Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s speaking engagement in Emery County was sponsored by the Emery County Sheriff’s Office and Hunter power plant. Plant employees and police officers from Emery County and the surrounding area attended the event.
Grossman is a retired Army Ranger and has been public speaking and writing books since 1998. His books were available for sale and he signed copies for those present.
Grossman speaks about violence and the many school shootings, workplace shootings and other places where mass murders have occurred in recent years. He doesn’t want any more school shootings to occur. “Can we take the lessons we’ve learned and apply them. Most schools are in denial. Do you know the last time a child was killed by fire in a school? It was 1957. We have fire drills and teach children what to do in case of a fire, but they aren’t taught what to do in a violent situation. There have been a quarter of a million injuries from school shootings.”
“Jonesboro, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Sandy Hook, they are slaughters, they are massacres. We need to call them what they are. They aren’t shooters. They are murderers. A shooter is someone who kills a deer on the deer hunt. These people are murderers. Call them what they are. They are horrible criminals. Don’t call them shooters.
“Twenty seven died at Sandy Hook. Children have more chance to die by violence in the school than by any other possible cause of death. We are in denial. We need to keep kids safe. We need to keep kids safe from massacres. They teach fire safety, but we need to prepare for violence.
“In 1975, there had never been a multiple homicide in Canada. In the 1980s there were two double homicides in Finland. Female violence has grown. In the 1990s it began to explode. An 11 year old and a 13 year old stole a van, they were little kids, they drove across town, broke into a law enforcement officers home and stole ammo and went to the school, popped in the back door and pulled the fire alarm. They got down in killer (sniper) position and waited for the kids to come out. The doors locked behind the students. They couldn’t get back into the school. They were taught they couldn’t prop the door open if they went outside for a fire drill. The fire department will say you can’t do it, but do it anyway. Five die at Jonesborough, 13 die at Columbine; 17 are killed in Germany by a 19 year old; 15 are killed in Germany by a 17 year old. You’ll hear people say we need tougher gun laws. Germany has strict gun laws and they didn’t work. Anyone who tells you that you can solve mass murders with gun laws is ignorant. It’s not about what’s in the hand, but what’s in the head.
“Children are committing crimes more than any time in human history. We need to deter. Armed cops keep kids safe. There’s not one case of multiple murder with an armed cop. What do these murderers fear? they fear failure. If they don’t get a body count, they died for nothing.
“It’s not business as usual. Utah has armed educators. It’s a good thing. There’s not a single incident in Utah. Teachers need training. Murderers know when there’s a cop. They don’t know what teachers are armed.
“Cops are trained 10 hours on the range. It’s not enough. There’s a national syndrome. Ten hours training isn’t enough.
“After Sandy Hook, Ohio asked for teachers to train. Across America we’re arming our educators. We need to do it right. Eventually the kids know who has the gun. Carrying a gun is a pain, it’s hard to carry. Who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy. When the cops show up they’re all civilians. How do you choose who can have a gun or not? If armed people at school do it right, it can deter.
“Every school should have lock down drills. It gets kids thinking about it. The ultimate achievement is the crime that didn’t happen. There should be outrage. Get mad, this is not normal and it’s not right. Detection is next. You hear of cases where bombs are found. Tips are given. If you know of one or two of these incidents, how many are there nationwide. Kids aren’t sophisticated, they’re kids. It’s not normal.
“Defeat, no more of these. The kids in Spokane, Wash. asked the cops, “How did you get here so fast,?” Rapid response. Get mad, it’s not normal. You won’t go to school and shoot our kids.
“They’ll tell you that violent crime is going down. It’s not. Advanced medical technology is saving people that would have died in the past. If we were still living with 1970s medical technology, we would lose four times the number of people. If we were living with 1930s medical technology and no ambulance service we would lose 10 times as many people to violent crime.
“If anyone talks about murder rates, they are misrepresenting the situation. It’s worse than it looks.
“Every couple years there’s more, there’s more everywhere (murders). Defeat, detect and save and still every couple of years there’s more. Where in the hell are these killers coming from? Doctors told Congress, sick video games and sick movies create sick kids.
“A school killer’s profile. Drop out of life and immerse yourself in sick video games and sick movies. The sick kid gets sicker and sicker. The medical community told Congress. This is the new factor. Columbine-13 people.The teacher should have put those kids in the office and locked the door and 12 kids would be alive today. That library was a fishbowl. The killers want a body count. The media shouldn’t make celebrities of killers. They give them what they want.
“At Sandy Hook, he shot out a glass door and went in. Since 1960 there’s been a film that’s shatter proof that you can put on the glass. www.clear_armor.com; a laminate film that’s shatter proof and they can’t get in; it’s $26 a square foot and it can keep people alive.
“Do you have any idea what we spend on fire. Fire proofing school buildings doubles the cost of a school. This film is a small amount. They won’t spend the money to prepare for violence. We need to get mad. We don’t do anything to prepare for violence.
“At Columbine, they mocked and tormented and executed those children. They laughed and roared as the children died. What kind of a sick person does it take to murder. What kind of a sick human walks into a school and kills 6 year old kids.
“It starts young, with the kids watching TV, the news, human death and suffering. They see sick movies and what are they doing while watching movies. They are eating popcorn and candy. They are salivating, their thought is at a basic level. There’s millions of kids out there, that’s all they’ve seen is human death and suffering. What happens in a video game when you shoot someone? you get points, you get rewarded.
“What happens in real life when someone gets hurt. A sports game, out on the playground, if someone gets hurt it stops play. The injured player is taken care of, they get help for them. In video games, you get points, it’s pathological play and it’s sick, sick, sick. They blow the heads off and get points.
“Coroners are desensitized as they do their job, but they don’t take pleasure in it. These kids are conditioned, human death and suffering, vicious suffering.
“There are good kids out there.
“I wrote a book on killing in 1995. I predicted a generation of murderers. The media says stronger gun laws. I say stop teaching our kids to kill. The colleges are deterring shootings with armed cops. Colleges without cops are three-four times more likely to have a shooting. Put your kids in a college with armed cops. These kids will give us pure hell in the workplace. Mass murders are doubling every generation. This generation will make you feel the pain. There’s been shootings in the workout place, the old folks home, the day cares.
“One kid was sad, his girl friend broke up with him. He lost his scholarship. He escaped into video games. He went into a movie theatre with orange hair and quoted a line from the Joker and began shooting 70 people.
“You’re going to see more elementary shootings. On the day of Sandy Hook, I was training 200 officers when we got the news. Elementary schools are helpless, they can’t fight back. They are in a no-gun zone. People are coming for our children. We put our kids in this situation. We’ve raised a vicious generation of children.
“They don’t need guns. In Japan, they used swords, hatchets and knives. They scare the daylights out of us, but we need to protect the children. If there’s no one in the building that can shoot back then it’s like inviting them in.
“South of the border in Mexico, the drug cartels are ruthless. It’s evil and it’s coming like a freight train. There are more gang members than active members of the army. Gang membership is exploding.
“When I was a kid I wanted to be Marshal Matt Dillion. Now kids want to be anti-hero, the sons of anarchy. They want to be identified with the criminal. Violent video games are a propaganda tool. The gangs use them to teach to kill cops. The video games are a training ground. They are using them to train people to kill.
The FBI uses firearms simulators in the training. The FBI knocks on the door, the felon escapes, they shoot the fleeing felon until they drop. It’s programming and training, kill the right people at the right time. Video games do the same thing. Grand Theft Auto made more money than all of the music industry. They program to kill cops. Kids want to be the gang banger.
The number of cops murdered in the line of duty is coming down due to increased training, medical advances and body armor. In 2009 there were 57 cops killed, In 2010, there were 77, in 2011 there were 86 cops. Cop murders are up 20 percent.
Federal Marshal’s being killed was at an all time record high. The marshal’s transformed their training and their helmets and armor. They were waiting for the felon to leave the house, now they go in at 4 a.m. It’s the best time to arrest them. They go in and wake them up and arrest them. They’ve been up all night drinking and playing video games and at 4 a.m. they’re vulnerable.
“We are trying to hold together the tattered fabric of a civilization. Never doubt it will get worse. We are on the front lines of war and you’re the defense,” said Grossman.
Grossman predicted there will be more terrorist threats. Based on past behavior of terrorists, he believes things will get ugly when American troops leave Afghanistan. Pakistan is also not our friend, nor North Korea. If America is attacked with a nuclear bomb, it will be on the west coast, creating a radioactive title wave. He said if this happens, hunker down for at least 48 hours. Ninety-eight percent of the radiation will pass over in 48 hours. How can we stop them. How do we stop threats like ebola. The sick terrorists can come in and have sex with as many prostitutes as possible and spread disease.
When an Israeli school was taken over by terrorists, 26 students were killed. Since then, every school in Israel is an armed fortress. Suicide bombers are using chemical warfare. Even Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons.
There are terrorist attacks all over the world. In Malaysia, school girls were beheaded, In Thailand the schools have been shut down. In Pakistan, 140 were wounded in a school. In Afghanistan, in 2009 there were 600 attacks. There was a mall massacre in Kenya, school children in Nigeria were taken hostage after all adults in the school were murdered. They focus on schools because if they hurt your kids, they hurt you. They are mad and they’re going to hunt us down.
On Sept. 1, 2004, terrorists seized a school in Beslan, Russia, they took 1,100 hostages and of those 777 were children. Three-hundred eighty-five people died. They forced the hostages into a small gym and didn’t give them any food or water. On the third day explosions caused a fire in the gym and many hostages died in the fire, and some were caught in the crossfire between militants and the police as they tried to escape the burning gym. The plan could have been stopped in the first five minutes if there was opposition. Grossman said fire is a tool of the terrorist.
They started a casino fire in Mexico and the cartel shut off the sprinkling system to the building.
On September 11, 2001 911 shut down the airports. They want to destroy our way of life.
I met a Green Beret on his way to Afghanistan. He told me, ‘Tell all those cops you teach, don’t let them kill our kids. It’s a military war this time being fought with all volunteers. The last time we had an all volunteer army was the Revolutionary War. These kids are true patriots. They established the first Arab democracy. Churchill said democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest. Democracy thrives except in the Arab world, Morocco, Egypt, Iraq.
Why is there no Arab democracy? They want to create democracy. Millions of Iraqis risked their lives to go and vote. Arabs will vote, they want to vote. How many Americans would risk their lives to go vote? The American government has worked to bring democracy to them.
Grossman talked of 911 and how some people say there was no warning. He showed a police officer on the screen helping a pregnant lady out of the building to safety. He then went back into the building. On that awful morning did those police officers know what they would have to do that day. Other terrorist attacks came before, the World Trade Center first attack the bombing of the parking garage in 1993 and resulting in six deaths; we had school shootings, we had warning. There are things we could and should be doing. If we’re still in denial, then all those lives were lost for nothing. Make a vow. No more denial. Some people will say we need mega bucks to stop the problem. No we don’t, the problem is denial. I teach companies, if you’re not prepared for violence then you’re negligent. Prepare for violence. The gift of fear. Fear is good, fear means survival. Denial will get us killed. A surveillance camera never stopped murder, a camera won’t make you safe. Unarmed security guards can’t keep you safe. That’s delusional. If they can’t get in the door, if they can’t shoot the windows of the school out, if they can’t get in. Tip lines have stopped more mass murder. Go to www.wetip.com Watch for external threats, unusual behavior, deter and detect. Delay how can we slow this guy down. The bad guy won’t stop until the good guy shows up. We need someone onsite that can kill him. Odds are if there’s someone on site with a gun that can kill him, he won’t kill at all.
There should be a single point of entry in a school. Keep all doors locked. In Canada a man hides in a bathroom and when a little girl goes into the bathroom he rapes the little girl. He pinned her down, a teacher heard her cries and investigated. He entered through an unlocked door. Keep the doors locked.
Cops in uniform should walk around and check the doors. If you find an unlocked door at your school. Send them a registered letter that they will be sued, keep the doors locked. Get involved. Get involved with the school board and their elections. Elect people who will keep your kids safe.
Individual class rooms must be secured fast. At Sandy Hook the only way to lock the classroom door was from the hallway where teachers exposed themselves to the danger. There was no film on the windows. There are two families at Sandy Hook that won’t take the settlement money. They won’t settle out of court. They want to get it in the news that there was negligence. Shut the door and keep it locked all the time, that costs no money.
You need to have drills in your school. Teach the children to run and hide and fight. If you’re in a safe place then stay there. Don’t leave the classroom. If it’s not safe, then get out of there.
Have a plan. In one kindergarten, the teacher said she would break the window and put the kids out the window. Have a plan. Don’t go outside unless you have to. Teach the kids to fight. This won’t make them scared, it empowers them. They are taught about stranger danger and to make a lot of noise. Preparation reduces stress and anxiety in these situations.
At Sandy Hook four little boys ran out of the classroom. One of those little boys died, the one that told the other boys, let’s get out of here, but he saved those other three boys. The other little kids sat and waited for their turn to die. Don’t do that, if you don’t teach them what to do they will do nothing. Teach them to throw books, throw chairs at the bad man.
I have been teaching my grandchildren about the bad man. I told them to throw books, do whatever it takes to get out of there. Take action. Teach them to be safe. Defend yourself. Defeat. If you’re an off duty police officer, pack your weapon with you every day. Less than one-fourth of officers do that. Congress passed a law that all off duty police officers can carry a concealed weapon in all 50 states.
One or two people in the first five minutes is more effective than a thousand officers three hours later. Carry off duty and have the right equipment. Have a rifle and unpenetrable body armor. You can get free rifles from the military. If you hear people say, “It’ll never happen here, those are bad words.
Violence kills more than fires. Plan to deter, detect and delay. Have a plan, “Here’s what we’ll do if they come to our town. Also have a go bag. A bag full of extra ammunition. Take it with you everywhere. Also have a tourniquet in the go bag. Carry them with you everywhere, they’re a great piece of equipment. If you put a tourniquet on someone then mark a TQ on their forehead.
A medivac helicopter is a great resource. If there are bad guys on the roof, the medivac helicopter can take a cop up to pick the bad guys off the roof. They can pick up more supplies and drop them on the roof. Corporate helicopters can be enlisted. One or two people on the roof (immediately) are better than 1,000 people two hours later. Have smoke grenades for concealment. Keep these in the trunks of the patrol cars. Use the fire trucks. A firehose can knock a man out of the way so you can get to a hostage.
In Beslan, the bad guys started the gym on fire. A thousand people in a burning gym. The fire guys some of them wouldn’t go in. The parents took the fire trucks and drove to the gym. The fire trucks tanks were empty.
Grossman trained firemen in Long Beach, he taught them, bad guys use fire.
Russia has one of the lowest gun ownerships and the highest murder rate. They find other ways to kill people and fire is one of them.
He told of a hostage situation where the police had been trained to use fire hoses and they blew the guy outside of his trailer house with a fire hose and the hostage was rescued and no one died. “Use it as a weapon a resource. Have your head and mind ready. You are the Delta force.
Why didn’t the cops go in the first five minutes in Russia? It wasn’t their job, they didn’t have the training, they waited for the military teams. It took too much time for the elite forces to get there.
On the island in Norway, 69 people died from a solo gunman. They have the most strict gun laws. It was an hour and a half before the feds could get there.
The exception is Israel and America. You are the Delta force You have a mission, you are expected to go in and be ready.
No one in France is screaming right now because the police look like military. We are at war. You are the troops in this war.
Unless you’re a Navy Seal, you won’t get enough shot time training. Train on your own. Reinforce survival skills. Do martial arts. Get physically fit, go to the gym. Do cardio.
Do we have anything to learn from World War I and World War II? They knew something that we forget. You can grow old and fat, but you can still shoot. Marksmanship.
We are at war. Be our warriors. Intensely invested in a cause or purpose. Investing in protecting our children and communities.
Why do we wear a badge? A badge, a star is in reference to the knights of old. They would don their armor and shield. They upheld justice and did good deeds.
This is a dark and desperate hour. We need protectors, we need single minded devotion as we prepare for battle. The word police means man of the city.
Part I: Lt. Col. Grossman: Addressing violence in America
"Lt. Col. Dave Grossman."