Only in America

I get my fair share of junk e-mail, and it is not confined to just my personal e-mail but has also now breached my work e-mail.  I got an interesting one recently this week, with the subject header “What would you do if faced with an Active Shooter Situation?”.  Well, frankly I’d probably take cover – but it is not something I have really given a lot of thought to.  No worries, this gave me a chance to enroll in a free webinar entitled “Situational Awareness in an Active Shooter Situation”.  Sadly I just checked the dates and it was this afternoon, so I missed it.  But I found the jovial first line of the e-mail (complete with typo):

Happy New YearChris!      

somewhat at odds with the content of the rest of the e-mail:

Last week we faced an all too familiar tragedy of an Active Shooter event in Ft. Lauderdale. We are committed in 2017 to prepare our communities and business partners like yours for safety.

Active Shooter incidents have grown at an alarming rate since 2000. Yet the FBI reported most companies are not prepared to respond to an Active Shooter or workplace violence crisis. Over 76% of Active Shooter Incidents take place at a business or commerce and 43% of these incidents cease before law enforcement arrive. You and your team need to be prepared to mitigate and respond if this scenario ever occurs at your work, school, or a public place.

Acknowledging and communicating unusual behavior or activity in your workplace can potentially prevent an Active Shooter Incident or, at the very least, increase your response time and possibly save lives. Join Security and Active Shooter Response expert Jonathan Sowell as we focus on techniques to improve your Situational Awareness and the importance of quick response in the event of an active shooter situation. Your safety is our top concern, prepare yourself, and protect your employees. Engage in real time exercises to prepare you with the essential skills needed to mitigate, respond to and survive an Active Shooter Incident.

Only in America right!  How about doing something about gun control rather than dealing with the consequences of a lack of gun control?  The phrasing “an all too familiar tragedy” sort of gives away that this might be a fundamental and recurring problem in the country that needs fixing.  I suspect that will not be high in the list of priorities for President Trump.  It will be interesting to see what Trump does in the event of a mass shooting – I don’t think a tweet is going to suffice in that instance.