Our deep gratitude should go out to the members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for their professionalism and valor in handling the incident on October 1.
There is no training to prepare for an incident of this magnitude. From a command standpoint, a tabletop exercise can prepare them for the aftermath of an incident of this type, but line officers can only rely on their sensory skills and experience when they first arrive.
There is no commonality in the incidents of mass casualties. A marathon in Boston; a school in Newtown; multiple buildings at Virginia Tech, and now an outdoor event in Las Vegas are completely different environments which need to be addressed in an attempt to prevent a recurrence of mass casualty events. There will be second amendment questions to be answered, but the reality is that the method of causing the carnage is not limited to firearms. At Ohio State University a vehicle and a knife were used, only at the University of Texas was a “sniper’s nest” used to accomplish their intended goal.
Nevada actually has a codified law requiring that venues provide police officers at events for which the venue is responsible for the costs, but another question which will be looked at is the egress methods in an outdoor venue. Ingress requires controls to avoid a stampede similar to the one in Cincinnati in 1979 at a Who concert, but indoor facilities have the ability to offer multiple exit points, while limiting ingress.
Whether it is staffed fencing, that can be opened in the case of an emergency, or sliding doors built into walls, the emergency evacuation of a large contingent of people needs to be addressed. It is estimated that there were twenty-two thousand people in the confined space at the time of the shooting.
This specific incident had no way of being prevented. The individual was not on the radar of any law enforcement agency. He apparently transitioned the rifles from semi-automatic to full auto capability. The investigation will determine how and when he obtained the weapons that he used.
The public screams to know the rationale for this unthinkable incident, but there is no logic that will ever be found because a logical person would not have conceived an incident of this type.
A job well done. #lvmpd #clarkcountynevadaso