To survive mass shootings, think ahead and take action, sheriff's deputies say

With that in mind and with mass shootings rapidly becoming an American tradition, about 40 community members learned it’s best to do some thinking about how they might react in such situations and to follow a few key strategies to stay alive, possibly help people who have been injured and, as a last resort, stop the shooter.

The training at the town of Middleton offices came nearly two weeks after a gunman killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, although the training had been scheduled before the shooting.

Margaret Hamilton, of the town of Springdale, said she came “because I want to be better prepared in our family business and in our house of worship.” Her family employs about 230 people at Middleton-based Vortex Optics, which makes binoculars, spotting scopes and similar products for hunters and the military.

“It’s good to know how our police forces are responding,” she said.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” said Charlie Kozitzky, 55, of Middleton, because a mass shooting can happen anywhere.

“This could happen at the Pig in Cross Plains,” he said, a reference to the Piggly Wiggly, “or the beer garden at Capital Brewery just as easily as at school.”

Since 2006, there has been an active-shooter incident — meaning four or more people killed or injured — every 2.9 months in the United States, on average, according to a video shown at the training.

“This, unfortunately, is the way our world is going,” said Cindy Holmes, a sheriff’s deputy who came out of retirement to help with active-shooter training. “It’s no longer if it happens. It’s when it happens.”

Despite the dire statistics, Holmes and Deputy Josalyn Longley said there are things those targeted in mass shootings can do.

Among them: Identify alternative exits to find a way out, visualize movements before you make them, use cover and concealment, help others if you can without putting yourself in danger, and if you can’t get out, try to find a place where you can barricade or lock the door to the shooter.

They also urged those in attendance to come up with a plan ahead of time for what to do if a mass shooting happens.

‘Passiveness is deadly’

“The body can’t go where the mind hasn’t been,” Holmes said, and people who have failed to formulate a plan are more likely to become victims.

Police need to know that people are trying to help themselves while first responders are on the way, Longley said, and “passiveness is deadly.”

Holmes said one of the “myths” about active-shooter training is that trainers are encouraging kids or others to fight the attacker, and that’s not the case.

But if it comes down to you and the attacker, “if it’s me, I’m not going easy,” Holmes said. “You can survive.”

If the only choice is to confront the shooter, trying to distract him or incapacitate him with something handy — a pair of scissors, a chair, a high-heel shoe — has to be an option, according to training materials.

Law enforcement profilers don’t have a reliable profile yet of mass shooters, the trainers said, but some warning signs — other than being white and male — are having had trouble at or being fired from work, domestic violence or family problems, and substance abuse.

Holmes estimated the Sheriff’s Office has trained some 8,000 people in some 300 distinct training sessions on how to respond to active shooters in the last two to three years.

Those at Tuesday’s training were able to choose from 24 pamphlets and packets on topics including warning signs of violence in the workplace, how to apply a tourniquet, and safety in places of worship.

Holmes said the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado was a turning point in law enforcement’s approach to active shooters.

“Everything that happens, it’s an opportunity — an unfortunate opportunity — to learn something from it,” she said.

The audience at the training was overwhelmingly middle-age or older, save for 16-year-old Middleton-Cross Plains student Jakob, who came at the urging of his mother, who didn’t want to provide her name or his last name.

“I now have more strategies, like if this ever happens,” he said, although he acknowledged the possibility of a mass shooting isn’t something he thinks about very often.