Want to know how you can help prevent active shooter or work/school place violence? Attached is a great article about several mass killings that have taken place in the U.S. and how in every instance they were many warning signs that fell on deaf ears. In most cases these events are even broadcast ahead of time via social media. We all fail to listen to those that display the signs. It is easy to write off behaviors as exaggerations or "active imaginations."

By reporting and intervening early, individuals capable of these actions could be thwarted. We at Invictus Consulting have been advising on paying close attention to certain behaviors or actions as part of your Emergency Planning. A proper plan is proactive, not just a step by step of what to do after the event happens.

As Risk Management Consultants and Active Shooter Experts, we would have loved to have written this article ourselves. We are also smart enough to know to give credit where it is due: The following piece by Mark Manson perfectly articulate in trying to get you to change your understanding of these incidents. Perhaps that will help prevent others.

Mark Manson - How we miss the point on School Shootings

I know we discuss school and business facilities here often when educating about the importance of an Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan. That is because these two types of facilities are what make up a majority of active shooter incidents.

Sadly, the third most common place for an active shooter is hospitals. And they are happening ever more frequently.  The following article outlines for medical professionals what we in the have been saying from the beginning: Have a Plan! It is good to see medical publications are starting to address this topic. We have found that like schools, medical facilities and their staff have an attitude of “it won’t happen to us.” I think it is because the nature of the people in both education and medicine are the same: service and help to others. It creates an atmosphere where the problems of the “outside world” happening to them seem like an impossibility. Unfortunately that is not the case.

Our message is simple: Have a plan. Practice the plan. If you need help or want more information, please contact us.

I read once that public speaking is listed as the scariest thing in the world for most people. For us at Invictus Consulting LLC, our scariest thing in the world is people not being aware and prepared for a catastrophic event.

The photo is of Dan Stephens speaking at the IFMA Atlanta Chapter conference where we taught a course about active shooters. It ended a week where two of our founding our partners had three different speaking engagements around the southeast.  If you have a group or organization that you feel would benefit from learning about characteristics of an active shooter, how to develop an emergency plan, and how to get staff buy in, please contact us. We love public speaking.

Sometimes government bureaucracy helps others it hinders. Case in point is the following article about a district on Ohio. What happened? Concerned parents wanted to make their schools safer to help protect against the unthinkable, an active shooter situation.

Article HERE

After having received training from the county sheriff’s office and fire district about active shooters, and following FBI and Homeland Security guidelines about utilizing barricades to thwart active shooters, the parents raised private funds to procure $30,000 worth of door barricades. This would outfit each classroom with a device that the teacher could use to barricade the students in the room to protect them. This cost the school district nothing, as all monies for it was raised by the parents in the community through donations and corporate help.

The school board loves it. The police endorse it. The fire department endorses it. All should be great, right? Wrong. The local building code department says these temporary barricades violate Ohio building code. Sometimes government cannot get out of its own way.

This is not to criticize the people at the building code enforcement agency, they are doing what tax payers want them to do which is enforce building code. The critique is that in an environment when threats are changing and adapting, protection can be hampered by law. Is many states emergency action plans are going to be required by law. These plans will absolutely require the ability to barricade doors when necessary. It does not require much imagination to see how it will be possible to have one law that says you must do one thing, while having a code or law on the books stating that that specific action is outlawed.

Know what your local or state requirements and/or objections are to your emergency plan? We do. 

Invictus Consulting constantly deals with these type of implementation situations and can guide you through the process.  Contact us for assistance.