Share: 

Greenwood business owner offers training for active shooter response

Outten assesses facilities, develops scenarios for churches, public buildings
March 30, 2018

Story Location:
6 East Market Street
Greenwodd, DE 19950
United States

Taking Sussex County legislators as an example of the nation as a whole, people generally agree mass shootings are a problem, but they can’t come to agreement about laws that will end these tragedies.

Mass shootings are frequent enough that school-aged children from pre-k to high school are now practicing active shooter drills in addition to time-honored fire drills.

In response to what he sees as a growing need for other publicly operated institutions to prepare for an active shooter, Greenwood business owner Kevin Outten, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, has started teaching active shooter drills for local churches and organizations. In an email March 19, Outten said any facility that conducts business publicly should incorporate leadership training that identifies responsibility, safety concerns and risk mitigation for active shooter situations.

Outten said active shooter scenarios have been practiced for a long time, but the catalyst for bringing this training to the local area was the murder of 26 people at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November.

Outten said he has conducted half a dozen of his hours-long program which entails drills, sitting down with church leaders to discuss location weaknesses and strengths, and reviewing local firearms ordinances. 

“Our seminars focus on church leadership responsibilities and contain scenarios/drills,” he said. “[The company] strives to conduct three scenarios per seminar.”

Outten said each training scenario is different, but no real firearms are used, and no ammunition is present. He said training aids, such as yoga blocks and plastic training pistols, are used to simulate Bibles and firearms.

Outten said these drills are necessary to prepare houses of worship to mitigate the risk of a shooting. Church leaders may establish various protocols to minimize the risk to their congregation, increase awareness and implement safety procedures specific to their belief systems, he said.

“Practicing these drills in cooperation and coordination with law enforcement and first responder elements hopefully leads to a better understanding on roles and responsibilities that enhance safety,” he said.

Outten said the most common misconception about what to do when confronted by a shooter is that a person should respond differently during an attack than when conducting an exercise.

For example, he said, some people tend to think that the “run, hide, fight” motto is sequential. It is not, he said.

“Whether a person decided to run, hide, or fight is based on many factors including the proximity to safety, imminent physical danger, probable exit routes and the like,” he said. “People must be taught options, and then practice said options based on time, distance and acknowledgment of the threat.”

The second most popular misconception, Outten said, is that a person should protect others before thinking of themselves. This line of thinking is admirable and honorable, he said, but the opinion usually changes after a person realizes they cannot help anyone if they are not aware of where the threat is coming from. If they do not keep themselves safe first, they will not be able to help anyone else.

“You must first secure your safety, then help others,” he said.

Outten has extensive military training.

“I am a former military police officer, supply sergeant, communications sergeant, first sergeant, operations sergeant, modern army combatives instructor, veteran of operations Iraq and Afghanistan [Enduring] Freedom, and an anti-terrorism officer,” he said. “I retired from full-time service in 2016.”

Outten said his training sessions have been well received.

“Our clients want to learn all they can so they can help protect others and implement safety protocols,” Outten said. “People want to be safe and realize, while the threat may be small statistically speaking, they must learn and practice all they can, so proper responses can be initiated if the threat becomes reality.” 

Violent intruder preparedness and response training

The Delaware State Police partnered with the Delaware Department of Education to host a Violent Intruder Preparedness and Response seminar March 28, at Sussex Central High School. The free training session included topics related to active shooter threats, emergency preparedness, suspicious activity reporting and hometown security threats. See the Cape Gazette’s coverage of the seminar next week. A second seminar has been scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 17, at Indian River High School, 29772 Armory Road, Dagsboro.

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter