The Gun Hazard

Personally, I have nothing against guns.  I've owned guns, hunted small and big game, shot trap and skeet and as an infantryman for 20 years been around guns and love the smell of cordite.  In my last job, at times, I even carried a gun as part of my duties. That said, when you have 260 million guns in the hands of a population of just over 300M people--things are sure to go wrong.

 

While as individuals we care about any gun death, as emergency managers we concentrate on those scenarios that involve mass shootings.  These have become commonplace in today's society.  Work place violence, school shootings, theater shootings are all in the news.  As you do your Hazard Identification and Vulnerability Assessment (HIVA) or the newer Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) remember to include mass shootings in the mix of hazards.

 

Update to blog post:  Today there is a CNN story on gun violence and active shooters 

  One of the quotes from the article,  "A recent report by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center found that the number of these types of mass shootings has increased: from an average of about five a year prior to 2009 to 15 in 2013."

 

Check out the infograph at What Makes a Killer?  When you see the mix of deaths in urban areas small cities and suburbs--no one is immune from these events.  In fact the majority of (I can't think of one in a major city) school shootings have been in small cities and suburbs.

 

Know the hazard and then plan accordingly for your community with your emergency management partners.  Remember, the most often quoted phrase after a shooting is, "I didn't think it could happen here."