LAS VEGAS (KTNV) – It’s a list no state wants to be a part of, although Nevada is squarely in that position.
Last year, the state was among the top 10 in the nation for active shooter events, according to the FBI, which the agency defines as when a person “actively engages in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined, populated area.” ”
Last year the FBI recorded 48 such events, two of them taking place in Las Vegas: the shooting on the UNLV campus on December 6 and the shooting at Turnberry Towers about six months earlier.
With the two shootings, Nevada finished last year tied with several other states for sixth place in the country in active shooting events. California had the most with eight, while Texas and Washington followed with four.
Thanks to the quick work of a Turnberry employee on June 23, 2023, that incident did not result in any loss of life. The same cannot be said for the shooting at UNLV, where a disgruntled professional, who had attempted to be hired at the school, opened fire in a campus building, killing three and wounding one.
Thanks to some bravery on the part of responding police officers, the UNLV shooter was confronted and killed in a shootout with police about 10 minutes after he opened fire on three UNLV faculty members.
“I think there are more of these (shootings) simply because more people have access to guns because of the large number of them being manufactured in the United States,” said Tom Roberts, a former Metropolitan Police deputy sheriff who also served in the Nevada Assembly. for a while.
Roberts says law enforcement has steadily improved in how they prepare for and respond to active shooter situations.
“Here in Las Vegas, we learned from October 1,” Roberts said, referencing the tragic 2017 shooting, when a gunman opened fire on festival-goers near the Mandalay Bay resort on the Strip. “For most of our special events, we prepare for outdoor locations; we have countermeasures prepared. We have people prepared so that if there is an active shooter, we have a position of force and we have people who can respond.”
As for where the active shooters were in 2023, the FBI report showed that 28 of the 48 occurred in “open spaces.” The next most popular location for shooters were businesses, listed as “commerce” locations in the report.
Along with Florida, Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee, Nevada was tied for the sixth most active shooter incidents last year. And while there are positive signs, these types of shootings have been on the rise overall in recent years.
From the beginning of 2019 to the end of 2023, the FBI recorded 229 active shooter situations, an 89% increase over the five-year period from 2014 to 2018.
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow Keynote USA Local on Twitter.