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“Immediate de-animation” critical in some situations…active shooter calls among them

Are you prepared?

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recently pinpointed head shots as a preferred method for dealing with suicide bombers, highlighting the need for what firearms expert John Farnham calls “immediate de-animation” in certain crisis situations.

Among those situations are “Active Shooter” calls - events where a gunman is actively in the process of firing at people during your response. So serious are these live-fire incidents, well-known survival instructor Gary Klugiewicz and prominent police trainer Chuck Remsberg, developed an intense block of instruction called “Responding to Active Shooters” as part of a training class Klugiewicz conducted.

When a gunman is actively in the process of shooting people or someone has the immediate capability of triggering a blast, Farnham says the instantaneous cessation of all subject movement is your ideal goal. A head shot, he points out, allows a round to directly enter the brain and increases your odds of achieving that goal as opposed to the typical rounds to center mass.

In light of this, you the officer have new responsibilities, indicates Klugiewicz.

“First,” he says, “you need to be physically prepared as a marksman to execute a headshot with whatever firearm you have, be that a sidearm, a shotgun, or a tactical rifle. During range drills you need to be sure that headshots are included in your regime.

“Second, you need to be mentally prepared to execute a headshot. I discuss this in my seminar and find it to be a bigger challenge for officers than some might imagine. Head shots are considered ‘unconventional’ and therefore officers tend to considered them universally ‘unacceptable.’ In a situation where every second can mean the loss of more innocent lives, it’s your responsibility to do whatever it takes to bring that situation to a screeching halt. Drastic situations require drastic measures. Be prepared for that.”

Related tactical tip: Target training to respond to an active shooter

Related story: IACP suggests head shots to stop suicide bombers

Scott Buhrmaster is Vice President of Training and Editorial for Police1.com, which was awarded the “Quill & Badge Award” for Excellence in Journalism by the International Association of Police Unions. He is also the Publisher of Police Marksman magazine and has served as Contributing Editor for Law Officer magazine. He has been a member of the law enforcement training community since 1989, when he began work as Director of Research with Calibre Press, Inc., producers of The Street Survival Seminar.

Throughout his tenure at Calibre, Buhrmaster was involved with virtually every aspect of the company’s officer survival training efforts, from the planning, creation and marketing of the organization’s award-winning textbooks and videos to developing and securing training content for the Seminar. In 1995, he was named Director of the Calibre Press Street Survival Newsline®, an Internet-based officer survival training service he helped found. In less than five years, Newsline readership grew from 25 officers to more than 250,000 in 26 countries, making it one of the most popular training vehicles in law enforcement history. His efforts now focus on providing training and information to the nearly 400,000 officers worldwide who visit Police1.com every month.

Prior to joining Police1, Buhrmaster, who also serves on the National Advisory Board of the Force Science Research Center and stands as an active member of the American Society for Law Enforcement Training and the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, was President of The Buhrmaster Consulting Group, an international consulting practice for the law enforcement training sector and the publishing industry. Scott may be reached at buhrmastergroup@comcast.net.

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