First, I want to thank all the tenants of our office building for their patience and understanding the importance of what we were doing. Our training guns (airsoft and pepper ball) are loud and our appearance with the training guns, gas masks, and riot helmets can be a bit startling.
Unfortunately, we all live in some of the most uncertain times that we’ve ever faced. Not only are we more divided than ever, but we can’t even disagree with people on the smallest of things without becoming the enemy. You can say, “The sky is blue,” and someone will be there to get offended or cancel you just because their favorite media says otherwise. People use talking points, but no facts. On top of all of this, we have no idea how many spies, terrorists, and others wishing harm on the US have come across the border. We know how many have been caught, but not how many are roaming the country freely. The FBI says there’s more chatter now, than there was before 9/11. It’s not a matter of if something is going to happen, it’s a matter of when.
In our brief history, we have provided protection for religiously based facilities (places of worship and schools), public schools, properties containing Dept. of Defense contractors, and others. This week, we’ve been hoping for the best while gearing up and training for the worst. We’re fortunate enough to have our office in a building that supports what we do as we used a huge chunk of the building to practice active shooter and hostage drills as well as some riot control drills. I do want to apologize to the City of Aurora employee who was visiting the building unaware of our activity. She was checking all the businesses in the building to ensure they all had their required business licenses. We were in plain clothes with realistic looking airsoft guns, gas masks, and riot helmets. I think we scared her at first. I showed her our license on the wall in the lobby, explained what we were doing and had a nice chat. Nonetheless, sorry for the initial scare.
Of course, the tenants of the building were all informed of our training ahead of time. Some wanted to come watch, but none ever really showed up. Some did see us on the stairs and in the hallways though, and occasionally, some would peek their heads out of their office doors to see what we were doing. After the initial shock, they would smile, maybe make a comment, then go on about their business.
The training was fun, but at the same time, very serious. While most people go about their lives not worrying too much about potential threats, it’s at the forefront of our minds. In our line of work, it has to be. We spend our days hoping for peaceful, easy shifts, but also being ready and prepared in case bad people decide to do bad things. We can’t afford to wait for the police to arrive, especially now when every department across the country is short staffed. The fastest response to an active shooter that I’m aware of was about 2 minutes. This happened before Covid when police departments had more manpower. It was the STEM school shooting in Littleton, CO. A lot of bad things can happen in two minutes. It’s up to us in the protection industry to contain the situation and protect people until the police can arrive. We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again if we need to. We’re not going to sit and wait like the Uvalde, TX police did while children were being killed.
On a side note, we do offer consulting and training to the public. If you own or operate a facility, we can help you develop a plan for evacuation, notifying first responders, and how to hide in the event evacuation is not possible. If you have a security team, we can teach them how to identify, track, and contain or eliminate the threat. If you are a person and just want to learn how to defend your home and protect your family when things go ‘bump’ in the night, we can teach you. I’m sorry to say, having a baseball bat by the door or a gun on your nightstand is not enough. To protect your home safely and effectively takes planning and strategy and the whole family needs to know what to do in the event of an intruder. What if one of the adults is away on business? What if the kids are home alone? Everyone needs to be a part of the plan.
Please be safe and I hope you all have a great weekend.
