Active Shooter Training that Challenges Police to be a Far More Viable Force

By Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis

Active shooter crimes have been on the rise in the U.S. since the late 1990s, wreaking havoc and creating mass casualties. In short, these incidents are homicides in progress. Often the killers--whether they are terrorists, quasi-terrorists, domestic terrorists, criminals, or psychologically disturbed-- all use terror to accomplish their goals. Even worse, many are flat-out-have-no-fear psychopaths.

Responding to an active shooter incident requires training, a timely response, tactical decision-making, and the ability to shoot accurately. This training improves police officers’ capabilities, strategies, and tactics. Such training also leads to an understanding of reality.

The Central Ohio Technical College (C.O.T.C.) Response to Active Shooter training course is taught to C.O.T.C. police cadets. The college’s goal is to bring its police cadets up to a superior level of tactical training.

Prior to taking part in the Response to Active Shooter training, the cadets must have competed at least 12 hours of building searches--including room and building clearing--with the last eight hours being force-on-force using Simunition™ and scenarios. While other police training academies only require 60 hours of handgun and shotgun training, C.O.T.C. instructors add an additional 40 hours of firearms training, including AR15-platformed rifles, familiarization with shooting revolvers, point shooting, etc. Most cadets take all of these added certi...