How can we prevent future mass shootings? This question has circulated for many years since the Jonesboro, Arkansas and Columbine shooting. Yet we still have them to this day.
Recently, I got to partner with the local police departments around me and the SWAT TEAM to help teach an active shooter class. My role was to be a student in a school that is being targeted by an active shooter and: act hurt or make as much noise as possible. We were told to really get into the officer’s heads and mess with them - most of us took this to heart and did just that. This wasn't an easy task, not only for the rookies involved but also the people who are acting out the scene and the officers teaching them.
As I watched these beginning officers do it over and over I realized you can never be prepared for an event like this. No matter how many times you practice, the scenario will always be different and happen at any time, anywhere.
It is now more than ever that we need peace and love integrated back into America.
Figuring out what was going through the shooters head wasn't easy but there has to be reasons and explanations as to why they do it.
We need to solve what causes these mass casualties and find motives.
Whether it is a school under fire, a man shooting at a crowd of concert-goers from a hotel room or a man who shot up a nightclub in Florida. We can never be prepared for something like this and instances like these show this can truly happen anywhere. It is extremely important that we have classes like these so that responders and people can be informed on how to handle situations like this to the best of their ability.
What causes mass shootings to spark in the first place? Most people blame it on hate crimes of races, others directly blame the president and ISIS. What we need to know is the president has nothing to do with it nor politics, it’s the individual(s) themselves that are pulling the triggers. STOP putting politics to blame and throwing around ISIS in situations like this.