In what some might call a sad sign of the times, bleeding control classes and active shooter training sessions could soon become as common as earthquake drills and learning CPR.
America's recent mass shootings have only underscored the importance of this particular form of preparedness, now taking shape with hands-on training sessions--such as the one held Thursday in a San Diego Gas & Electric conference room.
Dozens of security professionals with the San Diego chapter of ASIS, American Society For Industrial Security, held their monthly meeting with a 2-hour training devoted entirely to active shooter response and mass casualty triage.
The security professionals in attendance represent some of our area's largest companies and organizations.
ASIS San Diego Chapter President Matt Klock organized the training session after returning home from the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas where he witnessed the horror of the shooting first hand.
Attendees all applied tourniquets to their arms and neighbors' arms and then packed holes, similar to a bullet wound, with gauze.
The training run by Phokus Research Group is in itself proof of changing times.
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Rob Hanna, who retired from Navy Special Operations, initially started the company to outfit our troops overseas in war with top of the line trauma kits. But now is working with local governments, businesses, and even schools.
"So you bring the conversation up with your family, you ask your kids, your spouse, 'What do we do if we hear gunfire?'" said Hanna. "You ask your co-workers 'What do we do if we're in the office and, God forbid, we hear gunfire, what's the plan?'"
The Phokus training team helps deliver the answers to those questions with expertise and products originally meant for the front lines of battlefields, but now all-too applicable at home.
