TRAINING FOR A SHOOTER
Course is designed to help people protect themselves and save lives
Would you know the difference between the sound of firecrackers and someone firing gunshots in the courtyard just outside your office?
Sadly, no place in America, including New Mexico, seems free of the “active shooter” threat — the gunman who suddenly opens fire into a crowded office, school or public place.
But an Albuquerque company that provides security training for clients around the world makes the case that by understanding “situational awareness” and learning some basic tactics, people who find themselves in violent situations can save lives, including their own. (Visit www.abqjournal.com to view a video on “active shooter” training.)
“All of us in public safety think that we’re the first responders,” said Gilbert Baca Jr., a retired State Police commander and founder and chief executive officer of Global One. “We tell them, ‘You are the first responder.’”
Formed 13 years ago, Global One draws on the expertise of more than 100 on-call instructors to offer services ranging from vulnerability assessments and IT security to crisis response and counterterrorism.
“We do anti-terrorism training around the world through the Department of State,” Baca said. “I haven’t counted lately, but I’ve probably been to like 28 countries. I just got back from South Africa where we were doing a tactical training for a manager — commander level — for the national police.”
Security experience
After stints in the Marines and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department, Baca had a 23-year career with the New Mexico State Police
before retiring in 1999. He then helped Sandia National Labs improve its security mandated after 9/11.
In 2001, he decided to go into business on his own, and with the Rev. Larry Allen, founder and pastor of New Life Baptist Church and Academy and himself a former State Police officer, formed Global One. Allen, who is president of the company, started the officers’ survival class at the State Police Academy and was assistant general manager at Wackenhut Inc. in charge of training for the Department of Energy for 10 years. The two have more than 75 years experience between them in the public safety and security fields.
“Guys like myself started talking about today in 1971 and we were referred to as paranoid. Now we’re visionaries!” said Allen, with a laugh.
Global’s training component covers many areas: among them, crisis management, crowd control, major event security, ethics, covert investigations and tactical crisis response and management.
Shooter response demand
Global One started offering active shooter response training in 2010, Baca said, and demand has rapidly grown. Police officers, EMTs, firefighters, school teachers and principals, and business employees — from receptionists to executives in upstairs suites — have been among the trainees. More than 100 churches also have gotten training, Baca said.
Global recently conducted an exercise for about 40 employees over two mornings at Gardner Zemke, a mechanical and electrical contractor in Albuquerque.
“Our board just felt like it’s an employee benefit, let’s call it that, considering the times we live in,” said Gardner Zemke president Rick Zemke.
The training is always conducted at the client’s building, Baca said.
“You want to do it in their building so they know how to handle situations inside their hallways, their cubicle areas, their second floor coming up the steps, whatever it is,” Baca said. “We cover all those areas, what they need to do and how to work as a team to stop the shooter.”
Trainees are taught “situational awareness, first and foremost,” Baca said.
“If we all of a sudden hear ‘bam, bam, bam,’ we need to recognize what it is and immediately go into a defensive mode: What are we going to go to protect ourselves and what are we going to do if we get into a situation where we have to fight?” he said, adding that a real AR-15 rifle is fired to let people recognize the sound.
“High stress immersion”
“We actually go through this simulated emergency training — high stress immersion — so they can feel what it is like to be doing this,” Baca said.
Allen said the first response to an attack should be to get out if possible, and if not, to hide, secure the area and call 911. Part of Global’s training, though, involves identifying weapons that can be used in defense and how to swarm and overwhelm an attacker.
“You may not have a gun, but you may have a cup, a pen, a cell phone, something you could throw if he came in the door and then go attack him,” Baca said. Throwing a jacket at the attacker’s face is also very effective. “We also train them on some weapons disarming and how to neutralize the line of fire.”
The chaos and fear in a shooting situation can be paralyzing. Allen said a young man who admirably shielded his girlfriend in the Aurora, Colo., theater attack last summer might have had a chance to bring down the shooter — had he had some training.
“He heard the gun ‘tat, tat, tat’ —then he heard ‘click, click, click.’ He heard the magazine hit the floor. What’s the (shooter) doing? He’s reloading.
“That’s what we tell them: If I’m on the ground and I’m right next to the guy and he runs out of ammo, it’s time to fight.”
Emcore’s “right” response
Baca said Emcore employees did many “right things” during the 2010 shooting in Albuquerque that left the shooter and two people dead and injured four others.
“They were finding places to hide, they were locking their doors, they were getting on the phone calling folks and they were getting out of the building to areas where it was safer,” he said, also giving credit to local law enforcement officers for their fast response.
Active shooter training for schools involves not only students, principals, teachers and superintendents, but law enforcement and emergency responders. By day’s end, each group will have seen how the other has been trained, Baca said.
“Now both sides know what to expect from each other,” he said.
HBO recently filmed an unannounced shooter response exercise at Allen’s New Life school, where students reacted on his queue: “Bad guy coming.” While the majority went to find cover, a group of bigger students, men and women — designated as “warriors” — positioned themselves in key areas of the building to swarm and fight the attacker.
“The teachers know what to do, the students know what to do,” Allen said.
Global’s eight-hour training sessions are available to any school, business or institution. Fees are $300 a person, but group rates are available.
“We can look at your situation and come up with a good solution for you.”
Visit www.iG1global.com for more information.