CLARKSVILLE, Ark. — With more and more mass shootings happening across the country a Clarksville business decided to bring in law enforcement to teach active shooter preparedness seminars for their employees.
It was after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting that owners here at the Clarksville Cinema knew they wanted to offer an active shooter preparedness seminar for their employees.
“With all the stuff going on in the news, especially here lately with all these active shooter events, we wanted to make the employees comfortable that they knew what to do in case there was an active shooter episode,” said Van Hill.
Co-owner Van Hill felt the active shooter preparedness seminar was very informative for him and his employees. He remembers the movie theater shooting that happened in Aurora, Colorado where a dozen people died. The 10-year anniversary of that shooting is later this month.
“You can’t be too aware of things like that. You don’t want to scare anybody, but we want to have them realize it’s a real possibility even though it’s a low probability,” he said.
Corporal Jonia Smith with the Clarksville Police Department led the seminar saying that knowing what to do in these situations is extremely important. He says important words to live by in an active shooter situation are avoid, deny, defend and win.
“If you are avoiding the situation, the active shooter, the active killer you aren’t going to get hurt. If you’re denying the situation, you are locking the door, you’re not going to get hurt, you are barricaded in the door, you aren’t going to get hurt because he can’t get to you. And the worst-case scenario, defend yourself. You know, don’t fight fair,” said Smith.
Clarksville Police are willing to do the same active shooter preparedness seminars for others in town. They say just call the police department if you are interested.
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