by Kathy Foster
I had a new experience June 11th – an experience that made quite an impression, and I want to share it with my readers. I had the opportunity to experience an Active Shooter Training session held at Roulhac Middle School in Chipley.
Conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the ultimate goal of the training is to give school resource officers and other law enforcement personnel the opportunity to experience what it is like responding to an active shooter situation in a school or business.
And, yes, there is a difference in facing a robbery situation, and an active shooter in a situation where multiple victims are targets and the incident is ongoing.
While most of us may be familiar with sound of gun shots at a shooting range or while hunting, it is an entirely different matter when the gunshots are inside a solid structure and are continuous.
Gunshots fired inside a concrete building sound entirely different. They are loud and reverberating. Combine that with screams and chaos, you have a horrible situation – one that even law enforcement need to be trained to face.
We all want to know that our children are being protected and that was the ultimate goal of the two-day training for trainers being given by the FDLE in Chipley earlier this week.
The idea is that once the human brain has processed a situation once, that person is much more capable of processing a similar situation with a better response.
This is the premise that led the FDLE to develop this Active Shooter Training that is now being held throughout the State of Florida.
Volunteers from local law enforcement agencies and correction facilities participated in the two-day training session held locally.
Based on three different senarios, the orchestrated training sessions included audio and visual stimulation and were designed for s single officer response to take out the shooter.
Pointing out that in real situations officers can’t just wait for a SWAT team, those conducting the training said those responding have to remember that – Time Equals Lives!
Hats off to those willing to put their lives on the line for others.