A few days ago, the Department of Justice released their report on the response to the Uvalde shooting in 2022. While we aren’t all working for public safety or emergency management agencies, there are a few important lessons we should all take away from the report. I’ll cover some of the more important ones, but if you do work for an agency, you’d better read the whole thing without skimming!
Before I get into the lessons, let’s get one big thing out of the way: the report didn’t say that semi-automatic rifles should be banned. Every anti-gun organization was quick to take to social media sharing news stories about the DOJ report, and nearly all of them had that takeaway. They basically told us they didn’t read the report without telling us they didn’t read the report.
The biggest takeaway is that you need a plan. Things obviously don’t always go according to plan, but having a plan means you’re thinking about the future. When you think about the future with friends, family, and coworkers, you put your heads together. You gather resources. You build working relationships. So, even if you come across something you didn’t plan for, you’ve got all that other stuff going for you. So, make plans!
But, making plans and practicing parts of them are two different things. The emergency managers in and near Uvalde actually had pretty good plans, but some of the agencies in the area weren’t on the same page. Some lacked important training, while others had training that wasn’t in keeping with the plan. So, even if you’re only concerned with keeping your family safe, run some drills. Teach your kids what to do and have them practice things you’d want them to do in a home invasion, shooting at the store or carjacking.
Here’s a great video that deeply explains the importance of practicing your plans:
The key thing: you don’t want everyone’s “mental hard drive” to be empty.
Another huge lesson is the importance of mental health and wellness. There are many people out there today who are well enough and resilient enough to get through their day to day life without problems, but would utterly fall apart under the additional stress of an emergency. In decades past, Hollywood stereotypically made most female characters this way, but if you think about it, we all know men who act like that.
I can’t go into great depth about how you can be more resilient and keep yourself out of the “emotional basement” during emergencies (I do that here if you’re interested). If I could teach every person in the world one skill, it wouldn’t be shooting. It would be Box Breathing. Being able to take a quick breather/meditation and calm the mind down can make for far better decisions under stress.
Sadly, the Uvalde cops should have been taught Box Breathing plus a bunch of other skills to maintain their brain during and after such emergencies, but few did.
Finally, communication is key. The Uvalde response team(s) didn’t communicate with each other, with the public, and with the victims very well at all. Some cops showed up to the scene and didn’t have any idea that there was still a breathing active shooter inside, and were never told this (“Go work the perimeter”). Public information officers didn’t form a joint public information effort, and gave out conflicting information to the media. Even families were sometimes told their kid was alive when they were in fact not.
Being ready to communicate with loved ones after a personal emergency is important. This requires some basic planning, and maybe even equipment if you’re thinking of a big enough emergency. You should also know that it’s NOT a good idea to have long, heartfelt conversations with cops after a defensive shooting (In fact, don’t talk to them other than to tell them you’re not going to talk to them). Failing at communicating or failing to NOT communicate didn’t mean any consequences for Texas cops, but it could put you in prison.
Did you read the report? If so, what big lessons do you think we should take from it?