Photo By Angela Simpson | Members of the Michigan National Guard Kinetic Applications Training Team, Sgt. 1st...... read more read more
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LANSING, Mich.— In the months of May and June 2014 members of the Michigan National Guard Kinetic Applications Training Team prepared hundreds of Michigan National Guard troops and civilian Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs employees, for the possibility of an active shooter entering their workspace.
The 120-minute briefing, presented by Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Gomberg, Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Menard, Sgt. 1st Class Scott Watkins, and Staff Sgt. Nikolas Discher, included an outline and discussion about the principles of personal defense, active shooter profile commonalities, situational statistics, combative decision-making strategy and basic first aid.
“Most people don’t realize that there are simple precautions and actions that can mean the difference between life and death in an active shooter situation,” said Menard, who has been a member of the Michigan National Guard for 17 years, serving a tour in Iraq with the 1437th Engineers and two tours in Afghanistan with the first Latvian Operational Mentor and Liaison Team and with Troop C, 1-126 Cavalry as sniper team leader. “If a person is mentally prepared and can react quickly and aggressively using common items to his or her advantage, he or she can usually regain control and subdue a lone aggressor – particularly if multiple defensive actions are taken at the same time.”
“Most active shooters are lone individuals, not combat-hardened veterans, who are retaliating for a perceived injustice,” Watkins said during his section of the brief. “They are not expecting resistance.”
The KATT trainers advise employees to create a work area that is unfriendly to an attacker by situating desks and chairs so no direct line of fire exists. They recommend keeping common materials nearby; scissors, a stapler, ink pens, a letter opener, a coffee mug, can all be used as weapons. Fire extinguishers and full-sized umbrellas are especially useful,l as are hammers, wrenches and other tools, hairspray, bug spray and other aerosol products.
The active shooter brief concluded with stabilization strategies and basic first aid in cases of injury. The safest way to move an injured person from aggressor sight lines, correct carry positions, preventing shock, cleaning wounds, applying tourniquets, and other temporary medical-assist actions were discussed.
Additional briefings are scheduled in the coming months.
| Date Taken: | 07.07.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.07.2014 11:11 |
| Story ID: | 135395 |
| Location: | LANSING, MICHIGAN, US |
| Hometown: | LANSING, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 106 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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