DE PERE, WI (WTAQ) – Civilian active shooter training sessions are again becoming more popular in the wake of several mass shootings across the country.
De Pere Community Resource Officer Jedd Bradley teaches sessions across the area and the country. He’s seeing an uptick in people booking the training.
“Sometimes we do it after a horrific incident like Texas or Tulsa, something like that. Then it sparks an interest of ‘Oh I have to do that’ or ‘I have to get that on the calendar, we’ve been waiting to do that’,” Bradley told WTAQ News. “Unfortunately, something has to happen for that nudge to take place. But as long as we’re getting it done, that the important thing.”
Such trainings have already been growing in popularity across the nation, but it’s been drawing significantly more attention in recent weeks. The goal of civilian training is to provide the necessary mindset for when the unthinkable happens.
“It’s becoming even more common than we want it to be, unfortunately…this training is becoming just like a fire drill, a tornado awareness, or things like that. As it should be,” Bradley said. “It’s giving you the mindset on what to do when, not if, it happens…The mindset of – what do I do when something like this occurs at church, at the mall, at the movie theater, or at my place of business? We give you ideas and guidance on the roles that you should take that could save you or somebody else’s life.”
Bradley credits the companies and schools reaching out to educators to conduct training, but he says it simply needs to happen on a more frequent basis.
“I’m very blessed and honored to be in front of you and I commend the company for bringing me in and speaking with you on how to survive something like this. But [it’s unfortunate] I have to be here,” Bradley said. “At this pace, everybody’s going to be affected by this at some point their life if numbers keep going up as they are…Every four days in the United States, somebody dies in active shooter incident. But nobody wants to talk about it.”
There are many options and resources available for those looking to train their staff on how to handle an active shooter situation.
- ALICE Training
- FBI Active Shooter Resources
- Department of Homeland Security Resources
- City of De Pere
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