pretty

00:35:34.440 –> 00:35:38.240
close because again, these guys are feeling the stress of the drill that we’re going through.

00:35:39.300 –> 00:35:43.400
And then the last scenario, I was actually a victim where I hadn’t been hurt,

00:35:43.480 –> 00:35:47.340
but a perpetrator had me down on the ground with a machete to my neck and

00:35:47.728 –> 00:35:52.668
And law enforcement had to come through and do their thing there and chased

00:35:52.668 –> 00:35:54.448
him off. And I was laying there and fine.

00:35:54.588 –> 00:36:00.748
But the point is, is I got to see different angles of similar scenarios,

00:36:00.748 –> 00:36:03.368
right, in that situation, in that elementary school.

00:36:03.588 –> 00:36:07.868
And, you know, one thing that stands out in my mind besides getting rushed by

00:36:07.868 –> 00:36:12.688
SWAT and put on the ground with a knee in the back of my neck was at the beginning

00:36:12.688 –> 00:36:16.228
of the first scenario, there was actually gunfire going off in the school.

00:36:16.228 –> 00:36:20.508
Now, they were shooting blanks, obviously, no live rounds, obviously,

00:36:20.748 –> 00:36:24.228
for safety and every other reason imaginable.

00:36:24.888 –> 00:36:31.308
But let me tell you, they were using a .308 caliber in an M1A that they had with blanks in it.

00:36:31.768 –> 00:36:37.348
And when you hear a .308 caliber going off in the concrete hallways of an elementary

00:36:37.348 –> 00:36:40.628
school, it’ll get your attention.

00:36:40.628 –> 00:36:46.028
So I do have those memories from that incident, that situation,

00:36:46.048 –> 00:36:48.588
and it was great. I never will forget that day.

00:36:48.728 –> 00:36:53.568
And you get to see how first responders behave and react and what they do and

00:36:53.568 –> 00:36:58.488
what their procedures and policies are too, which is cool. But I’m not going to divulge any of that.

00:36:59.223 –> 00:37:02.963
The next scenario that I got to volunteer for, which was awesome,

00:37:03.183 –> 00:37:07.603
was bright and early about 5, 3 in the morning on a Sunday morning while the

00:37:07.603 –> 00:37:10.283
mall was still closed in a major,

00:37:10.623 –> 00:37:16.623
large shopping mall here in the area at 5, 3 in the morning while it was closed.

00:37:16.963 –> 00:37:22.823
Again, the county and some other joining cities and counties and first responders.

00:37:23.463 –> 00:37:28.083
Law enforcement, while the mall was closed, had an active shooter scenario.

00:37:28.083 –> 00:37:30.263
I played a victim in that.

00:37:30.483 –> 00:37:34.883
I was basically laying down outside one of the major department stores while

00:37:34.883 –> 00:37:37.863
there was gunfights going on above me with simunitions.

00:37:38.063 –> 00:37:43.703
So I collected up, I think, a few expended rounds of simunitions out of that deal.

00:37:43.823 –> 00:37:48.703
But it was cool, again, to see it all come together and to see law enforcement

00:37:48.703 –> 00:37:50.843
and first responders getting training, right?

00:37:50.923 –> 00:37:55.043
That’s so critical. And in the beginning days, they weren’t getting a lot of that.

00:37:55.183 –> 00:37:59.803
And one positive, you know, if there is a positive, and I always believe there

00:37:59.803 –> 00:38:04.083
is a positive if you look for it, is that law enforcement now is figuring out

00:38:04.083 –> 00:38:05.383
what they need to be doing it.

00:38:05.443 –> 00:38:09.003
And they’re doing a better job about getting the training out there.

00:38:09.143 –> 00:38:12.363
It might be slow, but it’s sure, right?

00:38:12.483 –> 00:38:16.203
Like it’s coming along. And I believe that after having been through it a few times.

00:38:16.203 –> 00:38:19.303
The last event, because I haven’t done it for a little bit now,

00:38:19.483 –> 00:38:27.243
is a major metropolitan transit authority shut down one of their train stations

00:38:27.243 –> 00:38:30.003
here in the metropolitan area.

00:38:31.043 –> 00:38:33.883
And it was late at night, in the middle of the night, in fact.

00:38:33.883 –> 00:38:38.703
I think I wound up working from like midnight till four or five in the morning doing it.

00:38:39.043 –> 00:38:43.863
But again, I got to play the role of the victim. And they had Hollywood makeup

00:38:43.863 –> 00:38:48.263
artist on site. and I had a gunshot wound in the leg that they did up,

00:38:48.303 –> 00:38:51.223
which actually looked pretty real, I have to say, for what it was.

00:38:51.995 –> 00:38:57.415
And you go down into the train station and there’s trains parked on one side and not in the other.

00:38:57.655 –> 00:39:04.215
And then when they say go, there was two bad guys shooting blanks out of AK-47s.

00:39:04.315 –> 00:39:10.695
They had the platforms with basically the fireworks launchers on there to make

00:39:10.695 –> 00:39:12.955
it seem like there’s explosions going off.

00:39:13.055 –> 00:39:18.295
I mean, it was a full-scale, full-on event. And to make a long story short,

00:39:18.595 –> 00:39:23.595
I was laying out there on the train platform for a while with a couple of other

00:39:23.595 –> 00:39:25.015
people, a couple of ladies, actually.

00:39:25.155 –> 00:39:29.635
And I think at least one, if not both of them, were studying to be nurses at

00:39:29.635 –> 00:39:31.975
a local major medical college.

00:39:32.735 –> 00:39:37.215
And we took away a very important lesson that day, which is something I want

00:39:37.215 –> 00:39:40.815
to talk to you here in this time we have together in this episode as well.

00:39:40.815 –> 00:39:44.575
But we learned one important lesson and I actually made it a point during the

00:39:44.575 –> 00:39:46.195
exercise to say it to them.

00:39:46.295 –> 00:39:49.135
You know, it’s like they’re not coming to save us.

00:39:49.375 –> 00:39:54.115
Like if we didn’t know what to do and assuming we’re still conscious and capable,

00:39:54.115 –> 00:39:58.995
if we didn’t know what to do with ourselves, we’re in trouble because here we

00:39:58.995 –> 00:40:02.335
are, you know, like I’m supposed to be shot in the leg bleeding out.

00:40:02.835 –> 00:40:06.975
Like we are our own first responders at the end of the day.

00:40:07.395 –> 00:40:10.215
And that’s an important lesson for you to take away.

00:40:10.215 –> 00:40:15.875
If you take nothing else away from this talk about active shooters and active killers, whatever,

00:40:16.275 –> 00:40:21.495
you need to get yourself some basic trauma care training so you know what to

00:40:21.495 –> 00:40:25.115
do for yourself, your children, your spouse, your domestic partner,

00:40:25.315 –> 00:40:27.115
your family member, whatever it is.

00:40:27.215 –> 00:40:33.195
Because in the case of a large-scale attack like that, they’re not coming in

00:40:33.195 –> 00:40:34.675
to take care of you first.

00:40:35.535 –> 00:40:39.595
So anyway, there’s all this gunfire. There’s explosions going off.

00:40:40.589 –> 00:40:45.489
Again, it was a multi-county, multi-city event at that scale.

00:40:45.489 –> 00:40:50.269
You would imagine fire, EMT, and obviously law enforcement, SWAT.

00:40:50.789 –> 00:40:53.489
So to make a long story short, I’m laying there on the platform.

00:40:53.749 –> 00:40:57.749
I’m, you know, I’m passed out from my leg gunshot wound.

00:40:57.969 –> 00:41:01.269
I got my eyes closed because, you know, I’m all in. I’m going to play along.

00:41:01.769 –> 00:41:08.269
And I remember some SWAT guys came in and after they did their thing, they came and got us.

00:41:08.269 –> 00:41:11.109
And I remember when they got me on the gurney, they picked me up,

00:41:11.189 –> 00:41:16.129
put me in the gurney and I’m still got my eyes closed and I’m trying to play

00:41:16.129 –> 00:41:20.089
as limp as I can for them, you know, as they put me in that gurney to carry it out.

00:41:20.149 –> 00:41:24.889
And I think there was, I know there was two, there was one at my feet and one in my head for sure.

00:41:25.049 –> 00:41:27.869
I don’t really remember how many, but I know there was at least two.

00:41:28.029 –> 00:41:30.669
And the thing that I remember about the guy standing at my head,

00:41:30.789 –> 00:41:35.549
carrying me at my head was his AR kept knocking me in the back of my head because

00:41:35.549 –> 00:41:37.729
he had it swung around the front of him. Right.

00:41:38.269 –> 00:41:41.229
So I’m supposedly passed out on the gurney.

00:41:41.409 –> 00:41:45.869
His AR-15 is, it’s not like hitting me hard, but it’s tapping me on the top

00:41:45.869 –> 00:41:47.569
of my head, the back of my head for sure.

00:41:48.049 –> 00:41:52.409
They wound up, and I can feel where we’re going. They wound up carrying me up

00:41:52.409 –> 00:41:54.929
some stairs out of the belly of the train station.

00:41:55.249 –> 00:42:00.149
They picked me up and over the turnstile and then wound up taking me out in

00:42:00.149 –> 00:42:01.509
the street and staging me.

00:42:01.649 –> 00:42:05.129
You know, when you have mass casualty events, there’s stages that you do.

00:42:05.709 –> 00:42:08.829
And if you took CERT training, you’d know what those are. But anyway,

00:42:09.069 –> 00:42:11.749
it was very much like that. And that was kind of the end of the event.

00:42:12.349 –> 00:42:17.329
And I, you know, my two biggest takeaways from that were that.

00:42:18.237 –> 00:42:23.877
A, you need to have some basic trauma training because no one’s going to take care of you except you.

00:42:24.177 –> 00:42:27.537
And, you know, unless you’re unconscious, you need to be prepared to do just

00:42:27.537 –> 00:42:31.157
that very thing. You and whoever’s with you that you’re responsible for.

00:42:31.677 –> 00:42:35.437
And then the other big thing is, and I know this is changing or supposed to

00:42:35.437 –> 00:42:38.977
be changing again because this type of training is evolving,

00:42:38.977 –> 00:42:43.297
is that the one thing that you need to know, too, if you ever find yourself

00:42:43.297 –> 00:42:45.917
in a bad situation like that, And again,

00:42:46.097 –> 00:42:48.817
maybe by the time it happens, if it ever happens to you,

00:42:49.477 –> 00:42:53.497
first responders, law enforcement, SWAT, teams, whatever you want to call it,

00:42:53.577 –> 00:42:55.717
when they come in, they could care less about you.

00:42:56.077 –> 00:43:01.397
You can be screaming bloody murder. You can be half dead, half bled out on the floor.

00:43:02.197 –> 00:43:07.397
Their job is not to take care of you. Their first and only responsibility when

00:43:07.397 –> 00:43:12.077
they first come on scene after they’ve evaluated things as best they can is

00:43:12.077 –> 00:43:15.417
to come in and neutralize the threat.

00:43:15.637 –> 00:43:19.557
And that’s just the reality of it is, again, you’ve got an active shooter,

00:43:19.737 –> 00:43:23.277
active killer, knife wielding, hammer wielding, whatever.

00:43:23.597 –> 00:43:28.017
Their first job and responsibility is to neutralize that threat.

00:43:28.986 –> 00:43:36.046
Then, you know, fire, rescue, EMT, whatever, or they will come back and get you.

00:43:36.546 –> 00:43:39.886
So you need to, you need to know and understand those two things.

00:43:40.046 –> 00:43:44.026
And for me, those three events were a fantastic experience for me.

00:43:44.086 –> 00:43:47.206
And I’m so glad I had the opportunity to do them and I learned so much.

00:43:47.306 –> 00:43:51.366
So yeah, in my experience, I’ve gotten to walk the defensive side,

00:43:51.366 –> 00:43:54.906
you know, with my active killer training with Fit to Fight.

00:43:55.466 –> 00:44:01.386
I’ve gotten to be a victim in those training scenarios, and I’ve got to be the

00:44:01.386 –> 00:44:04.286
bystander, right? Just kind of, no, no, I’m a good guy.

00:44:04.426 –> 00:44:07.326
Don’t do anything to me. I’m just here caught up in this mess.

00:44:07.686 –> 00:44:11.826
I guess the only thing that I haven’t done is I haven’t obviously walked the

00:44:11.826 –> 00:44:15.906
side of law enforcement, which I doubt I ever will, and I haven’t played the

00:44:15.906 –> 00:44:18.966
role of the bad guy, and I really don’t want to, right?

00:44:19.366 –> 00:44:22.106
Especially seeing how they get handled at the end of the day.

00:44:23.296 –> 00:44:27.796
I have no political agenda in this discussion that I’m having with you here

00:44:27.796 –> 00:44:31.416
today, but I do want to make it a point to say this.

00:44:31.596 –> 00:44:34.896
For me, it has nothing to do with the tools.

00:44:35.316 –> 00:44:41.776
A tool like a firearm, a knife, a hammer, an axe, a hatchet,

00:44:41.976 –> 00:44:44.196
a cleaver, a baseball bat,

00:44:44.576 –> 00:44:51.836
a broken bottle, Those are just inanimate objects that don’t do anything except

00:44:51.836 –> 00:44:55.056
sit there or lay there, if they’re really lazy,

00:44:56.196 –> 00:45:06.456
until a person with some type of intent chooses to pick them up and do something with them, good or bad.

00:45:06.456 –> 00:45:13.936
And so for me, that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to walk away from just

00:45:13.936 –> 00:45:18.996
talking about the concept of active shooters and expand it to cover active killers,

00:45:18.996 –> 00:45:23.176
because it’s really all the same.

00:45:23.176 –> 00:45:30.036
It’s just a tool that’s been chosen to be used with someone that has ill intent.

00:45:30.796 –> 00:45:35.616
And I want to talk about that for a moment. To me, again, this has nothing to

00:45:35.616 –> 00:45:39.856
do with the tool, the inanimate object that’s harmless in and of itself.

00:45:40.976 –> 00:45:44.396
It’s really more about the heart, the intent.

00:45:45.406 –> 00:45:51.686
The mental state or the mental health of the individual wielding those tools.

00:45:52.226 –> 00:45:55.786
And I want you to really think about that, whether you’re pro-gun,

00:45:56.026 –> 00:45:59.166
anti-gun, pro-knife, anti-knife.

00:45:59.326 –> 00:46:03.406
I don’t know how many anti-knifers we have out there. We’ll see how long that takes.

00:46:04.066 –> 00:46:08.646
But I want you to understand it’s the heart and the intent that matter.

00:46:09.186 –> 00:46:14.226
And with that being said, you know, those are things that are hard to understand.

00:46:14.586 –> 00:46:20.106
How do you know what the intent or the mindset is, or the heart,

00:46:20.266 –> 00:46:22.426
where somebody is with their heart?

00:46:22.646 –> 00:46:27.186
How do you know that? How do you get to that? How do you prove that one way or the other?

00:46:27.986 –> 00:46:34.006
So I get why the tool is the focus of the subject of top, you know,

00:46:34.106 –> 00:46:36.666
the topic at hand, the subject that we’re after, right?

00:46:37.086 –> 00:46:43.686
Because it’s easier to attack the inanimate, useless tool than it is to deal

00:46:43.686 –> 00:46:46.666
with the heart of the issues and what’s causing the issues.

00:46:47.046 –> 00:46:50.946
And I want you to take that away and think about that, because that’s really

00:46:50.946 –> 00:46:55.006
what it boils down to, in my mind at least, anyway.

00:46:55.726 –> 00:47:00.906
So how do we know these things are going to happen? How do we know when they might happen?

00:47:01.026 –> 00:47:04.186
Well, we don’t really, but there are some signs.

00:47:04.346 –> 00:47:10.666
And again, according to the FBI, and it was referenced in the report put out by Lexapol there.

00:47:11.801 –> 00:47:18.281
In every situation, at least most of the situations, there was something awry,

00:47:18.321 –> 00:47:21.001
and somebody knew something ahead of time.

00:47:21.341 –> 00:47:26.841
Now, in some cases, issues are reported to police, but maybe at that point there’s

00:47:26.841 –> 00:47:29.201
little evidence or little that they can act upon.

00:47:29.961 –> 00:47:34.761
But it’s important we recognize at least some of the signs and be on the lookout.

00:47:34.961 –> 00:47:39.481
And like we’ve heard the cheesy saying, but it’s so true, see something, say something.

00:47:40.041 –> 00:47:44.681
But let’s talk about some of the signs that you might see exhibited by a person,

00:47:44.821 –> 00:47:47.081
whether it’s a child in school or an adult.

00:47:48.981 –> 00:47:52.881
Withdrawal, you know, any changes in normal behavior, right?

00:47:53.001 –> 00:47:56.141
You know them pretty well, assuming you do know them at all, right?

00:47:56.361 –> 00:48:00.201
If you’re around them, withdrawal, changes in normal behavior.

00:48:00.881 –> 00:48:06.601
Whether they do it intentionally or not, they sometimes leak their plans to

00:48:06.601 –> 00:48:09.921
someone they know. It may not be immediate friends or family,

00:48:09.921 –> 00:48:14.001
but a lot of times they’ve leaked their plans to others.

00:48:14.541 –> 00:48:18.641
Their work performance may drop off, may decrease, right?

00:48:18.921 –> 00:48:26.741
They may start making a lot of threats or getting into some confrontations that

00:48:26.741 –> 00:48:28.141
they wouldn’t have otherwise.

00:48:28.801 –> 00:48:32.301
You may see a spike in drug or alcohol abuse.

00:48:32.501 –> 00:48:38.421
They may begin having issues with anger. They may show signs of physical aggression

00:48:38.421 –> 00:48:41.721
at times Especially with that newfound anger, right?

00:48:42.787 –> 00:48:48.327
In some cases, at least, there’s been social media posts made that seem off-putting

00:48:48.327 –> 00:48:55.647
or anti-political or something very negative, maybe even where the plans show up.

00:48:56.287 –> 00:49:00.087
And in some cases, there’s been plans laying around, you know,

00:49:00.267 –> 00:49:02.447
sketches, diaries, things like that.

00:49:02.867 –> 00:49:08.087
And so it’s not like one or two of these things indicate that somebody is going

00:49:08.087 –> 00:49:09.567
to become an active killer.

00:49:09.567 –> 00:49:16.507
But they say, and again, this is according to the report by Lexapol that’s based off of FBI data,

00:49:16.847 –> 00:49:22.407
they say that like four or five of these sorts of things will exhibit themselves

00:49:22.407 –> 00:49:25.207
over time, will show up over time.

00:49:25.207 –> 00:49:30.827
So you’re looking for changes and not just one change, but, you know,

00:49:31.027 –> 00:49:33.407
four or five changes over a period of time.

00:49:34.167 –> 00:49:39.507
And it’s interesting because in the case where kids are 18 and below,

00:49:39.627 –> 00:49:41.047
of course, 18, you’re an adult, right?

00:49:41.127 –> 00:49:45.687
I get it. But in the cases where it’s 18 and below in the schools,

00:49:46.027 –> 00:49:51.887
there’s generally been teachers and or other students that have recognized and

00:49:51.887 –> 00:49:57.607
seen some evidence like bullying to included in the mix is a big one for students. Right.

00:49:57.907 –> 00:50:03.907
And then with adults, typically, you know, a spouse or domestic partner has

00:50:03.907 –> 00:50:06.087
seen some warning signs. Right.

00:50:06.922 –> 00:50:12.502
And so it’s important we know kind of what to look for, but it’s more important that we don’t ignore it.

00:50:12.822 –> 00:50:17.442
And so for parents out there, I would just ask a few things, right?

00:50:17.562 –> 00:50:21.842
Number one is if you’re a gun owner, lock up your guns and don’t share your

00:50:21.842 –> 00:50:25.642
combinations or your keys to those safes with your children, right?

00:50:25.962 –> 00:50:29.802
That’s really a big one. And a lot of gun owners need to take that advice is

00:50:29.802 –> 00:50:34.302
keeping your guns locked up, especially when they’re not in your direct control.

00:50:35.042 –> 00:50:38.562
You know, have a relationship with your kids. Talk to them directly.

00:50:38.822 –> 00:50:41.822
Keep tabs on what they’re doing and who they’re hanging out with.

00:50:42.242 –> 00:50:46.082
Changes in behavior, right? You’re looking for those signs. You’re looking for

00:50:46.082 –> 00:50:47.502
those changes in behavior.

00:50:48.042 –> 00:50:51.902
The withdrawing, the being bullied or doing more bullying, you know.

00:50:52.922 –> 00:50:56.942
Downturn in grades, much like work performance, right? That’s the equivalent

00:50:56.942 –> 00:50:58.302
for the students, right?

00:50:58.662 –> 00:51:04.922
Keep an eye on the social media posts. You know, listen in on the phone calls they have with people.

00:51:05.851 –> 00:51:09.731
It’s tough being a parent, right? I get it. But these are just some things that

00:51:09.731 –> 00:51:13.271
you can do as a parent to be on the lookout, you know, and you know,

00:51:13.411 –> 00:51:16.651
your family situation too may have gotten recently divorced.

00:51:16.871 –> 00:51:23.831
Maybe he, maybe your children’s bitter about a, someone they were super interested in turning them down.

00:51:24.331 –> 00:51:27.451
Maybe, you know, they’ve been bullied, you know, and by that,

00:51:27.611 –> 00:51:30.651
by the same token, see something, say something, right?

00:51:31.151 –> 00:51:35.451
And talk to your schools, talk to your schools to keep tabs on your children.

00:51:36.051 –> 00:51:40.471
Put pressure on your schools to get some training for the staff and for the

00:51:40.471 –> 00:51:42.951
students when it comes to active shooting and training.

00:51:43.111 –> 00:51:47.031
You know, they don’t know what they don’t know, and they can’t act if they don’t know what to do.

00:51:47.571 –> 00:51:52.151
And talk to your schools about policies and plans that they do have in place.

00:51:52.151 –> 00:51:56.191
And when something doesn’t seem right, bring it up as a concern, right?

00:51:56.371 –> 00:52:02.411
I heard some time ago that some schools were actually suggesting that if there

00:52:02.411 –> 00:52:08.191
was ever an active shooter on site, children on the playground should be brought back inside again.

00:52:08.391 –> 00:52:12.911
And I don’t know 100% that that was true, but I can’t believe that policies

00:52:12.911 –> 00:52:14.991
like that are being out there if they are.

00:52:15.681 –> 00:52:19.061
But at the same time, I wouldn’t put it past some of these entities because

00:52:19.061 –> 00:52:20.621
they just don’t know, right?

00:52:20.941 –> 00:52:24.001
And so it’s important that we start those conversations.

00:52:24.761 –> 00:52:29.661
And look, if you’re an adult and you have a job, be proactive.

00:52:30.161 –> 00:52:33.481
You know your office best. You know your floor plans best.

00:52:34.061 –> 00:52:40.361
Think through scenarios and, you know, come up with plans ahead of time so that

00:52:40.361 –> 00:52:43.281
you know what you’re doing should ever something bad happen.

00:52:43.281 –> 00:52:49.481
You know, take a moment to talk to your management and to see how they feel

00:52:49.481 –> 00:52:54.581
about policies or if there’s plans in place. Talk to your head of security.

00:52:55.641 –> 00:52:59.021
Be proactive about getting that information. And if nothing else,

00:52:59.141 –> 00:53:03.121
by asking around, you at least let them know that you’re thinking about it and

00:53:03.121 –> 00:53:06.901
you’re concerned and, you know, you want them to address it for you.

00:53:06.901 –> 00:53:13.601
I think, you know, the mental health thing is interesting.

00:53:13.921 –> 00:53:19.321
According to the FBI, 62% of cases have some sort of mental health issue.

00:53:19.441 –> 00:53:23.101
And again, that’s not that they’ve been officially diagnosed with something.

00:53:23.261 –> 00:53:26.181
It just means they’ve got a lot of stuff going on in their lives.

00:53:26.181 –> 00:53:31.661
We’ve talked about some of that, you know, stressors, being turned down by somebody,

00:53:31.841 –> 00:53:37.721
being bullied severely, whatever it is, being in an abusive relationship, whatever it is.

00:53:38.141 –> 00:53:43.281
The mental health is so key. And I think that’s an area where out of everything

00:53:43.281 –> 00:53:49.181
we’ve talked about, we stand to gain the most as far as where we need to spend our efforts and time.

00:53:49.941 –> 00:53:53.781
And I know with that being said, there are already some entities out there that

00:53:53.781 –> 00:53:58.181
are starting to have the more serious conversations, the tough conversations,

00:53:58.201 –> 00:53:59.461
and they’re getting that going.

00:53:59.881 –> 00:54:03.641
I think walk the talk is one that I can think of off the top of my head.

00:54:03.781 –> 00:54:07.181
And there’s more, thankfully, but there needs to be even more because I do believe

00:54:07.181 –> 00:54:10.521
the mental health thing is so key to all of this.

00:54:10.721 –> 00:54:13.021
And it’s the toughest one to address, right?

00:54:13.601 –> 00:54:16.901
It’s kind of like the heart and the intent, the mental health.

00:54:16.901 –> 00:54:19.221
It’s easier to talk about the tools because,

00:54:20.111 –> 00:54:24.211
You know, being a human’s tough, right? These things are tough to address.

00:54:25.611 –> 00:54:29.651
And mindset. I’m going to talk about mindset. You know, these are all things we can do.

00:54:29.831 –> 00:54:32.671
It’s about having the right mindset towards all this, right?

00:54:32.831 –> 00:54:36.571
It’s not doom and gloom. The chances of something like this happening are slim

00:54:36.571 –> 00:54:40.491
to nil still in the overall scheme of things, even though, you know,

00:54:40.591 –> 00:54:42.391
the numbers show it’s on an uprise.

00:54:42.611 –> 00:54:48.231
In the overall scheme in the world, it’s still not that. The chances of you

00:54:48.231 –> 00:54:52.491
being in an active killer scenario are pretty darn slim, right?

00:54:53.751 –> 00:54:56.711
But I think it’s important that you think about it, right?

00:54:56.831 –> 00:55:01.091
We’ve talked about in past podcasts of thinking through scenarios and getting

00:55:01.091 –> 00:55:05.311
a plan in place in your head for yourself, if nothing else, about what you would

00:55:05.311 –> 00:55:08.271
do if, you know, what if, right?

00:55:08.351 –> 00:55:12.531
We’ve talked about that. I think it’s important that you wrap your mind around,

00:55:12.531 –> 00:55:15.591
you may need to be prepared to fight back.

00:55:15.991 –> 00:55:21.911
And that may involve improvised tools, improvised weapons you have in the school,

00:55:22.131 –> 00:55:25.551
in your off place of business, in the office, you know, whatever it is,

00:55:25.671 –> 00:55:27.991
the stapler, the fire extinguisher, the chair,

00:55:28.311 –> 00:55:33.011
the computer keyboard, the computer monitor, whatever it is,

00:55:33.751 –> 00:55:39.171
get in that mindset that you want to go home at all costs.

00:55:39.291 –> 00:55:43.771
Because I can tell you, if the types of things that we’re talking about go down,

00:55:44.031 –> 00:55:47.311
the people that are perpetrating the death and destruction,

00:55:47.631 –> 00:55:52.451
their intent, and their intent is to hurt and kill or maim as many people as

00:55:52.451 –> 00:55:55.371
they possibly can in the short period of time that they have.

00:55:55.831 –> 00:56:00.391
So you need to have the mindset that, okay, if it comes down to it,

00:56:00.471 –> 00:56:01.811
I’m prepared to do just that.

00:56:02.411 –> 00:56:06.531
And here’s another thing that people, I don’t think all people understand,

00:56:06.531 –> 00:56:10.971
is you need to remember in all of this, which might motivate you further to

00:56:10.971 –> 00:56:12.471
think about fighting back.

00:56:13.260 –> 00:56:19.220
Is that law enforcement has no duty to engage and no duty to protect you.

00:56:19.640 –> 00:56:22.920
Now, you can sit here and say after the fact they were a coward,

00:56:23.120 –> 00:56:31.560
yada, yada, yada, on the job, they have no responsibility or duty to get involved at all.

00:56:31.620 –> 00:56:39.400
If a cop shows up to the place and he hears gunfire, he is not obligated and

00:56:39.400 –> 00:56:42.280
has no duty to come in there and engage whatsoever.

00:56:42.280 –> 00:56:46.400
You would hope so, and you would like them to, but at the end,

00:56:46.580 –> 00:56:51.820
you need to get your mind around the fact you’re on your own and you’re responsible for yourself.

00:56:52.480 –> 00:56:55.820
And the last thing I want to leave you with, and again, I’ve talked about it

00:56:55.820 –> 00:56:58.160
already, is get yourself some basic trauma.

00:56:59.487 –> 00:57:02.647
Training, I should say, basic trauma training.

00:57:02.847 –> 00:57:07.847
There’s a fantastic program out called Stop the Bleed. As far as I know,

00:57:08.007 –> 00:57:10.447
anywhere it’s offered, it’s free. It’s fantastic.

00:57:10.887 –> 00:57:15.227
It teaches you about, you know, getting bleeding stopped.

00:57:15.907 –> 00:57:21.487
Severe bleeding is still the number one cause of preventable death in trauma cases.

00:57:21.787 –> 00:57:26.707
An active killer scenario, you can bet there’s going to be some severe bleeding

00:57:26.707 –> 00:57:29.287
going on, learn how to use that tourniquet.

00:57:29.527 –> 00:57:33.187
Keep a tourniquet with you. Keep it in your purse. Keep it in your glove box.

00:57:33.367 –> 00:57:36.727
Keep it on your purse and keep it in your attaché case. Keep it in your backpack.

00:57:37.567 –> 00:57:42.887
Whatever. Get that basic care because it’s going to come in handy because nobody’s

00:57:42.887 –> 00:57:44.247
got your back except you.

00:57:44.987 –> 00:57:48.387
So with that, I want to wrap up this episode 45.

00:57:48.427 –> 00:57:54.607
I hope you’ve taken more than a few things away, but I hope something here has made you think.

00:57:55.487 –> 00:57:59.227
And it makes you have conversations with your loved ones, your family, your friends.

00:57:59.847 –> 00:58:03.347
And look, if you like what you hear, please feel free to go back and listen

00:58:03.347 –> 00:58:06.507
to our other podcasts. We’ve got 44 others now.

00:58:07.387 –> 00:58:10.727
And we know there’s a lot of options, so we appreciate you listening.

00:58:10.727 –> 00:58:14.427
And I want to thank you for listening. And if you like what you hear here today,

00:58:14.727 –> 00:58:16.767
please share it with your friends and family.

00:58:17.047 –> 00:58:19.007
Thanks so much, and we’ll see you next time.