CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Monday's shooting in which a 21-year-old man allegedly killed 10 people in a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store is the seventh mass shooting the United States has seen in the last seven days.
According to CNN, in the past week, seven different U.S. cities including Houston and Dallas, had shootings that injured or killed four or more people in one place. Gun violence resulting in four or more casualties is classified as a "mass shooting," according to definitions from the U.S. Congressional Research Service andFBI.
Gun control and gun rights are again a big topic on the national stage. What can you do to protect yourself?
On the local level, Corpus Christi Police Department Sr. Ofc. Travis Pace has some advice for those who find themselves in an active-shooter situation.
"The simplistic approach is: if you can get away, get away," he said. "If you can't, you need to find a place to hide and fortify yourself."
Active-shooter situations often require quick and decisive thinking to protect yourself and those around you. Pace said that, in an active-shooter situation, you should try to simultaneously think about ways of defending yourself while trying to escape.
"If you get into a store, you hear gunfire -- 'What am I going to do? How am I going to get out?' " he said. "If I can't get out, I am grabbing stuff to defend myself in case I turn a corner and confront the suspect."
Pace assured the public that authorities are on their way in events like this, and encouraged citizens to do what they can to protect themselves until police arrive.
"We never wanna hear any calls like this," he said. "Protection of life is our highest priority with police departments so, we are going to get there as fast as we can, to do whatever it takes to get the situation under control (and) protect as many lives as possible."
He said CCPD officers go through extensive training for active-shooter situations. According to Pace, they go through chaotic scenario simulations, recurring roll-call training, and practice among themselves regularly.
