Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office has begun offering a class on how people should react to an active shooter.
Judging from a recent incident at the school bus garage across from Clear Creek Middle School, it is a timely offering.
“It’s just trying to give people information to think, to be situationally aware if they are at churches, malls, Walmart, wherever,” said Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson.
Captain Brian Crump has been attending ALERRT, Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, conferences developed by Texas State University.
The conferences were designed to give law enforcement a unified response scheme to active shooters.
During the conferences, those in attendance get to speak with people and law enforcement officials who have been involved with active shooter situations.
Crump said it provides more hands-on learning than just a text.
“It has really opened my eyes to the world we live in today,” he said.
A new program has been developed, CRASE, Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events, to teach people how to respond if they are ever involved in an incident.
So far, Crump and two others deputies have performed two training sessions locally. More are scheduled.
It is a two-hour course which can be taught for groups such as churches, civic organizations or businesses.
“Basically we teach avoid, deny, defend,” Crump said.
It is a plan of what anyone should do if caught up in an active shooter situation. The first thing is get away. If that is not possible, people should hide or deny the shooter access. If neither of the first two options are available, people are trained to fight.
“Basically, it is a mindset,” Crump said. “If you aren’t in this mindset and you don’t have a plan, it can go bad.”
People should always be prepared. Crump said 99.9 percent of the time nothing will happen, but there is the .1 percent chance.
As an example, Crump said, when his family goes to a restaurant, they know where all the exits are located.
Another aspect talked about in training is what officers are seeing to when they show up at the scene. If someone takes out the active shooter and is the one with a weapon when officers show up, how are officers going to react?
Nicholson linked the training to the incident at the bus garage. He said the individual who was threatened with a gun and immediately grabbed it, did the right thing. He was not able to run or hide, he had to fight.
His decision saved lives, Nicholson said.
To sign up your organization for training, contact Capt. Crump at 706-515-2868.