Sheep No More by Jonathan T. Gilliam

Author:Jonathan T. Gilliam [Gilliam, Jonathan T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2017-11-30T05:00:00+00:00

1999 Columbine School Attack and 2016 Pulse Nightclub Attack

Prior to 1999, the attack probability on a school in Columbine, Colorado, was virtually nonexistent. In fact, the probability for attack on any public school was considered so low that authorities around the country gave very little thought toward defenses at schools based on who might actually attack, how authorities could identify them, and where, when, and how someone might carry out such an attack. Regardless of the low probability, the 100-percent possibility was recognized when two deranged attackers planned and carried out an elaborate attack on Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.

Two senior students at the school, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered twelve students and one teacher, while injuring twenty-one additional people, before taking their own lives in a suicide pact. For over a year, Harris, the psychopathic leader, and Klebold, the depressive follower, worked to acquire firearms, build bombs, and develop an elaborate attack mission plan that included an attack package on the high school and specific understandings of critical areas, critical times for those areas, and the vulnerabilities they could exploit to hit the soft areas. They paid particular attention to the avenues of entry/exit for students inside the cafeteria and the avenues of approach that would be used by first responders. Homemade bombs were placed in all those locations. (Most failed to detonate.) Overall, Harris and Klebold possessed ninety-nine bombs of various sizes, four different guns, and four knives—they were prepared. There is evidence from the journals left behind by both boys that great consideration was placed on the lack of awareness and lack of understanding of possible attacks on the school by faculty, staff, and local authorities.

Because of the very low probability of an attack, the school was not prepared and law enforcement was caught off guard, causing a 100-percent reactive response. Because of this incident and the reaction to it, law-enforcement officials around the country became more proactive in their understanding that responding officers must address active shooters immediately. This led to the development of the basic active shooter training that most law-enforcement officers obtain, which, even though it is proactive in its vision, is still a completely reactive tactic. Regardless, it represented a shift in the understanding of probability numbers versus the possibility of an attack in the education sector.

Now that numerous attacks have happened all over the country at schools and universities, law enforcement should have shifted to an even more proactive stance in order to prevent attacks before they happen and develop a deeper understanding for their officers and the community’s citizenry so they are more aware and ready to act in the case of an attack actually happening. Columbine set the shift in motion from training that focused on what the probability of an attack could be to an overall mindset that attacks are possible anywhere at any time. As the average number of injuries for school shootings grows, it should be apparent that a further, more proactive shift in law-enforcement tactics should start to take place.

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