Active Shooter and Workplace Violence

Published: September 7, 2018

Active Shooter and Workplace Violence


Over the past 10 years mass shootings have been happening across the country in night clubs, movie theaters and even our schools. It has sparked debates on gun control, and lots of people feel very strongly about their opinions on both sides of the debates. I’m not going to get into the debate on if we should have stricter gun control laws. I think we can all agree that this is a problem, but have we planned for it in our own workplace? According to the BLS, violence and other injuries by persons is now the second most common fatal event in the workplace behind motor vehicle accidents.

With the recent school shooting in Noblesville, IN, it has once again got me thinking about this topic. My best friend has a daughter in the Noblesville school system. Thankfully she is only in 1st grade and this happened at the middle school. On the day of this tragic event not only was my best friend’s daughter at school, but so was his wife volunteering for the school’s field day. I was over at his house the evening of the shooting and talked to his wife about what happened. She talked about how prepared the school was at quickly locking down all the schools in the district, not just the school that the incident happened. I was shocked to hear that the schools now have active shooter drills to practice what to do if it happens. I recall having tornado drills in school, but our kids now have active shooter drills!

What would you do if there was an active shooter situation in your work place? If it can happen in our schools with kids who aren’t even old enough to purchase guns, it could happen in our work place too. Do you have a plan in place? Do you practice this plan? How do you handle a situation with a disgruntled employee or customer? What happens if someone makes a threat to come in and shoot people? Over the last 2 years I have heard of two separate situations on construction sites where someone has made a threat to bring a gun in and shoot someone.

The first situation wasn’t handled properly at all. An employee of subcontractor 1 got into an argument with an employee of subcontractor 2. Things escalated and one of the employees said he was going home to get his gun and was coming back to shoot the other. The general contractor was notified, and the police were called. Which is great, the problem was that other subcontractors working on the project that didn’t hear or see the argument knew nothing about the situation. It wasn’t until almost 2 hours later that they heard what happened. Thankfully the threats were just threats and the employee didn’t show back up with a gun. He was removed from the project, and nothing else was heard about it. Why weren’t the other subcontractors notified? What if he would have shown back up with a gun and started shooting? Do you think the General Contractor’s superintendent would ever be able to sleep at night knowing he could have warned everyone on the project and didn’t?

The second situation I heard about was handled a lot better. An employee became disgruntled over an alleged racial comment. The superintendent for the contractor was notified and went out to the project to investigate the allegations that same day with a union representative. After talking with the superintendent toward the end of the day, the disgruntled employee told another employee he was bringing a gun to work the following day. The other employee notified the foreman of the comments the disgruntled employee made shortly after before leaving for the day. The foreman quickly notified the superintendent of the situation, but the disgruntled employee had already left for the day. The superintendent also quickly responded to the situation. The general contractor was made aware of the situation. The local police department was also notified and asked to assist the situation. On the following morning when the disgruntled employee arrived at the project he was greeted by the superintendent and two local police officers as he got out of his vehicle. The disgruntled employee was searched for any weapons along with his vehicle. Thankfully he did not have a gun. The disgruntled employee was terminated and escorted onto the project to gather his personal tools by the police officers and back out to his vehicle. Where he was instructed by the police to not come back. The police then followed the disgruntled employee off the project. In this situation the superintendent also had a second job as a full-time sheriff at night. He knew how to handle the situation and took the proper actions.

These are just two examples of real situations that I have heard about with clients that I work with. How many more situations have happened that I didn’t hear about, or that weren’t brought to anyone’s attention. Do you have an active shooter plan in place at your work? Do you practice this plan? At Trinity Safety Group we can assist you with tailoring a plan that fits your exact situation. No two work environments are going to be exactly alike or follow the exact same plan. Trinity Safety Group has employees with not only prior military experience, but also have had training on the FEMA Incident Command System.

By: Russ Howell (Sr. Safety Facilitator)