Ems Under Fire

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recognizes active shooters as a threat to healthcare facilities and encourages them to incorporate planning and preparedness into their emergency operation plans. A guide was developed, and backed by the DHS, FBI, US Department of Justice, and Federal Emergency Management Agency, focused on prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery, as well as stressing the importance of plans

Teenage murders may be unprecedented, but violence is not. The past has followed us right up to today. Several national magazines recently ran alarming stories about the epidemic of criminal and group violence. Rolling Stone in "A Pistol-Whipped Nation" and both Time and Newsweek ran alarming cover stories about the "virtual epidemic of youth violence." Newsweek's "Teen Violence: Wild in the Streets," decried the number of young people carrying guns, using them, being shot, and being killed. Accompanying all this was a casual if not blase attitude indicating that, as one expert quoted in Time put it, "Violence is hip right now."

Police Department’s approach to active shooters and the response to those incidents have changed drastically over the last (2) decades. To put it differently, Police Administrators now realize that the original tactics used to respond to active shooter incidents weren’t the best options available. It is best to first realize what the actual definition of an “active shooter” is. The agreed-upon definition of an “active shooter” by US government agencies is “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area” (“Active Shooter,” 2013). Additionally, it goes on to tell some of the reasons why an active shooter incident is so difficult to respond to. Specifically, the unpredictability and how brief the incidents themselves typically are (“Active Shooter,” 2013).

Whenever they occur, active shooter situations grip media headlines and create new discussions into the ways in which we as a nation can prevent them in the future. The U.S. Department of Justice (n.d.) defines an active shooter as, “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” (para.1). The reason we see more active threat incidents in the news is not due to the media, but because there has been an increasing trend of such events. A study of 160 active shooter incidents from 2000 to 2013 has shown an upward trend in the instances of active shooters; from a mean of 6.4 incidents in the first seven years of the study to a mean of 16.4 in the last

From emergency personnel, to retail vendors, to educators and students, to government or military employees and members of the general public, anyone could potentially be involved in an active shooter crisis situation. As active shooter incidents are becoming more frequent in recent years; being prepared to effectively respond when faced with such a crisis situation can save lives and help a city to better prepare for and respond to such crisis situations (FBI major findings, 2014, para. 1-2). According to a recent FBI Active Shooter Incident Study (2014), “individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in populated areas (excluding gang or drug related shootings)” are considered to be active shooters. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the city of Aurora, Colorado handled the active shooting crisis that occurred on July 20, 2012. This paper will explain the crisis situation and discuss the communication responses that ensued on that day.

Violence is a social construct that has been glorified around the world and made accessible through the media (Killingbeck 2001). Violence is portrayed as being something that is part of the everyday world; it is made out to be an acceptable form of behaving and handling situations. This notion has greatly contributed to the propagation of school shootings and the death of innocent children and adults. By reducing the glorification that violence carries and the exploitation of the aftermath, school shootings can be reduced greatly. The media, television, video games, and the Internet are constantly portraying a world full that thinks that violence is the way to resolve issues (Killingbeck 2001). Gun violence is also portrayed as being a resolution to just about everything, when in fact it has been guns that have been the cause of all school shootings to begin with (Muschert 2007). The media glorifies school

Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook these are but a few cases of fatal school shootings that have plagued the United States history in recent years. School-based violence has gained much attention in the media. Parents are fearful to send their children to school, teachers are becoming armed, and schools have more police patrolling campuses in hopes to deter future endangerment to students and administration. Shootings are the most common and frequent acts of school-based violence and accounts for the highest amount of deaths according to Roberto Flores de Apodaca and fellow co writers’ study of the characteristics of school shootings (Flores de Apodaca et al, 2012, p.365). The question though still stands: what causes these shootings and what can be done to prevent future lives being taken? The answer to this question is not a simple one. There are many factors that play a part in school shootings: the events leading up to the shooting, interpersonal/psychological issues, community, and social culture. To come up with a solution to the problem, one must first look into the causes of the problem because there is not just one cause but many contributing factors. The aim of this paper is to examine causes and factors that lead to shootings in schools and solutions or ways to prevent them.

I see the utility for its intended audience, as well as for a casual reader, curious about emergency response for incidents which occur on or near college campuses. The format of the article allowed me as novice to the National Incident Management System to stay engaged and grasp the concept. There are only there main sections to this article, “Understanding NIMS”, “Becoming Compliant” and the “Conclusion”. The two sub-sections of this Understanding NIMS section manage to provide an overview that helps the reader to understand NIMS in just seven short paragraphs. The Illinois Criminal Justice Authority report offers a brief glimpse of history about campuses incidents, without going into great detail, to spark the interest of the

In Newman and Fox’s “Repeat Tragedy: Rampage Shootings In American High School and College Settings”, the high school and college shooting tragedies in America are analyzed to discover if there is any correlation that links them together.

There is a rising issue in our country today that requires a heightened sense of awareness and in our fire and EMS services. This issues is the possibility of an active shooter, this can come from a terrorist group, radicalized extremist or a disgruntled worker in the town or department they work for. Active shooter events in a fire department/ EMS setting presents a unique set of challenges, not only does it present a very vulnerable target but it makes the one that are potentially responding to an incident the actual target. Active shooter

The mission of the Englewood Fire Department is to work round the clock to protect the public from fire related incidents and to prevent these incidents from happening again. One way they try to prevent these incidents is the fire chief always checks the plans of any new buildings being built for any fire related dangers and proper placement of any fire safety tools

The majority of violence results from social injustice prevalent in our society. Among the significant contributors are poverty, racism, unemployment, and substance abuse. There is also an issue of a proliferation of guns, inadequate or abusive parenting practices, real-life adult models of violent problem-solving behavior, as well as frequent exposure to violence through the media. Consequently, these facts lead to further conjecture such as; has the media desensitized

In the article “Know the Smells and Warning Bells of WMD”, the author, John Linstrom’s principal point is that the fire departments should better prepare to respond to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Historically, explosive or WMD incidents were handled by law enforcement, while fire assumed a support role, but with increased terroristic occurrences, firefighters have been finding themselves in situations where they have been first on scene. Mr. Linstrom stresses that firefighters need to be mindful of the threat of explosives and WMD’s when responding to incidents (Linstrom, 2004). Firefighters need to familiarize themselves with terrorist tactics and beware of potential high-risk

Firefighters are killed and injured at incidents that are not initially reported as violent, so it is important to always expect the worst when responding to an incident (Ford, 2012). It is impossible to think of all the dangers that a responder will encounter at an emergency scene. Emergency responders will respond to scene where there is a potential for violence due to the nature of the call, and they may even respond to a call where violence was premeditated and meant for the responders. There has been an increase in the number of line of duty deaths and serious injuries of firefighters due to violence (Ford, 2012).

Hall, International Fire Service Accreditation Congress, OK [SE] Jon C. Jones, Jon Jones & Associates, MA [SE] Rep. TC on Industrial Fire Brigades Pro Qual VL to Professional Qualifications System Management Jacklyn Kilby-Richards, Town of Groton Emergency Dispatch, CT [U] Rep. TC on Public Safety Telecommunicator Pro Qual VL to Professional Qualifications System Management F. Patrick Marlatt, Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute, MD [SE] Rep. TC on Fire Fighter Pro Qual VL to Professional Qualifications System Management Michael J. McGovern, Lakewood Fire Department, WA [U] Gerard J. Naylis, Penn Well Company, NJ [C] Rep. TC on Fire Investigator Pro Qual VL to Professional Qualifications System Management