Definition
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI 2019) defined an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area (p. 2). This definition excludes shootings that occur in the furtherance of various crimes, such as gang and drug activity.
Introduction
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI 2018, 2019) identified 277 active shooter incidents in the USA from 2000 to 2018, most of which (44%) occurred in commerce locations (see “Workplace Violence: Past and Current Employees” in this encyclopedia). Approximately one-third of the shooters in business environments were current or former employees or had grievances against the businesses (FBI 2019; Silver et al. 2018). In addition to commerce areas, active shooter incidents have occurred in education environments (24%), healthcare facilities (4%), and government property (10%) which employ teachers, administrators, military, doctors, nurses, and various office staff...
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References
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Blair, J. P., & Schweit, K. W. (2014). A study of active shooter incidents, 2000–2013. Washington, DC: Texas State University and Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice. Available at: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-study-2000-2013-1.pdf/view
Department of Homeland Security. (2008). Active shooter how to respond. Available at: https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/active_shooter_booklet.pdf
Department of Homeland Security. (2017). Active shooter recovery guide. Retrieved from: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/active-shooter-recovery-guide-08-08-2017-508.pdf
Department of Justice, Office of Victims of Crime. (2015). Partnerships and planning checklist. Available at https://www.ovc.gov/pubs/mvt-toolkit/PartnershipsPlanningChecklist.pdf
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2018). Quick look: 250 active shooter incidents in the United States from 2000 to 2017. Available at: https://www.fbi.gov/about/partnerships/office-of-partner-engagement/active-shooter-incidents-graphics
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2019). Active shooter incidents in the United States in 2018. Available at: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-in-the-us-2018-041019.pdf/view
Romano, S., Levi-Minzi, M., Rugala E., & Van Hasselt, V. (2011). Workplace violence prevention. Available at: https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/workplace-violence-prevention-readiness-and-response
Silver, J., Simons, A., & Craun, S. (2018). A study of pre-attack behaviors of active shooters in the United States between 2000 and 2013. Available at: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/pre-attack-behaviors-of-active-shooters-in-us-2000-2013.pdf/view
Spanheimer, J. (2018, Dec. 5). Active shooter response: Developing a tactical playbook. Police Chief online. Available at: http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/active-shooter-response-playbook/
Stowell, H. G. (2017, May). After an active shooter. Security Management, 61(4). Available at: https://sm.asisonline.org/Pages/After-an-Active-Shooter.aspx.
Further Reading
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2017). Making prevention a reality: Identifying, assessing, and managing the threat of targeted attacks. Available at: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/making-prevention-a-reality.pdf/view
Modell, D. A. (2013). The psychology of the active killer. Law Enforcement Executive Forum, 13(4), 1–9. Retrieved from https://iletsbeiforumjournal.com/images/Issues/FreeIssues/LEEF_13.4_December_2013.pdf.
Schweit, K. W. (2013, May 07). Addressing the problem of the active shooter. Retrieved from https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/addressing-the-problem-of-the-active-shooter
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O’Donnell, K.W. (2019). Workplace Violence: Preparing, Mitigating, Responding, and Recovering from Active Shooter/Terrorist Threats. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_102-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_102-1
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