UTRGV campus community members who want to learn how to respond to situations, such as the recent Florida shooting, may attend a Civilian Response to Active Shooter Event training (CRASE) next Thursday.
University Police will host the CRASE training from 9 to 11 a.m. in Student Union 2.406 on the Edinburg campus.
UTRGV Police Chief Raul Munguia told The Rider the CRASE training provides tools on how to survive during active shooter situations.
“It also gives them the tools to recognize what’s happening,” Munguia said. “It also gives them the ability to have gone through these scenarios in their head. So, if or when it actually happens, they know how to react.”
The training will consist of teaching the dynamics of an active shooter event, such as how people can barricade themselves. The chief said University Police officers on campus are able to arrive at a scene quickly, between one and three minutes at most.
“We do these on a regular basis,” he said about CRASE trainings. “We’ll do them by request. It’s the only course we also do by request. That’s how important we feel this course is.”
Accounting senior Greg Mar said the CRASE training is a great service University Police provides for the campus community.
“I think it’s wonderful and I think it should be expressed more openly so that we, the people that are actually gonna be in the middle of it, would know,” Mar said.
Exercise science sophomore Wendy Molejon said she would attend a CRASE training.
“It’s something that could come in very handy because you just never know when something tragic like [an active shooter event] could happen and it could happen anywhere,” Molejon said.
To register for CRASE and view additional trainings, click here.
Earlier today, Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect who was expelled from the Parkland, Florida, high school the previous year, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
On Wednesday, Cruz was taken into custody by the Coconut Creek Police Department after opening fire in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 15 victims on site, according to a news release from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
Two of the 17 victims who were transported to local medical facilities died Wednesday.
The Florida shooting has reignited the gun-control debate across the nation with several members of Congress voicing their thoughts on the issue, including U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida).
“Let’s get at the root cause of this issue; let’s do what we all know needs to be done,” Nelson said in a news conference earlier today. “Let’s do it now and not later. Let’s just not talk about it; let’s do something about it. Let’s make what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a pivotal moment in this country’s history. Not because it was one of the largest mass shootings, but, hopefully, because it was the last.”
If now is not the time to talk about gun violence, when is the time? How many more folks have to die? Let’s have a conversation about this right now – not just about mental illness or protecting our schools – let’s get to the root cause and get assault weapons off our streets. pic.twitter.com/NIQt0oQtEH
— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) February 15, 2018
The Rider asked several UTRGV students about their thoughts on the Florida shooting.
“Horrific. Monstrous,” biology senior Ricardo Ramirez said. “I don’t know. I can’t really describe it in words, but it was really bad. I can’t find why people do that stuff like that.”
In spite of school shootings across the nation, biology freshman Cristien Cornejo said he feels safe on campus because of the University Police department, its officers and services it provides.
UTRGV political science Associate Professor James Wenzel said the gun-control debate is a complex issue.
“If you look at the current spectrum of [gun-control laws], there is what’s called a federal background check requirement, that if you go to a federally licensed gun dealer, you are required to have a background check done before you’re allowed purchase of a firearm,” Wenzel said.
The political science associate professor said most of the gun-control laws and regulations are done at the state level.
“What there isn’t is, at least that I know of in most states, is any kinds of restrictions on the mental capacity of the person with a gun,” he said. “Now, you’re outlawed or prohibited from carrying a firearm if you’re under the influence of alcohol or mood-altering drugs or something like that in most jurisdictions, as well.”
Wenzel said the gun-control debate is a complicated conversation because of the multiple interpretations that can be drawn from the Second Amendment.
“Most Americans, I think, see [the Second Amendment] as a generalized right to own firearms,” he said. “The question becomes, ‘How do you balance that right to own firearms against putting controls on firearm possession and ownership in response to cases like [the Florida shooting]?’”
One of the ideas Wenzel believes is generally agreed upon is the enforcement of existing gun laws and how they could put a limit on people’s ability to possess firearms.
He said even though the U.S. and states have several existing gun-control regulations that would help avoid situations like mass shootings, there is general agreement that the laws are not “terribly well-enforced.”
The same idea applies to felons acquiring firearms as most of them do so by theft, the political science associate professor said.
Wenzel said in the case of the Florida shooting, it does not seem like Cruz was a felon or a person who failed a background check.
“The problem I have, to be honest, is I don’t know what would work,” he said. “The United States today is a wash in firearms. I mean, there are so many of them in circulation that it’s an ocean of them out there. I don’t know how we limit people’s possession of them because there are so many in circulation and because the Second Amendment prevents us from doing anything draconian.”
Wenzel said he predicts the recent shooting will be like the others: The conversation will die down, President Donald Trump “will tweet something outrageous” and most people will, eventually, forget about the shooting.
The political science associate professor said campus community members can continue the conversation and shed light on the issues by having informative discussions about the topic.
“Bring it up in [political science classes],” he said. “I think that there’s student organizations that can have discussions about it. … Questions to professors would be great. If students want to have roundtable discussions, that would be great. I’m sure you can find people who are willing to participate in it. I would do it. I have some colleagues who probably would as well.”
Asked his thoughts on UTRGV police providing CRASE trainings for the campus community, Wenzel replied that he would encourage people to participate because the issue is becoming prevalent enough where having some kind of awareness as to what to do in an active shooter event event is important.
–Nubia Reyna, Albert Monrroy and Jessica Mendez contributed to this report.
