Modern society faces tragedy by rushing to point the accusing finger of blame. Adaptive society faces tragedy by learning from it, to prevent if possible and mitigate if not. The Ft. Hood, Texas, shooting of November 5, 2009 left 13 victims dead and 42 wounded. The Columbine High School shooting at Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999, left 13 dead and 21 wounded.
No sooner had the Ft. Hood carnage surfaced in the media than reporter speculation began about whether all those casualties were simply too many for the single shooter to cause with the guns he had and to start asking questions about friendly fire. Similarly, anecdotes about the shooter fueled the usual speculation about clear signals that should have been recognized and acted upon. All this is to be expected. Scapegoating, embroidery, and finger-pointing fill gaps if reporters find themselves short of facts.
What, however, will be the adaptive lesson of Fort Hood? Look for better assessment protocols to emerge on earlier identification and containment of unstable characters and for more studies on how to counter self-radicalization. This is the Columbine moment of the Fort Hood catastrophe. Just as Columbine spawned the active shooter protocol, Fort Hood will ultimately give defenders new tools in their protective toolbox. Perhaps the lessons will include insights about the dark corners where dangerous, unstable insiders lurk and better ways to intervene before they attack.
The active shooter lessons of Columbine were that the only way to minimize casualties is to engage the shooter without delay, a lesson proven at individual peril by the by Fort Hood Police Sergeant Kimberly Munley, who exchanged gunfire with the shooter and stopped the casualty count, even as she sustained serious wounds in the exchange. Somewhere in her tactical training, Sgt. Munley may well have absorbed a Columbine lesson about how to handle an active shooter. Unscathed soldiers and civilians at that Army post benefited from the lesson and Munley’s application of it that prevented additional casualties. Before Columbine, the preoccupation would have been with evacuation, treatment, and searching while waiting for a SWAT team or other specialized unit to set up and confront the shooter – despite the likelihood of having more lives lost or risked in the process. Now, active shooters get engaged instantly by courageous, come-as-you-are defenders like Sgt. Munley.
We don’t yet know all the lessons Fort Hood will teach us. But they will evolve and they will inevitably make their way into the defender’s arsenal. If only such lessons did not come at so high a cost …
- Nick Catrantzos
Subscribe Now
AddThis
Nick Catrantzos + Tom Goff
- All Secure
- NICK CATRANTZOS is the lead author of the All Secure website and is the emeritus security director for a large public organization. He has also managed security aspects of corporate takeovers, response to international hostage situations, and finding and keeping secrets. He has been board certified in security management, licensed as a private investigator, and certified as an incident commander. He worked as a case officer for a discreet branch of public service. He protected stealth technology at Lockheed and, later, as a consulting security director for both Kroll and Control Risks, he assisted executives with workplace violence cases and with protecting VIPs and critical assets globally in volatile areas. Nick's partner, TOM GOFF, was a captain in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve and has a law degree from the University of California at Davis. He is a former reporter for Fortune Magazine, was senior editor at New York Magazine and Esquire, and has provided crisis and communications counsel to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, including Lockheed, ARCO, Microsoft, Nissan, and Sony Pictures.