Increase in Gun-Related Violence Emphasizes Importance of Active Shooter Preparedness

Recent increases in gun-related violence stress the need for the critical infrastructure community to prepare for an active shooter incident. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provides a multitude of online resources and webinars that support capacity building efforts to position organizations to more effectively prepare for, mitigate the impacts of, and respond to an incident.

The CISA Active Shooter Preparedness Program focuses on building capacity to more effectively identify behavioral indicators that may denote a potential attack, potential attack methods, emergency action plan creation, and how to quickly recover from an incident. For example, through the CISA Active Shooter Preparedness web page, stakeholders can access products, tools, videos, and translated resources.  As some of the incidents were perpetrated by an insider known to the organization, CISA provides resources to mitigate the insider threat via the Insider Threat Mitigation web page.  These resources have been accessed nearly five million times, highlighting their relevance and the important role they play in supporting security efforts. Moreover, CISA makes available an online training, IS-907 “Active Shooter: What You Can Do,” hosted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Institute, that provides information regarding the run, hide, fight approach that can assist individuals in taking appropriate action to increase the chance of survival. To date, over one million people have successfully completed the course.  

In addition, CISA provides two-hour, instructor-led webinars that inform organizations about the active shooter threat and how to create effective emergency action plans.  Since September 2019, 58 Active Shooter Preparedness webinars were conducted with 6,824 participants.  These webinars, which have temporarily replaced the in-person workshops due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, can serve as integral components to organizational preparedness. 

Finally, CISA Protective Security Advisors, subject matter experts located across the country, are also available to provide more direct support in identifying potential vulnerabilities and corresponding protective measures.