In the DC Metro, hope for turning away from victim mentality

Campus police officer delivers the right message

As a conservative/libertarian-leaning thinker, about the only thing I look forward to seeing in the Washington Post is the crossword. Completing it was once a ritual of sorts, enjoyed on weekends with my grandmother who lived in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Today, I visit the Post online, mostly to keep this tradition alive but sometimes to cringe at their take on gun-related news.

Recently, the Post gave me cause to smile instead of cringe. A feature by David Montgomery details his experience with an active shooter response training at Towson University. Campus police officer Cpl. Joseph Gregory delivered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)-approved lessons of “run/hide/fight” to the group.

I was surprised to enjoy the article because of my own prejudice toward the run/hide/fight model. It’s a curriculum a growing number of knowledgeable instructors scoff at for failing to address some critical aspects of self-preservation and counter-attack. Those aspects include adopting a mindset that’s open to, but not fearful of, the fact that an attack may happen at any moment, anywhere. I’ve spoken with program attendees who say that the common response of freezing in fear—and more importantly, how to prevent and overcome it-- was never discussed. Then there's the failure to address attacks implemented by weapons like vehicles, blades, and explosives—as if guns are somehow more special in the hands of a murderer. And of course, my dim view of the run/hide/fight class is due in no small part to its assumption that innocents must rely on things like staplers as weapons, when we live in a country where bearing arms is a sacred right.

Hats off to this Cpl. Gregory, who went the extra mile with apparent expertise, delivering a message that covered techniques for exercising situational awareness and planning escape routes even when escape is not likely a need. The freeze response and use of combat breathing to make anxiety work in one’s favor were taught with evident eloquence. The classic comparison often used by Lt. Col. David Grossman, regarding how we prepare public places for fire versus a mass murder attempt, was delivered in a manner that was apparently digested as intended. Students learned to identify hard cover in their everyday environments. And impressively, the presentation inspired the reporter to learn more about new ways of hardening classroom targets.

Kudos also to journalist Montgomery, for accepting that all peaceful folk are unwitting enemy combatants in the modern fight against evil. His ability to see the facts for what they are, that attacks exacted upon random public settings are not somehow magically prevented by denying their existence or neglecting to prepare for them as individuals, gives me renewed hope for our society.

It remains unfortunate that DHS promulgates the term “active shooter” when “active killer” is more appropriate. It’s a disservice to attendees that the curriculum doesn’t include locally applicable information on how to get firearm safety training and concealed carry certification. But it’s clear that some officers are going above and beyond to give a class that’s truly useful and not a federally mandated party line that earns the department a brownie point for community engagement in its next grant application.