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The "Active Shooter" situations were a joke. I now have watched each one several times (thanks DVR) and it was totally unrealistic. Each time the "shooter" came in and shot the instructor first thing, and then quickly turned and engaged the one person in the room carrying a concealed handgun. They knew who had the handgun and came in and targeted that one person. In one situation they even had another shooter "staged" among the other students and that person also quickly engaged the student with the gun. Talk about media bias - this was just terrible.

We are fortunate that we have very good training at our department that utilizes Simunitions and realistic training scenarios. We call it Reality Based Training and every officer in the department goes through it on a regular basis. We have multiple situations that we put the officers through and sure lots of them get shot but that's the point. We also have a lot of instructors who play the active shooters getting shot too. The instructors always have the upper hand because when they go into a room they know who the officers are and that they're armed. In real life it's the same way so that's why we do this. Take cover if possible, engage your target and then move. Shoot and move, shoot and move.

Put me in charge of that Active Shooter scenario that was on TV tonight and I would stage it differently. I would have one or two armed students in the classroom and I would not let the instructor know who they were. Then let him come in and engage the teacher and start shooting some students. Sure he would shoot several students but would he get the one(s) carrying concealed. Run the scenario four or five times like they did and I think that you would see a whole different result. Another thing that they should have pointed out on the show is "where were the police when this was going on"? No way that they could have responded in time to do anything about it. If you are to be responsible for your own protection then you better plan on doing it yourself.

Now the one thing that the LEO firearms instructors stated that was right on, is that when you are in a situation like this your fine motor skills go right out the window. Your ability to draw a weapon, site, and reload are a lot harder. If you ever have the opportunity to go through this type of training you will find that out. Even though it's not real it is still very realistic. When they put monitors on participants they find that their heart rates go right through the roof just like in real life and their fine motor skills diminish. They also get tunnel vision like they talked about tonight. It's even better if you have film to watch of your participation. You will see yourself doing and reacting to things that you have no recollection of. It's great training. I wish someone would open up a real nice range where non LEOs could participate in this type of training. Heck, there are probably lots of LEOs that would like to experience it because only a few departments and agencies even have the ability to put something like this on.

Again, a very biased show that could have been produced by the Brady bunch.