To the Editor:

With the latest active shooter incidents in North Carolina with three deaths and in a Michigan church with an unknown number of victims we now need to implement regulated safety standards issued by FEMA to allow intended victims some safe means to escape from their would-be assassins.

FEMA’s Emergency Action Plan (EAP) is required in business, dining, entertainment, professional, hospitality and medical facilities and houses of worship. They should be formulated now and practiced by management and staff in public facilities.

For 10 or fewer staff members it can be orally communicated, but for more than 10 all occupants should be publicly informed by printed materials, posted QR codes or by public announcements of emergency exits and other safety features and practices that the facility provides.

The large scale incidents of the past – for example, the Route 91 Festival in Las Vegas in 2017 with its 60 victims and The Pulse Nightclub in Orlando in 2016 with its 49 victims – were high-profile incidents that had strong public reaction to create changes in building and fire codes.

Since then, with few exceptions in educational and religious facilities, the lists of victims have rarely exceeded five, creating complacency among both owners and occupants. 

Our lives are at risk in most public facilities if no improved safety standards are not implemented.

Bob Sweeney,

President, RES Associates

Warwick