Active (Shooter) Response

One of the faculty workshops I attended this week--the last week before classes begin--was called Active Shooter Response Training.

I will admit that I did not quite appreciate either how forward-thinking and proactive my college was being in offering this training or what I might learn from it.

I did, by the end of the talk, come away with a renewed appreciation for the all-but-impossible task our law enforcement and public safety officers face and a feeling that I would not be entirely bereft of hope should the unthinkable occur.

I would encourage anyone to take advantage of such training, if the opportunity presents itself.

One tiny little niggling doubt, however, remains in my mind after the event.

One thing the presenter did over and over and over was to downplay, even ridicule, the possibility that someone who was engaged in or about to start a Columbine-type assault could be talked out of his or her plan.

I found it providential that this occurred the exact same day of our training:

Gunman Talked Into Surrendering By His Hostage

I understand how unlikely this sounds, and I appreciate that the probabilities are with the gentleman that did our training.  People who become sufficiently unhinged to plan and execute large-scale assaults like this are not usually open to rational argument or pleas for mercy.

But perhaps they are still open to love.  Perhaps they can still be reached by prayer.

Perhaps a people that still remembers to pray for the violent, the criminally insane, the sinner, the abuser--perhaps that people can still reach the violent, the insane, etc., when no one else can.  Perhaps a people that prays not, "God, please don't let me die," but "God, please help me to help him," perhaps that people has more resources to hand than those who are merely trained how to survive an assault.