Texas university posts intense training video for shootings. ‘A little terrifying’
Baylor University released a campus shooter training video Thursday that includes a gunman with an assault rifle firing his weapon, terrorizing students and professors.
It’s intense.
A message at the beginning of the video even warns viewers of that.
People on social media reacted to the video with surprise while others criticized the university’s gun policy. In 2016, Texas passed a law to allow gun owners to carry concealed handguns on university campuses, but Baylor opted out.
The video starts with a gunman sitting in his vehicle and loading a rifle as students study and go to classes in the background.
The shooter walks through campus carrying a bag with the gun — before pulling it out and firing at a female student who was sitting outside the university’s science building and talking on the phone with her mother.
After the first shots are fired at the student, the gunman chases people through the lobby of the building and jiggles locked doors to classrooms in the building as he fires his gun at the ceiling.
Police rush to the university with military-style rifles and begin looking for the shooter.
Interspersed throughout the video are lessons about what to do during a shooting, including how to hide, respond to police and defend yourself.
The video reaches its climax when the shooter approaches the door of a science lab. A student turns to the camera to share a lesson about surviving an active shooting.
“Defending yourself should always be a last resort,” a student says. “But if you have to, fight for your life. Be aggressive and don’t fight fair. This is about survival. Your goal is to distract enough to separate him from his weapon. So grab anything that you can use to fight.”
Students grab a fire extinguisher, glass vials and even a glass with bubbling liquid from a science experiment. They hide behind a desk as the shooter walks closer to their door.
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Just as the gunman is about to open the door, police burst inside the building and shoot him.
“It’s critically important that each of us knows our role in being prepared and working together to keep one another safe as members of the Baylor family,” Baylor University President Linda Livingstone says at the end of the video.
The video is part of the university’s new public information campaign called “Sic ‘em for Safety,” an homage to the school’s mantra “Sic ‘em Bears.”
“We understand the subject matter of the video is sensitive,” Mark Childers, the university’s vice president of public safety and security, said in a news release. “Our goal is to ensure that students, faculty and staff are educated, prepared and confident in their response should a violent attack occur here or any place they find themselves.”
People on social media were surprised by the video while others criticized the campus-carry policy.
On Reddit, one user said the video was effective but “unnerving” to see the shooting portrayed on campus.
“It seemed pretty effective to me, but it was unnerving and a little terrifying to see an incident happen on campus, even though it was fake,” the person wrote.
Another person on Twitter said it’s “not normal” for students and faculty to have to worry about a mass shooting.
This story was originally published September 5, 2019 at 5:06 PM.