NOTEBOOK: Seminar provides insights on dealing with an active shooter in the workplace
JOE GARDYASZ Jul 27, 2016 | 3:45 pm
3 min read time
600 wordsBusiness Record Insider, The Insider NotebookWould you know what to do if an armed intruder — whether it’s a disgruntled former employee or someone you’ve never seen before — showed up at your workplace? Other than just freak out?
I joined about 60 people on Wednesday to hear about that uncomfortable topic at a two-hour seminar held by Holmes Murphy & Associates.
We heard from Scott Smith, a loss control specialist with the Iowa Municipalities Workers’ Compensation Association, who has been through the ALICE (Alert, Lock down, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training for dealing with an active gunman in the workplace.
Although it seems like we’re hearing about a mass shooting every other day on the news, the odds of being involved in one are still much lower than being struck by lightning, so it’s important to keep your perspective, Smith told us. At the same time, statistically about 9 percent of U.S. workplace deaths annually are homicides from workplace violence.
The interest in the seminar points to rising awareness by Greater Des Moines businesses in examining whether they’re doing everything they can to keep their workers safe.
Holmes Murphy offered the seminar as a service to its risk management clients, and may conduct more seminars on this topic in the future if it receives positive feedback, said Rod Miner, vice president of risk management solutions. The overview is meant to help a company decide whether it may want to pursue professional training for its workers from law enforcement or other training resources, he said.
Among the participating companies was manufacturer Dee Zee Inc. in Des Moines, which sent two representatives.
“With all the things happening, we’re beefing up defenses,” Anthony Cade, the company’s environmental health and safety manager, said following the seminar. Cade, who has military experience as a reservist, said he thought the seminar was helpful in building awareness.
“The biggest thing is just being aware and being able to respond,” he said. “Oftentimes people panic. If you can keep calm and execute the company strategy, you’ll survive.”
Overall, fight-or-flight survival instincts are going to kick in, Smith said, and generally your instincts will serve you pretty well.
Because it’s likely going to take law enforcement at least a few minutes to respond, “you are the first responder, and the faster you accept that, the faster your instincts can save your life,” Smith told us.
Generally speaking, experts have found it’s better to take action to survive, regardless of whether the best option seems to be to run or jump from the building to escape or to do something to actively counter the gunman. And if you’re a moving target, you’re much harder for even a highly trained gunman to hit than one that’s passively sitting there or lying on the ground, he said.
Barricading yourself inside a room can sometimes be a good option if you aren’t able to immediately escape, Smith said. But it’s important to make it as difficult as possible for the gunman to gain entry to the room, which makes it more likely that he’ll move on to somewhere else.
Also, most intruders intent on shooting as many people as possible typically have a plan, so if you can’t run away, it’s important to think about distracting the gunman. To illustrate that point, Smith had several attendees lob tennis balls at one attendee as he attempted to “shoot” them with a toy gun. As you can imagine, it definitely kept him from aiming very well.
As far as Smith’s weapon of choice if he had to throw something at a gunman, “my favorite is a Bostitch stapler,” he said.
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