Untrained civilians respond to chaos of simulated Florida mass shooting: I cannot even imagine

This went off the rails. A Florida sheriff’s office posted a wild video of civilian academy students participating in a simulated mass shooting last Tuesday — with participants screaming and haphazardly firing blanks at each other. The jarring footage — set to blaring rock anthems — shows one part of a six-week civilian academy program designed by the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office to give residents a behind-the-scenes look at the reality of modern law enforcement. “Every year they’re surprised at how nervous they got, how much their heart rate got up, how much their adrenaline went up,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson said of the intensity of the exercise.“And that’s a lot of what you see with the smiles, that’s like a nervous laughter.

“You know, when you don’t know what to do, sometimes you’re just kind of laughing at yourself.They know there’s no real danger, but still.”The academy students are a motley crew of community members — some are retired teachers or public sector employees, but none are planning a career in law enforcement. During the program’s second week, the focus shifted to the school resource unit, plunging unsuspecting citizens into a pressurized mass shooting threat scenario.An actual school cop played the role of the active shooter, while youths eyeing a career in law enforcement — known as local Explorer Cadets — acted as the terrified, screaming students.It was up to the unsuspecting civilian academy to navigate the chaos and neutralize the threat with training pistols that fired blanks. To dial up the terror, the department rigged the area with “shot boxes” — devices that blast blinding strobe lights and the deafening crack of simulated gunfire.Participants even had to fumble with keys to unlock “classroom” doors under extreme duress.The sheriff’s office noted that a person loses 30% of their fine motor control during a high-stress, life-or-death situation. “That’s part of ...