Mass shooting incidents in the United States always happen in schools. Perpetrators can be anyone, from that lonely geek to a disgruntled employee. Efforts to secure campuses range from stricter measures at allowing people to get inside the school, or an ongoing campaign to allow students to carry concealed weapons while going to class. Such actions to minimize such incidents is subject to debate between gun control and anti-gun control advocates. But while the debate goes on, it's up to the local police to develop plans in order to respond quickly to school shootings.

The San Diego Police (California) is very much aware of this and have an Active Shooter Program in place 2005 since according to The Mesa Press, the student publication of San Diego Mesa College. it is a program that is conducted every six months with the police offers training with civilian volunteers and full sensory overload with the effects used to get the volunteers used to firearms sounds, and how to avoid being a casualty in case such incident happens.

The first few minutes are crucial and police have trained themselves to be familiar with the layout of the campuses in order to respond fast before any gunman can cause loss of life.

The Police officers train with airsoft to keep down on costs, and they use "true to life" airsoft guns which are replicas of weapons that they have in their armories. The San Diego Police resorted to airsoft as training weapons as they can cut down on costs, rather than relying on simunitions that cost US$2.50 a pop and they spend US$6,250 per training with simunitions. With budget cuts, airsoft is the way to go as it provides the same level experience and realism.

With the support of the local airsoft community 858airsoft (www.858airsoft.com), the police have ready volunteers for their trainings. This good cooperation between the local police department and the airsoft community builds good relationships between the groups and of course, get the support for airsoft and police training activities.

If only this gets replicated in many communities all over the world, airsoft could be appreciated as very valuable tool for real life training.

Read more of this story at The Mesa Press (photo above is theirs).