A PREVENTABLE TRAGEDY AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
While authorities search for motive, one thing is abundantly clear: Michigan State University was not adequately prepared to protect students from an active shooter event.
EAST LANSING, Mich. – 43-year-old Anthony McRae entered an academic building and the student union at Michigan State University and began opening fire just before 8:30PM Monday night killing three and injuring five. While authorities in Michigan search for motives, here’s what we know so far:
The gunman possessed a firearm illegally. He was already in violation of current gun laws and clearly wasn’t going to let that stop him.
The gunman was able to gain access to multiple buildings without being stopped. Michigan State University did not have basic access control or secondary access control measures in place to mitigate a human threat event.
The gunman was able to spend a protracted amount of time killing while roaming through multiple buildings. Michigan State’s gun policy prohibits law abiding citizens from exercising 2nd Amendment rights on campus property, therefore no one in the area was properly equipped to stop the active shooter.
By the time “hundreds of officers were searching the campus” the gunman was five miles away.
Once the gunman was moved in on by armed opposition (police in this case), he took his own life.
Guns are banned on campus, and very few viable physical security measures have been taken to mitigate or slow down the movement a potential threat. CTP founder and CEO Ben Kincaid states, “On-site response capability was clearly inadequate in this case. The campus, staff, and student body were ill-equipped to stop this attack, so the attacker was able to move about the campus relatively unhindered and totally unchallenged, while students and staff either hid or fled.”
Emergency responders were quick to the scene, but response times are just that – a response – a reaction once the killing has already started. In an active attack, every second is the difference between life and death. And when seconds count, emergency responders are typically minutes away. Those on site are the first responders and must be equipped and trained to do so.
Typically, in the wake of such attacks, media and politicians place significant emphasis on the weapon used especially in the case of firearms. This event is quickly following that predictable pattern. Senate Republicans in Mississippi recently passed a bill that would enable armed teachers in public schools. Prominent Michigan Democrats began calling for more gun control within minutes of the attack.
Michigan Representative (D) Ranjeev Puri tweeted: “My official statement regarding the Michigan State University shooting is below: Fuck your thoughts and prayers.”
As subject matter experts with centuries of combined experience in the fields of domestic and international counterterrorism, safety, security, and emergency management, CTP has found that both approaches are naively inadequate answers at best and potentially dangerous suggestions at worst.
While CTP believes that no law-abiding citizen should be prohibited from carrying a firearm, arming teachers and charging them with responding to active threats is absolutely not the answer. It is contrary to the desired heart that we wish to see in our teachers and potentially places under-secured firearms into what should be a controlled environment. The duty to respond to an active threat as part of a job description should be placed in the hands of a present, well-staffed, and well-trained team of School Resource Officers. Teachers can, however, be an important part of the safety equation within our schools. Training our educators in early detection modalities is a critical element that has been thus far under-addressed, and can help prevent an attack from happening in the first place.
“Guns are a critical tool for quickly stopping an attacker after that attacker has begun killing,” states CTP CEO Ben Kincaid. This fact underscores the validity of Israel’s recent choice to rapidly arm its law-abiding population in effort to reduce the epidemic of violent crime there. He continues to explain, “If we exclusively view the gun as the solution, we’re still in ‘right of bang’ mindset: responding after an attack has begun. Guns, by themselves, are a reactive tool once the killing has started. The real solutions, especially within the United States education system, are ‘left of bang’, which are proactive approaches aimed at addressing the issue before an attack occurs.”
CTP’s legislative policy platform calls for mandatory K-12 classes in topics like empathy development, communication, body language, etc. to help fill in the developmental gaps occurring in our students and to identify people who are hurting so that existing tools can be accessed early and utilized on the student's behalf. Applying such skills help kids to both feel seen and to actually be seen. This approach addresses the issue from both a prevention and an early detection standpoint. The desire to be seen is a common psychological driver in mass shooting attacks, and it is a known fact that active shooters have historically always displayed what is called “leakage”; an overt signaling of their intent occurring in multiple instances leading up to an attack, typically spanning over a period of up to two years. Basic physical security engineering, identifying leakage, instituting preventative measures and critical skills training in detection measures represent some of the greatest areas of opportunity in addressing this epidemic of evil throughout the United States.
Complete Threat Preparedness, Inc.
Is internationally recognized for its holistic and radically effective approach to Safety, Security and Emergency Management. We are a diverse collective of subject matter experts in International / Domestic Counterterrorism, Intelligence / Counterintelligence, human behavior, Active Shooter / Active Threat Preparedness and Management, Tactical Operations, Law Enforcement, Physical Security Engineering and Crisis Response. Our backgrounds combine Military Special Operations, Intelligence Operations, Federal Law Enforcement, Counterterrorism, Psychology, Healthcare, Hospitality and Education Management to deliver customized and effective Safety, Security and Emergency Management solutions.