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Surge in active shooter training, gun sales

Posted at 5:13 PM, Feb 04, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-04 21:57:37-05

Do you know what to do in the agonizing minutes a shooter is on the loose and you're waiting for police?

"I think one of the things that lets evil kind of continue in our world is when good people do nothing," said Mellisa McGrew from the KC metro area.

That’s why on Thursday a group of women chose to get active shooter training through Mitigation Dynamics Inc.

They’re not alone in wanting training.

"After every incident, all of the sudden the calls start coming in, so society is how it is, it kind of fades off a little bit, and then when something happens again, the demand continues to increase," said the co-founder of Mitigation Dynamics Inc., Ty Moeder.

The group teaches the "out" principles:

  • Figure out: Assess the situation to put together what is happening.
  • Get out: After you figure out what is going on find a way to escape the situation
  • Hide out: If you can’t escape, find a place to hide. Avoid hiding on the floor in case you need to run.
  • Spread out: Avoid the temptation to group together. The more spread out people are, the less targets the shooter has
  • Take out: This is a personal choice you have to make for yourself.

At Frontier Justice in Lee’s Summit, more people are choosing to prepare themselves to “take out” a shooter. They are seeing a surge in first-time buyers and women interested in carrying a gun.

"With mass shootings and things like that, they think, 'Well the time is now, I need to quit sitting on this and I need to act and do something,'" said the co-owner of Frontier Justice, Bren Brown.

The surge is not just in the KC metro area. The amount of firearm background checks set a record high for 2015, more than 23 million. Brown says if you choose to buy a gun, it’s important to train on getting a gun.

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Ali Hoxie can be reached at ali.hoxie@kshb.com.

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