First 30 Seconds

The proof is in the history. When a competent armed protector is present at the time and place where the would-be mass-murderer starts shooting, the casualty count among the innocent is greatly reduced

If someone is trying to murder my students, accountability should not be a concern at all. We should not care where the students are, only that they are alive and unharmed

In videos of many attacks, it is clear by the way the killer casually walks around that they do not expect any of their victims to fight back, only to freeze, run, or hide. This is another weakness we can use against him. A sudden, violent counterattack will have the advantage of surprise

it’s not enough to have a plan that stops the shooter. We must have a plan that stops the shooter quickly

“It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf.” ​Thomas Fuller

If your classroom walls are not bulletproof, and your classroom doors are not bulletproof (to include the locks), then you are not safe from an Active Shooter by staying inside your classroom.

What we must plan for, is a motivated, creative, adaptive, evil Active Shooter. Not a cooperative one. He has likely been planning, thinking, and fantasizing about this attack for months. This depraved person with three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition is not going to walk up to a door, shake the locked doorknob, and say, “Aww, darnit! They locked it.” Then turn around and go back home.

We need to teach students and staff to recognize when a shooter is conducting a reload or clearing a malfunction. We also teach them to understand that when this is happening the gun cannot fire, and understand this is a great time to either FIGHT the Active Shooter or FLEE from him.

I’ve heard school leaders (and some cops) make up crazy reasons why students should be forced to stay inside the building with an Active Shooter. I’ve heard some say that there could be a second shooter outside, and running out of the building might cause the student to be shot by the second shooter. There might be a second shooter, but statistically very unlikely. If we 100% know there is an Active Shooter inside the building, let’s act on that, not some hypothetical, rare possibility.

“It’s often been said, ‘Violence never solved anything.’ The simple truth is that when . . . the man walks into your office building or school with a pair of guns and starts shooting, only violence, or the reasonable threat of violence, is going to save your life. In the extreme moment, only force can stop force.” Rory Miller

During a presentation, when I say that the victims in the schools could have counterattacked the Active Shooter and stopped the attack early, people in the audience will often say, “I can’t believe you’re suggesting that school employees should be responsible to stop the killer!!” To this, my response is simple: “What’s the alternative?” ... quick, violent counterattack by school employees (or students) is the best bad idea, by far. It’s the least bad option

“It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.” ~ Thomas Sowell

An armed citizen has never shot the wrong person while shooting and stopping an Active Shooter. I’m not saying it could never happen or will never happen. But it has not yet happened. Cops have shot the wrong person by mistake while attempting to shoot an Active Shooter multiple times

When I train cops, I sometimes ask if they were responding to an Active Shooter call at a school, as they exited their vehicle to rush inside to confront the attacker, would they leave their pistol in their vehicle or take their pistol with them. When I ask cops this question, they stare at me in disbelief. They respond that it would be INSANE to intentionally fight an Active Shooter without a gun. Yet, that is what we are asking almost all school employees to do. Insanity

Having armed adults on campus may not be a “good” policy. But it seems to be the least bad policy, or the best bad idea, if you are trying to maximize the chances of a low victim-count on the day of an attack

“One of the greatest mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” Milton Friedman

Schools need to do a drastic, 180-degree turn. A total change from: hunker down and try to survive until the cops stop the attack, to: WE, the intended victims, will immediately counterattack and stop the Active Shooter within the first 30 seconds