Gunshot Alarm as a solution to Possible Active Shooters

Wayne Crenshaw recently wrote an article for Emergency Management magazine. The article was about a new system to help alert people to a possible active shooter situation:

"Military engineers at Robins think they have developed a way to save lives in an active-shooter situation.

Five Robins airmen and one from Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama worked for six months to develop a gunshot alarm that sounds an alert when shots are being fired. The Air Force currently is testing the device to determine whether is could be used at bases.

They entered the system into a contest sponsored by the U.S. State Department that sought technological solutions to issues of security and diplomacy. The Robins-led team was among six teams picked from more than 500 entries to present its system at a State Department conference in March. The team won an award for having the most economically feasible entry.

Capt. Chris Perrine, a program manager at Maxwell, is the only team member who is not an engineer.

He said gunfire cannot be heard throughout a building the way people may think. Even if people hear it, he said, they may not recognize the sound.

“People often don’t respond to the initial sound of a gunshot as an emergency,” Perrine said. “They respond with curiosity, which of course is dangerous to them.”

This is a very interesting idea. I do agree that people do not react when a gunshot goes off. Things it could sound similar to: backfire of a car exhaust, slamming door or even a stack of books. Another factor that many people don't consider is that most of the populace have never heard a gunshot, so they have nothing to compare this noise to. A "gunshot alarm" will be able to give people a sense of the situation, much like we cannot hear a fire across a building, but we all know what to do when a fire alarm goes off.

Now some will lament this as a "comment on our society" and it is unfortunate that they can not adapt to the times. No one wants to deal with the threat of violence, be it guns, knifes or sheer physical intimidation. One sure way to deter this threat is not to wish it away, but to be prepared for it. This is a very good first step.

Good Luck and Good Hunting