Columbine High School: Massacre Research Assignment (Term Paper Sample)

Columbine Massacre
In 1999, two students from Columbine High School shocked the United States after they shot and killed dozens of students and a teacher while injuring many others. The incident captured the attention of many people as well as the media because it involved students who had no history of crime activities, unlike other massacre activities which are perpetrated by high-profile criminals (DeLisi 2002). According to Clabaugh and Clabaugh (2005), it is the conviction of many that the Sheriff's Office was in a position to predict and prevent the killings.This is because the police from various Denver-area agencies were alerted as soon as the first shot occurred but their response failed to contain the situation in a relatively short time as it would have expected.
DeLisi (2002) explains that the law enforcement personnel did not enter the school to stop the shooters thirty minutes into the incident. Thus, the police have been criticized for failing to use the right tactics when faced with a situation with an active shooter. For instance, the police surrounded the building and set up a perimeter to contain the damage. This was an ineffective tactic as it is mostly suitable for containing hostage incidents where the victims are barricaded in a room. According to DeLisi (2002), this approach did not consider the fact that the motive of the attackers was not to take hostages but to kill, and it was, therefore, an ineffective strategy of containing the situation.
The post-massacre analysis of the Columbine shooting suggested that the police were not trained on the basics of containing a shootout incident. For instance, instead of engaging with the shooters, they waited for the SWAT team members to arrive and actively respond to the situation( DeLisi 2002).Clabaugh and Clabaugh (2005) argue that the police should have employed the immediate action rapid deployment tactic which calls for a four-person team to move towards the shooting scene optimally in a diamond-shaped wedge. Also, it was evident that the attack was a culmination of a long period of planning, bomb building and firearms acquisitions which would have been prevented had the law enforcement agencies exercised some due diligence in intelligence-gathering prior to the attack
Accordingly, the massacre brought a realization that law enforcement leaders need to be equipped with skills of handling future active-shooter incidences. For instance, it is, important to train the police officers on how to move toward the source of gunfire as well as how to neutralize the shooter as fast as possible. Blair, Nichols, Burns and Curnutt (2013) explain that the goal of the police should be to stop the shooting at all costs, and to prevent the aggressor from killing the already wounded victims. This active protocol has proved more successful in comparison with the with the archaic one of surrounding the building where the shoot-out is taking place.
Responses to terrorist incidences require tact and control. However, the involvement of many agencies slows down the process of decision making (Blair et al., 2013). It is therefore of paramount importance that the various stakeholders seek to streamline the process of decision making so that the decisions regarding the safety of the victims can be obtained as quickly as possible. In other words, since active shooter situations involve multi-agency response, the relevant stakeholders should strive for consistent policies that cut across the board. In addition, rapid and secure communication is essential to ensure a coordinated response (Jacobs et al., 2013). Also, the services of the Emergency Medical Response team should be sought to accord medical attention to the wounded victims, and this would help in preventing further fatalities.
To sum it, the police officers need to be trained on how to respond to dynamic active shooting situations appropriately. Blair and Martaindale (2013) proposes that it is always safe to respond and assemble in contact teams which are typically made up of four officers, to be able to neutralize the shooter. Besides, the officers should be to trained to make split-second decisions that would lead to saving lives.Accordingly, police agencies should continually modify their policies and training to reflect the lessons that are learned from every tragedy. Ultimately, all the decisions should be based on the fact that that more delays in responding to the situation may result in multiple additional fatalities.