Metro Detroit businesses take part in active shooter trainings
LIVONIA, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) — Metro Detroit businesses are taking part in more active shooter trainings.
The city of Livonia held one of these seminars, where employers were educated on how to be best prepared for an active shooting situation.
Dr. Kenneth Wolf says it is about adapting to the world we live in.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 100 mass shootings nationwide this year.
Businesses around Michigan play a critical role in keeping their own employees, customers and communities safe.
"When we see these mass shooting events, active shooter events, people often have a sense of fear and intimidation and sometimes terror," said Dr. Wolf.
Dr. Wolf is the CEO of the incident management team in West Bloomfield.
He says active shooter trainings are crucial to protecting people.
He's been helping small and large businesses in Michigan learn about what behaviors to look out for, how to address them and how to best keep yourself safe for decades.
"Well, if you ever get involved in a very violent and terrifying event, we have human reactions of either fight or flight," said Dr. Wolf. "You either fight the threat or flee and get out of the kill zone."
That is the saying most people are familiar with: run, hide, fight.
"It can happen within seconds," said Brian Kahn of Livonia's emergency preparedness team. "It can happen within minutes. It is breaking out of the freeze that people might have and looking around and figuring out what can we do and what can we do now because we need to do something now."
Kahn said an active shooter situation lasts two to six minutes, so every step you make is essential for your well-being.
"We really lose sight of what is going on around us, and it is being situationally aware," said Kahn. "It is picking up our heads from our phone and looking around, picking up on things going on around you and understanding that and breaking out of our little bubble; our sphere of life and seeing that."
The training was put on in part by Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA).
"The goal of these seminars is prevention," said Kahn. "We do not want any company to fall into an active shooter situation or be on the news or something along those lines. It is all about prevention."
The takeaway from the seminar is to not be a deer in headlights, but rather know what you're going to do before the situation happens.
