As the students and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary made their way back to school this past Thursday, a video detailing how to survive a shooting has been re-released by the Alabama Department of Homeland Security.
The Alabama Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has re-released a video entitled “Run, Hide, Fight,” (WARNING: Contains graphic material), which details how to survive a shooting and offers options to consider in the event of such a scenario. The video was re-released after a request by Alabama Governor Robert Bentley following the Sandy Hook shootings in December.
In the video, a shooter dressed all in black walks into an office building, pulls a shotgun from his backpack, and begins to shoot people point-blank. Meanwhile, the narrator instructs viewers “If you were ever to find yourself in the middle of an active shooter event, your survival may depend on whether or not you have a plan.” The remainder of the video then goes on to offer several options on how to react and hopefully survive—run, hide, fight. The goal of the video is to teach citizens, law enforcement agents, and employers what to do in this type of emergency.
The video’s release seems insensitive considering its timing, however, with the return of students and teachers to Sandy Hook. As the nation comes to grips with yet another tragedy and the students/teachers/parents of Sandy Hook courageously struggle to find some sense of “normal,” the video brings the horror front-and-center once again.
So why is this video being re-released now? Could it simply be a matter of poor timing? Alabama Governor Bentley had asked state officials to come up with some form of response to handle incidents like Sandy Hook.
“We have been working for some time on a coordinated effort to prevent and respond to situations such as active shooters,” Governor Bentley said in a statement. “This requires not only continued law enforcement training, but also input and preparation among the public.”
According to a report filed by MSNBC, “The video was filmed before the elementary school massacre and Alabama state officials planned for a January distribution date. Following the tragedy in Connecticut, they expedited its release to the public.”
Interestingly, the video wasn’t even original to the Alabama Department of Homeland Security. The video was originally produced by the Houston Police Department just days after the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shootings. The Alabama Department of Homeland Security merely did some editing and added their own introduction to the video, which was originally released on November 5th, well before the Sandy Hook shootings.
While it’s disturbing that we now need instructional videos to teach us how to survive shootings, perhaps there’s another motive for the re-release of this video. After the Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school shootings, President Obama announced the creation of a task force on reducing gun violence, setting mid-January as the deadline for the committee to offer its proposals on how to help prevent more mass shootings. The taskforce’s leader, Vice President Joe Biden, is a long-time gun control proponent who has “pledged action against gun violence.”
So is the release of this video by Alabama’s Department of Homeland Security merely one of great citizen concern following the recent shootings at Sandy Hook, or could there be more to it? Considering the mid-January deadline for the task force’s proposals on reducing gun violence in America, the video definitely reinforces the fear that is pervasive in our society regarding guns—the fear that drives mass shootings and divides a nation over gun control.
Link to article in print:
http://www.gcnlive.com/wp/2013/01/04/barb-adams-run-hide-fight/
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