On August 24 2018, a report compiled by the Clark County Fire Department and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) Agency National Exercise Division was released to the public. A copy of the report can be found here. The purpose of the report is twofold: First, to analyze the emergency response to the Route 91 Harvest Festival Mass Shooting. Second, to present observations and recommendations with the […]
In January 2018, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released a preliminary report on the Octobers 1st 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. A copy of the preliminary report as well as an analysis can be found in an earlier post on this site dated March 7, 2018. On August 3, 2018 the final report was released. A copy of the final report can be found here.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently released the world’s first active shooter/hostile event response (ASHER) standard. This consensus-based standard provides holistic guidance on community planning as well as active shooter/hostile event response and event recovery. NFPA 3000™ (PS) is multi-dimensional and addresses topics such as: identifying hazards and assessing vulnerabilities; resource management; command level incident management; competencies for first responders; and post-incident recovery. The scope of the standard is as follows: The scope of this standard […]
On May 18th of 2018, seventeen year old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a student at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, opened fire in an art classroom at the high school killing 10 and wounding 13. The firearms used in the shooting, a shotgun and .38-caliber revolver, were both legally owned by Pagourtzis’ father. Although Pagourtzis’ choice of firearms is somewhat atypical for mass school shootings, the source is not. As it turns out, it […]
After the mass shooting on October 1, 2017 at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) undertook a reexamination of its prior determinations on the classification of bump-fire-stocks and similar devices (bump-stock-type devices). As a result, ATF has proposed a new rule reclassifying such devices as machineguns. Notice of the proposed rulemaking was published in the March 29th Federal Register and can be found […]
In January of 2018, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) released its preliminary report on the shooting that occurred in October 2017 at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. The report clearly and concisely lays out the events leading up to the shooting, the shooting itself and the subsequent investigation. A full copy of the preliminary report can be found here. Three findings stand out. First, there was nothing remarkable about the […]
Loss of life is always tragic, even more so when failure to take a simple step may be a major factor in the number of lives lost. On December 28th of 2017, New York City witnessed its worst fire related death toll in a quarter century. A total of thirteen people perished in a residential fire caused by a toddler playing with the burners on a stove. The loss of life occurred despite the fact that […]
The Master replied, “What is necessary is to rectify names.” . . . “If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.” –The Analects of Confucius, Book 13 Chapter 3 Although the above quote applied to the ordering of political and social status, as well as the rights and responsibilities occasioned […]
The above headline appeared in the October 13, 2017 edition of the NY Post, less than two weeks after the horrific shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas. The NY Post article can be accessed here. Both incidents have something in common: the central role that improvisation played in responding to the emergencies. Put succinctly: “To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.” — Isaac Asimov To be […]
An earlier post introduced the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), a public-private partnership between the United States Department of State and the Private Sector. See http://www.excelsioradvisory.com/overseas-security-advisory-council/. While OSAC’s focus is on international security issues, there are a number of additional open source intelligence resources available to organizations contemplating doing business overseas. The World Fact Book. Published by the Central Intelligence Agency, the World Fact Book (WFB) provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, […]
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