Joseph Andrade, Firefighter, Paramedic, RN, OSHA Outreach Instructor, Lead Instructor
Life Saving Education. Practical safety education built around real hazards, real decisions, and skills people can use when seconds count.
I have spent a large part of my career training for events everyone hopes never happen.
Firefighters do not drill because we expect a fire every shift. EMS crews do not practice airway emergencies because every patient needs an advanced airway. We train because the first few minutes of a low-frequency, high-consequence event are a terrible time to invent a plan.
The same principle applies to active shooter training for workplaces.
A good program is not built around fear, dramatic videos, or telling employees to memorize one slogan. It connects prevention, reporting, emergency action planning, options-based decision-making, communication, first aid, law-enforcement integration, and recovery.
The latest FBI data reinforces why the subject deserves deliberate attention. The FBI designated 34 active shooter incidents in 2025, up from 24 in 2024, although the 2025 total remained below the five-year average of 43. The incidents occurred across commerce, open space, government, education, and houses of worship. The FBI also reported that nearly 68% involved planning and preparation by the attacker.
🧭 The point of training is not to predict the exact event. It is to give people a framework for making better decisions when normal routines disappear.
🛡️ Active Shooter Training for Workplaces Starts Before the Attack
Active-shooter preparedness should sit inside a broader workplace-violence prevention program.
OSHA describes workplace violence as acts or threats of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, and other threatening disruptive behavior at the worksite. OSHA encourages employers to assess workplace risks and develop prevention programs appropriate to their operations.
The prevention layer can include:
- clear reporting pathways for threats and concerning behavior
- management follow-up on reports
- access control and visitor procedures appropriate to the site
- employee awareness of emergency communication systems
- coordination with security and law enforcement
- threat-assessment processes where appropriate
- emergency action planning
- post-incident support and recovery planning
The FBI’s 2025 report added examples of potentially averted incidents tied to law-enforcement observations, tips, and information provided to school or campus personnel.
That is important because active-threat preparedness is not only about what happens after violence starts.
Prevention and early reporting are part of preparedness.
contact Life Saving Education about upcoming workplace violence prevention training
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🚪 The Emergency Action Plan Has to Work in the Real Building
OSHA’s Emergency Action Plan standard, 29 CFR 1910.38, requires covered employers to address procedures such as emergency reporting, evacuation, accountability, rescue or medical duties, and employee review of the plan.
For active threats, the plan should become operationally specific.
Ask:
- How are employees warned?
- Can the message reach noisy, remote, outdoor, or restricted areas?
- Who calls 911?
- What if the normal exit leads toward the threat?
- Which doors can be locked or secured?
- How do employees know alternate exits?
- How are visitors and contractors handled?
- Where do employees reunify after evacuation?
- Who meets law enforcement?
- How will management account for people without sending employees back toward danger?
A generic emergency plan copied from another facility is not enough.
The building matters. The workforce matters. The shift matters.
🧠 Options-based response, not one rigid script
CISA and federal preparedness resources emphasize that people may need different protective options depending on where the threat is located and what escape routes are available.
The common public framework is often summarized as Run, Hide, Fight. It is useful as a memory aid, but training should explain the decision behind the words.
If a safe escape path exists, evacuation may be the best option. If escape is not safe, securing or hiding in a location that creates protection and distance may be appropriate. Physical resistance is a last-resort survival option when a person faces imminent danger and cannot safely escape or secure themselves.
No instructor can promise which option will work in every incident.
That uncertainty is exactly why scenario-based decision practice matters.
📣 Communication Can Decide Whether a Plan Works
Emergency communication has two jobs:
- deliver useful information quickly
- avoid making the situation worse
The best message is not necessarily the longest message.
Employees may need concise information about:
- the nature of the threat
- known location if reliable
- areas to avoid
- evacuation or protective-action instructions
- whether law enforcement has arrived
- where not to report or congregate
Facilities should test how alerts move across radios, phones, public-address systems, alarms, desktop systems, and supervisor chains.
A system that works beautifully at 10 a.m. in the office may fail on a night shift, in a warehouse, or at an outdoor worksite.
🧑🏫 Training Should Build Decisions, Not Panic
CISA offers active-shooter preparedness training specifically to improve organizational awareness and response. FEMA and CISA also provide tabletop and independent-study resources.
For employers, the training design matters.
Start with orientation
- the facility’s emergency plan
- alarm and notification methods
- exits and alternate exits
- secure areas and limitations
- how to report threats or suspicious behavior
- expectations when law enforcement arrives
- basic post-event accountability procedures
Add tabletop exercises
Tabletops let leadership test decisions without subjecting employees to a high-stress simulation.
- Who has authority to send the alert?
- Who talks to 911?
- What if the threat is in the normal evacuation route?
- What if a supervisor is absent?
- How do we manage visitors?
- Where does EMS stage?
- How does the facility communicate after the initial emergency?
Use drills carefully
Drills can improve familiarity, but they should be designed responsibly.
OSHA’s healthcare workplace-violence training materials recognize that realistic simulations can create a stress response and should be handled with trauma-informed principles. Employers should avoid surprise exercises that employees may reasonably mistake for an actual attack.
Training should increase capability, not manufacture terror.
⚠️ A realistic drill does not need fake gunfire, screaming actors, or traumatic surprise to test whether the plan works.
🩸 Medical Preparedness Belongs in the Plan
Active-threat events can create multiple casualties before conventional EMS access is possible.
That makes basic lifesaving capability relevant.
- CPR and AED training
- bleeding-control training
- accessible first-aid and hemorrhage-control supplies
- employees trained to call 911 and provide useful location information
- planning for EMS and fire access
- mass-casualty coordination for larger facilities
This is not an argument for turning every employee into a tactical medic.
It is an argument for giving ordinary people practical lifesaving skills that remain useful far beyond an active-shooter scenario.
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👮 What Employees Should Expect When Law Enforcement Arrives
Law-enforcement priorities during an active attack may differ from what employees expect.
Officers may initially move toward the threat rather than stop to provide medical care or answer individual questions. Employees should follow commands, keep hands visible, avoid sudden movements, and provide concise information if asked.
This is one reason workplace training should include what happens after a person escapes or is located by responding officers.
The emergency does not end the moment someone reaches a parking lot.
🔄 Recovery Is Part of Preparedness
A complete program also plans for the aftermath.
- reunification
- employee accountability
- family communication
- continuity of operations
- behavioral-health support
- evidence preservation
- media coordination
- internal review
- lessons learned
Workplace violence can affect employees who were not physically injured and may affect a workforce long after the immediate event.
Preparedness should acknowledge that reality without treating trauma as a marketing device.
📋 Workplace Active-Threat Preparedness Checklist
- Employees know how to report concerning behavior and threats.
- Leadership knows who receives and evaluates those reports.
- The Emergency Action Plan addresses violent threats.
- Employees know primary and alternate exits.
- Notification systems can reach all shifts and work areas.
- Visitors and contractors are included in planning.
- Leadership has completed a tabletop exercise.
- Drills are announced and designed with trauma-informed safeguards.
- Employees understand options-based protective actions.
- First-aid, AED, and bleeding-control resources are considered.
- The facility has a plan for law-enforcement and EMS access.
- Recovery, reunification, and post-incident communication are addressed.
🔗 Related Life Saving Education Guides
✅ Key Takeaways
- Active-shooter preparedness should be one part of a broader workplace-violence prevention system.
- The FBI designated 34 active-shooter incidents in 2025, but raw incident counts should support preparedness, not fear-based marketing.
- Prevention, reporting, emergency action planning, communication, protective options, medical readiness, and recovery all matter.
- Tabletop exercises can uncover major planning gaps without creating unnecessary trauma.
- No training can guarantee safety in an active attack. Good training improves awareness, planning, communication, and decision-making under stress.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Is active shooter training required by OSHA?
There is no single general-industry OSHA standard that requires every employer to provide a course titled "active shooter training." Employers may have relevant obligations under emergency-action, workplace-hazard, healthcare, state, contractual, or industry-specific requirements. OSHA also encourages workplace-violence prevention programs where violence is a recognized hazard.
Is Run, Hide, Fight the entire training program?
No. It is a simple options-based public response framework. A workplace program should also address prevention, reporting, emergency communication, the actual building, law-enforcement interaction, medical readiness, and recovery.
Should employers conduct surprise active-shooter drills?
Employers should be extremely cautious with unannounced realistic simulations. Trauma-informed exercise design favors clear planning, advance communication appropriate to the exercise, defined objectives, and psychological safety rather than creating panic to make a drill feel realistic.
How often should active-shooter preparedness be reviewed?
There is no universal federal interval for every workplace. Review should occur when the emergency plan changes, the building or workforce changes, lessons are identified during exercises, or applicable requirements call for review. OSHA’s EAP rule also requires review with employees when the plan is developed, responsibilities change, or the plan changes.
What is Life Saving Education planning for this topic?
Life Saving Education is developing future workplace-violence prevention and active-threat training offerings. Course availability and completed instructor credentials will be announced when finalized. Until then, employers should use current OSHA, CISA, FBI, FEMA, and local public-safety resources to strengthen preparedness.
🎯 Prepare Without Turning Fear Into the Lesson
The purpose of active-threat training is not to convince employees that violence is inevitable.
It is to make sure a workplace has thought through preventable gaps before a crisis exposes them.
Life Saving Education is expanding its workplace-safety training portfolio to include workplace-violence prevention and active-threat preparedness. The focus will remain the same as our other programs: practical decisions, realistic scenarios, credible sources, and skills people can actually use.
contact Life Saving Education about upcoming workplace violence prevention training
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📚 Sources and Further Reading
- FBI, 2025 Active Shooter Incidents in the United States
- OSHA, Workplace Violence Overview
- OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.38 Emergency Action Plans
- CISA, Active Shooter Preparedness
- CISA, Active Shooter: What You Can Do
- OSHA, Emergency Preparedness and Response
⚖️ Educational Disclaimer
This article is provided by Life Saving Education for general educational purposes only. It is not medical, legal, security, or compliance advice, and it is not a substitute for hands-on training, professional guidance, law-enforcement direction, or an employer-specific emergency plan. Laws, regulations, guidance, and best practices change and may vary by jurisdiction and workplace. Verify current requirements for your situation. In an emergency, call 911 when it is safe to do so.
