Schools across the nation are reacting to inform students, staff and parents about the safety on school campuses following the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sent out a Campus Safety newsletter via email to students and staff with ways to stay safe on campus.
The university offers self-defense training as well as active shooter training, which UWM Chief Police Joseph LeMire says should be mandated.
"After an event you hear about different heroes that were in the room or people who helped something, and its typically not law enforcement," he notes. "It's the people that were there at the scene when it happened and some people stepped up and took some action that ended up saving a lot of people and that's why we have to train the civilian population."
Chief LeMire says information about threats made, even if they aren't arrestable offenses, must be made accessible to law enforcement. "The pillars for me are, not necessarily gun control, but there are areas that prevent people from getting the guns," he says. "I think it's that gray area of giving law enforcement, mental health, court systems the ability to do something with the information so then we can keep guns out of the hands of the people who have made a threat."
