Four Minutes

Yeah there's a storm on the loose
Sirens in my head
Wrapped up in silence
All circuits are dead
--Golden Earring

The shooting at the Fifth Third building in downtown Cincinnati that left four dead (including the shooter) and two wounded share two characteristics common to rampage shooting events.

One is that it was perpetrated in a so called gun free zone. In fact, the Fifth Third building was so gun free that even the building's on site security guards carried no firearms. Gun free zones invite bad guys like the shooter who was, of course, was not gun free.

The other common characteristic is the time from first shot until police were on the scene. In this case it is estimated that it took about four minutes for CPD officers to arrive, engage the shooter, and put him down. While that might seem fast, response times measured in minutes for such shooting episodes are not unusual--particularly when they take place in urban areas dense with police.

Moreover, it is likely that those four minutes felt like an eternity to those who found themselves under fire and defenseless in the Fifth Third lobby. During that time, the shooter was able to get off 35 shots with a 9 mm handgun--meaning that he was able to reload once or perhaps twice using standard magazines. His gun then reportedly jammed which made him a bigger target for the four responding officers who nailed him with multiple rounds.

The problem facing all people in harm's way under similar circumstances is how to survive those four minutes.