The first 911 call was made at 1:43 p.m. Dispatchers sent out an alert two minutes later, and the first police officer arrived four minutes after that. By then, the shooting was over. - USA Today

By Ken Hanson

Dave Summers of WKYC in Cleveland has posted an interview with Lyndhurst Police Sergeant Pat Rhode, detailing police strategy to react to an “active shooter” situation. Unfortunately for the reader looking for advice on how to protect themselves from nut-job shooters in a mall, church or campus, the story regurgitates nothing but the same old tired, tried and failed advice.

The story details active shooter training the police are going through, and how local patrol officers are now receiving “SWAT-like” training. The story boasts that while it used to take the police up to 30 minutes to respond to an active shooter, it can now take only minutes. Citizens are encouraged to be aware of their environments and know “where to go in case of an emergency.” Unfortunately, the next words out of Sgt. Rhode’s mouth isn’t “and by ‘where to go’ I mean ‘go for your gun.”

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EDITOR'S UPDATE: Our friend Brent Greer at The Ready Line blog has learned that the statement attributed to Ellen Wickham in the Youngstown Vindicator is a fabrication (see strike-through text below). Greer notes that not only did Ms. Wickham not insinuate those words, she never even spoke to the reporter, Mr. Mark Kovac. Her actual testimony is recorded on Greer's blog here. Developing...

Although most of Ohio's major media outlets have ignored the first two hearings on Ohio's Castle Doctrine legislation (SB184), the Youngstown Vindicator recently published a story detailing some of the testimony offered at the first proponent hearing on December 5.

From the story:

A note to crooks thinking about breaking into Ellen Wickham's home:

If you get past the locks, the lights, the alarms and the 160-pound Great Dane (its name is Henry), you can expect to be shot on sight.

"Of course, I will call 911, but I won't wait for the police to arrive," the Columbus-area woman told state lawmakers Wednesday morning. "I, along with my firearm, am my first line of defense. Crime scene investigators are great photographers, but I prefer my pictures without blood and bruises."

Wickham was one of several proponents to testify before the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee in favor of SB 184, sponsored by Republican Steve Buerher from Delta in northwestern Ohio.