Sobering statistics surrounding U.S. mass shootings

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - Wednesday’s mass shooting in San Bernardino that claimed 14 lives is just the latest in what appears to be a recurring trend in the U.S. The Washington Post reports there was another mass shooting earlier in the day, where a gunman in Savannah, Georgia killed a woman and injured three men.

As a result, first responders routinely practice for situations like this. An entire industry based on active-shooter response training and drills is becoming commonplace.

The joint law enforcement and pre-Super Bowl drill was held just a few weeks ago a Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium. It’s just one of many drills conducted for major events. SFO International Airport held one on Wednesday involving helicopters and K9s from the U.S. Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies in preparation for the NFL’s February event.

Chris Hartman U.S. Coast Guard said the dogs are the most efficient way to mobilize the dogs throughout the Bay Area via helicopter to get them where they need to go in the event of an emergency. They say the Super Bowl would be a hard target with so many first responders ready to react almost instantaneously.

San Bernardino was considered a case where there were many soft targets— basically the same as in situations where you have easy-target victims in a movie theater or in a school.

Chris Grollnek, an active shooting expert, who is featured in a training video, describes an active shooter as an individual going in to cause a great deal of harm to a group of people. “They will almost always choose the most vulnerable group of people to go after,” he says in the video.

Many law enforcement agencies continue active shooter drills, either on their own or as a collaborative effort keeping in mind that the next San Bernardino, Sandy Hook or Aurora shooting could be just around the corner.

According the Washington Post, this year alone, there have been 204 U.S. mass shootings, defined as a shooting where four or more people have been killed. In the last three years, almost 1,300 people have been killed by mass shooters in the U.S. plus 3,600 more wounded for a total of nearly 4,900 shot. That’s enough to fill 10 jumbo jets.