S.W.A.T. Magazine TV Lost Episode 2: School Attacker Aftermath

This week on SWAT magazine TV We're in San Marcos, Texas at Texas State University's Alert Training Center. And this was one of the most advanced simulation houses for training active shooter situations. Today, instructor John Curnutt is gonna talk about what law enforcement needs to do in the aftermath of those incidents and have some advice for you, should you be trapped in one. Baam, shots were being fired, baam, last room on the left Left and point, you're going to be involved Left and point, slowing it down. Find them, find them, find them, find them find them, little faster, little faster.

Find him. All right, he's down. Follow through, scan, breathe. Watch your muzzle. Do not put your muzzle on her back.

You need to be watching something else. You can't be involved in this so watch her six. Alright, everybody on me. Let's make it happen. everybody on me Let's go Ready?

Go. Get in. All right, get away from each other. So, if one gets shot, the other one doesn't get shot. Okay.

Suspects laying on the ground. There was a gun that he was shooting. Sweet cough, Pat down. Good. What are you doing while you're watching the hallway?

Watching the hallway. You're watching the hallway but what else can you do at the same time? Talking to team Get on that radio. What are you going to tell? Where we at?

Location. Location. Two down Status. And then find out who else is going to be operating on this floor really shortly. Good.

All right. Anybody else in here that we need to worry about? Now, while we're doing this what else can we be doing at the same time? Coming up with a plan. What's our plan?

Shots fired, shots fired down the hallway. Shot fired down the hallway. Taking too much time here, let's get outside. Let's form up. Let's get our formation back at our format.

Good stuff, John. Thank you very much. Appreciate you sharing it with us here on SWAT magazine TV. The reality is what you guys are doing at the alert facility is really taking active shooter training to the next level. It's that next step.

So it's one thing to teach the room entries, to teach to set up your contact team. A lot of guys who are doing great work with that as are you, but talk to me a little bit about SIM about what we're doing after the shooting has stopped. For years, active shooter training was great after Columbine and it gave patrol officers the training, the empowerment to go in and do great things to stop shooters without waiting for SWAT teams. What we saw though, when we started doing training they would go in, they'd stop the shooter but they really didn't know what they should do after that. If there's not another shooter.

If these people are still laying on the ground and bleeding, they didn't have plan of action for that. And really don't want to told them, well, you need to worry about that. Also, the security immediate action medical acronym that we're using is basically kind giving them a template. Security first. You can't do medical on somebody if you're not secured.

You can't come up with a plan on a contingency. What if you're still in a non-secured environment, that's your mission right now to secure it. Once you've got security, though we're trying to give them to the aftermath. Have a plan in case that security is breached. What are we going to do?

Who's going to do it? And then the people that are laying on the ground bleeding, we stopped the shooting. That's great, but now how do we stop the bleeding? Because that still saves lives. And that's what we're in here for.

I think that's great. So you're taking the actual patrol officer and not only are we teaching him to do the active job to come in and stop the shooting but then he's got to be kind of an on-scene commander. He's got to take control. He's got to establish security. They've got to make their plan in the room and then be ready to help anybody else that they still can save.

Even though the shooting stopped doesn't mean people aren't still in danger. Get out of my house, get out of my house. Keep watching SWAT magazine TV. Being an armed citizen means having a gun with you all the time. Carrying a firearm every day requires a holster that is both concealable and comfortable.

Or the you choose our SuperTuck Deluxe or MiniTuck. You'll have the confidence that comes from being discreetly and comfortably armed, prepared to face unforeseen dangers. Crossbreed holsters are handmade in the USA, come with a lifetime warranty, and a two week try it free guarantee. Order your holster today@crossbreedholsters.com. This time in our crossbreed product segment we're going to look at the product that started all.

Over the last few years, crossbreed has become a household word in the firearms industry and the holsters have become very commonplace for concealed carry all around the United States. And the reason is the super talk holster that I'm wearing right now. I'm carrying in the four o'clock position. Now I carry most of the time the appendix position, but just like all the products that I'm showing you from crossbreed, this is my actual personal holster. And I've used this on the range a fair amount of times and I have carried with it occasionally.

It's incredibly comfortable. Now, one of the things that Mark Craig had used to say is it this is the ugliest holster that you'll ever love. And the fact is when I first saw it and I first started seeing students come to the range with the crossbreed holsters, I really was skeptical. I did not think that's a holster this large and this wide, especially on a person my size could be comfortable to wear all day long. The fact is, these things are incredibly comfortable.

They take the comfort of leather and they combine it with the durability and efficiency of presentation of a defensive firearm that you get from kayaks. Of course, the quality metal clips keep it all attached to your belt. And you can adjust these both for the depth that the holster is actually going to ride inside the waistband. And you can adjust the angles also. At the angle that the actual holster is going to be inside of your pants.

So let's take a look. What we have here is a combat cut version. Now, the reason the combat cut version is incredibly important. And the reason I definitely think that if you choose a super tug, you should choose the combat cut version is that what it allows you to do is get a full grip on your defensive handgun prior to pulling it up out of the holster. So, you can see here that I can reach down and get a good full grip with my fingers all the way around the holster and then come up out of the holster.

I don't have to worry about a flap of leather here. Now, it's going to be a little bit less comfortable. Of course, if there was a flap of leather here than the leather is pushing against your skin not the actual handle of your firearm but I think it is a small compromise, very small compromise for the reliability and the convenience and the efficiency of being able to get that good shooting grip on your gun prior to coming up out of the holster. And regardless of whether you choose the combat cut or the your traditional super tuck, I think you're going to love this holster if you carry inside the waistband back here at the three four or five o'clock position. Another great product from crossbreed holster.

Everybody on lead? Let's make it happen. After I graduated high school, I went into the army and served in Alaska and light infantry in the army. I went to college at Texas State University and knew I was going to be in law enforcement. Thought it'd be in the federal capacity but really started to get a love for local law enforcement.

The more I interacted and hung out and learned about what they did, was lucky enough to get hired with the city of San Marcus in 1995 and I've been there ever since. Boom. Our SIM aspect of our active shooter program is relatively new. It was derived out of what we saw conducting training over the years as a followup or a follow through to the actual response The security immediate action medical, that acronym kind of gives officers an idea of what priorities of work they need to be looking for when they get inside of a crisis point. Let's get him out of the way so that we can work that corner.

Alert in general, we formed an literally about 2000, right after Columbine. I think we like everybody else across the country in law enforcement who saw what happened at Columbine. We saw traditional law enforcement doctrine put into place policies. I think everybody had probably about the same policies they did. And we did not like what we saw.

We would have done the same thing. Our patrol officers would have sat outside, established a good perimeter and waited for the specialized tactical teams to show up. So, in a process of trying to get better training for our people, better equipment to train with better facilities to train in, we started to apply for grant money and part of the grant money- the stipulation, with that was we couldn't just hoard it in Hayes County. We had to go outside the County and share it with other counties and other municipalities and agencies across the state. So, in process of doing that we surrounded ourselves with a lot of smarter than us type of people.

Really started to put a lot of substance and guts to our existing active shooter program at the time and came up with the two day program that we have today. And that is spun off into several other follow-on classes as well. Once he's in custody, you are back up, weapons back out. Now, what's the new priority of work. The interaction with Texas State University is extremely important.

It helps us get this, they are the vehicle that helps us get this message out and affect a lot of other officers' lives. That in and of itself is very rare. And I think very unique happening right there that a university would take ownership of a program like this and facilitate this program to continue to affect a lot of officer's lives is pretty awesome. The highlight of my training career obviously is going on right now. Just the people I get to hang out with, the people I get to interact with on a regular basis, the people I get to meet and all the world what I'd call world-class instructors and shooters and guys that have been there and done that, This program facilitates me getting to meet them, and that's a highlight.

Now, imagine us having to do this with real guns. Lasers, for personal defense guns or even for home defense, good idea, or bad idea? Let's see what our experts think. There's a lot of good things to lasers Again, I think it becomes a crutch. If people are gonna just point the dot on something and not have the proper mechanics of using the weapon and citing the weapon and delivering the weapon the way it's supposed to without a laser, then I think your body mechanics and your shooting plan gets messed up if they start relying too heavily on the technology.

I personally, feel lasers on a defensive firearm is an extremely great idea. I'm not a big fan of a visible laser on a defensive weapon. Simply because, I can see the laser soaking the bad guy, they're going to quickly ID my location and most people are not really switched on about turning their laser on and off as quickly as they need to. The second reason I say that is it's sometimes used too much. So, you get into a bright situation, we can't see the laser.

People are looking for the laser when they've got their iron sights right there they could start engaging the threat. And lastly, if you do have a light mounted on your weapon, you light up your target, you bring the laser up, you won't be able to see the laser on the lit up target. Once again, iron sights might be the best bet. To have one, you know, know how to use it if you need to for those crazy positions you may end up in but don't say that 100% of the time you're going to use it. No matter how bad your eyes are you can always see your front sight.

As a single person, no problem. I've seen mass confusion. And then we have multiple people on lasers. From a rifle point of view, I love them. We use them a lot and you know we use both IR invisible and, you know we do a lot of night vision type programs where they're absolute necessity from a average type scenario.

I still see a lot of application from it. And we use them in a training mode as an instructional tool and a lot of times, as well as a tactical tool. So, they're very valuable. From a pistol point of view, it's difficult to get the same capabilities that I get with a rifle grade laser on a pistol. So, I'm still kind of searching for that, you know the best widget for a pistol and a laser.

But, I feel like if you can maintain the same capabilities that the laser versions have and compact it down to where it's compatible with the most defensive sidearms, then I would be all over that. Being an armed citizen means having a gun with you all the time. Carrying a firearm every day requires a holster that is both concealable and comfortable, or the you choose our SuperTuck Deluxe or MiniTuck. You'll have the confidence that comes from being discreetly and comfortably armed, prepared to face unforeseen dangers. Crossbreed holsters are handmade in the USA, come with a lifetime warranty and a two week try it free guarantee Order your holster today@crossbreedholsters.com.

The gear information is fantastic, but also as a civilian, it's interesting to look at it. I'm more likely to run into a situation where guns are being fired by, we know, we're police so there maybe, I just happened to be in the vicinity. It gives me an idea so that when I see the police moving and transitioning, I know what they're doing. I know for obvious reasons why I need to stay out of the way and not interfere with what they're doing. Welcome to Personal Defense Network.

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You'll find them inside of the premium membership. All you have to do is choose how to get started monthly or annually, and I'll see you on the inside. Welcome back, SWAT Magazine TV. We can set this up where if we had to leave, we could leave this room and take all people with weapons and a mission down range. Okay?

If you've got enough people and you feel comfortable leaving one behind I'm not going to argue with you, I'm not going to say no don't do it, but don't put yourself in a corner because we always do this, we never do this. Guys, there's a list of things that need to be done. And there's only so many of you, you can't do it all. Can't do it all right. So, do what you can well enough.

Okay. Immediate action plan. If shots are fired, how are we going to leave this room? Let's start setting it up. Let's agree on it so when it happens, we move.

We don't start arguing about it then. Wasting time and wasting life. What else is going on while we're sitting here having this discussion? The people that were in this room that were getting shot prior to us coming here and stopping the shooter, there are probably still one at this point. Nah, the ones that were shot, there's still bleeding.

So, the two or three minutes we've been sitting here scratching our heads with our front sight post going man! what are we going to do with this? This is crazy. Holy crap. They're bleeding.

Okay. So here's the very important thing guys Don't lose sight of the fact that saving lives that's our mission coming in here, right? Saving lives. You stop the shooting, have a plan to stop the bleeding. Because if you stop the shooter and you sit around and clink glasses, high five, then man!

we're going fishing together. and people are bleeding at your feet and you're doing nothing for them. You're not saving them just the same as not even coming in. I've had officers go, Hey, I'll call for medics. Are they coming into this unsecured building?

No, you're it. Everything that you know, and that you brought and that you do for them is all they have. So, you have to have some way of saving these people's lives. That's a whole another class but yeah, tourniquets, pressure bandages, stuff like that because we can't lose sight of the fact that these are complex issues. And we've got to have some solutions for these things.

And it's only gonna come more natural through more training. Next group, you're up. Moving up on the door, door right. Shots being fired. Boom.

Find them, find them. Where is he? Boom. He's got a gun. Where is he?

Find him? Freeze. I want you over here on them like underwear, right next to him. When he finds them, you find them two guns on him instead of one. Does that make sense?

All right. He goes down, scanning, breathing, talking. Anything else in there? We need to worry about. Can we handle from right here?

Okay. How's the room? Open up, deep left, everybody on me Let's make it happen. Number four, if you come in and see that they've got it handled. You can watch the hallway, you're on the radio.

All right. Suspect's down. I'll be your suspect. Talk me through it. Sweep the weapon Sweep weapon away, handcuff Handcuff and then Pat down.

Alright. Sweet. Cuff, Pat has been done. Weapons back out, back up. All right.

I'm in custody. What needs to be going on simultaneously? Hallway man, you're calling it in on the radio. By the time they get done securing our bad guy, you should have a little bit of a plan of action on what we're going to do with the other people in this room. Hey, I've got a guy in the corner over there.

He says that that's the only shooter. He's the teacher. These students are good. Nobody else in here. He's not familiar with.

Everyone's good. Great. Let's pull him over here, Pat them down. Confirm a story. We're going to use that person as our leader in this room.

So, if we did need to leave, they are in control. Medical. Now we start looking at the same time. All this is happening, We're looking at people in there, their degrees of injury. Is there anybody that needs immediate life-saving measures right now?

They can't wait two or three minutes while we get our stuff together. They've got to have some type of pressure or tourniquet applied right now. And again, I'm not saying sacrifice security. But as quickly as possible, can we see a situation where we've got good security? Good enough, but we can start providing medical attention to those direly in need.