Active shooter or shooter??

[SUPER BUBBA]

"Active shooter" has a specific definition, specifically an armed individual moving about in a target rich environment indiscriminately shooting people as he or she moves about.

 

[SUPER BUBBA]

That's how we defined it in the department. We did active shooter training once a year while I was there. We usually trained in schools or large office buildings. There is a specific way to move when an active shooter is present as opposed to a barricade or hostage situation. In an "active shooter" scenario the shooter is not contained and is moving about freely engaging targets of opportunity, Again, this requires a totally different response.

 

[Sam Spade]

Different cultures, different demographics, different issues. Trying to transplant Israeli ideas here rarely works.

 

[Sam Spade]

In the near future we will see the term "active shooter" removed from the nomenclature of most firearms training programs.

As long as DoJ and the feebs are using the term to describe things, it's staying with local LE and therefore generic trainers.

 

[smithers599]

"Active shooter" is definitely a stupid term, for three reasons.
First, in many cases the psycho does not use a gun. Was the guy who went around stabbing people in the Minnesota mall an "active shooter with a knife"?
Second, I can't think of what would qualify as a "passive shooter." A guy sitting in his recliner with a beer in one hand, and a pistol in the other hand, deciding to just wave the thing around and not shoot? "Shoot" is an active verb. If somebody is engaging in the act of shooting, then "shooter" is an accurate description; "active" can be assumed.
Third, "active shooter" -- or more correctly "shooter" -- does not describe intent or justification. The off-duty cop who shot the Minnesota mall stabber was a "shooter," and he was definitely active about it. But we don't classify him as an "active shooter."

The term annoys me like Hillary Clinton's voice, but I am resigned to just going with it, because it has become part of the cultural language. Everybody pretty much gets the idea.

 

[SUPER BUBBA]

There you have it. It actually has a meaning. If the call goes out "active shooter at the high school" everyone knows exactly what's going on and what the response is going to be.