¾ÅÓÎÌåÓý

MARION, Ill. (WSIL)-- First responders from several counties are going through Active Shooter Training in Marion. Officials say they will be training in 11 intensive scenarios over 3 days at the Marion Pavilion  Center.

This year there have already been 181 mass shootings in the U.S. according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Marion's police Chief David Fitts says they have to be ready for anything.

“It's on my mind all the time. I can't imagine something like that happening here, but I'm sure in places that it has happened, those people said the same thing sometimes,� Fitts said.

That's why first responders from several counties are going through Active Shooter Training.

James P. Moore with the Illinois Fire Service Institute says they are focusing on communication, coordination, and commanding the 11 scenarios.

“We want to eliminate those breakdowns, we want to shorten that time from, from shots to the person being at the hospital,� Moore said.

Moore says one of the exercises the first responders will be running in the afternoon

Has an attack involving separate incidents in 3 towns. He says an example of a complex attack people could remember would be 9/11.

“And that's what we're looking at here. That doesn't have to be across state boundaries. It can be from jurisdiction to jurisdiction here in ¾ÅÓÎÌåÓý Illinois,â€� Moore said.

As a new scenario was starting, the first responders waited to be called by the dispatchers. When they get the call, they walk over to the computers. The simulations are all connected too.

“The reason that we use computer simulation is so we can do additional sets and reps.  We can have them go through it without the physical exhaustion,� Moore says. � But if you see them at the end of the day, they are mentally tired because of the command and control element that comes into the class.�

Williamson County EMA director, Brian Burgess says they are already applying skills they learned on the first day of training to the new scenarios.

“We're starting to see how using this framework brings us together and creates a management style that we can use to facilitate a better response to an active shooter incident,� Burgess said.

Burgess says as a coordinating agency it's important for them to be there.

“It allows us to see how we can influence and support our response agencies. So how we can come in and assist them in these difficult times, and what resources we can bring and put at their incident commanders disposal,� Burgess said.

Herrin's Fire Chief Shawn Priddy says in his 30-plus years with the department,  he never thought active shooter gear, and training would become normal for them.

“Now we can just take all this, all the training that we've had and just implement it into one training session or multiple training sessions just to get better at what we do,� Priddy said.

Moore says skills from this training can apply to more than just an active shooter situation, this can also apply with severe weather. 

“The structure here works on every incident, but this one really pushes the police and fire together at every level so that we take down the barriers that it takes to get the patients from being injured and get them to the hospital where they need to be,� Moore said.

Priddy says agencies have been training active shooters for a long time, but this training is different because it is about showing how to run the incidents.