Gun Violence Archive is a nonprofit research group that tracks shootings in the United States.

They define a mass shooting as any incident in which four or more people are shot in one location at the same time.

According to their statistics through September, a total of 361 people have been killed and another 1,500 wounded across 365 total shootings.

So what can be done to protect yourself?

"Carolina Impact's" Jason Terzis joins us with our story.

- Well, it's unfortunately become so common, unless you're glued to local TV news, you may never hear about the latest mass shooting.

While debate about Second Amendment rights and the right to bear arms is constantly at the forefront of American politics, the fact of the matter is mass shootings are simply a part of everyday American life.

That's where the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is trying to help.

- 345 Park Avenue, this is in Midtown Manhattan.

- [Jason] The program begins, not with a typical welcome or even introduction, but straight to a real-life active shooter incident.

- There was a cleaning lady working in there.

She'd been working there for about 27 years and she comes into contact with the killer up on the 33rd floor.

- [Jason] And that's how CMPD's How Will I Survive an Active Shooting training begins.

Officer Jonathan Frisk jumping right into the program before introducing himself.

- If you go onto any site right now and somebody's doing a presentation, the first thing they open up with is, "Hello, my name is so-and-so, and this is how long I've been with this company."

I stayed away from that.

I want to get something that's going to get somebody on the edge of their seat.

Now this morning, we will talk about difficult topics and difficult subjects.

We are talking about people who have lost their life, and especially when we're talking about children that have lost their life.

It's difficult to talk about that.

It may be difficult for you guys to listen, but I want you all to understand there are lessons learned when people lose their lives and we have to discuss them.

I am Officer Jonathan Frisk with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

I've been a police officer for 24 and a half years now.

- [Jason] CMPD created the active shooter training program a little more than a decade ago.

It's free to businesses, schools, churches, any organization.

- When we think about active shooters, a lot of our memories, we go all the way back to April 20th, 1999.

Columbine High School, the nation was shocked.

I could tell you in 2025, I did about 175 active shooter trainings all at two hours apiece.

- [Jason] Its main goal, prepare anyone where split-second decision-making could mean the difference between life and death.

- I want you all to understand an active shooter, their goal and their purpose is to come into the building, come into a confined space to shoot and kill as many people as they can.

Hence why the entire program is based off of action.

- A full two hours is a long time to listen to any speaker.

Officer Frisk is well aware of that.

- And that's one of the things that we realized up front.

Two hours, how do we actually keep the people engaged?

- I thought that I should double up on my coffee 'cause I was probably going to fall asleep and then I saw we were in the front row and I was like, "Yeah, I'm definitely going to fall asleep."

- What I will do is put the tools around your tool belt to give you all the best opportunities, the best options to survive an active shooter.

- [Jason] So Officer Frisk developed a program to keep it fast-paced with his booming voice providing a plethora of information, visuals, and hands-on training.

- I think in anything you do, you have to have a passion for what you do.

And there's no doubt about it.

I have a passion.

So the second thing is you have to know the material.

So how do you know the material?

Well, you have to do a lot of research.

- [Jason] Much like a student studying for an exam or an athlete preparing for a game, Officer Frisk spent time working on his craft, studying the traits of skilled engaging speakers.

- If you watch a lot of presenters, they're going to have a lot of words up there and a lot of times they're going to be reading off of those words.

And I knew that that was something I did not want to do.

If I have 100 or 200 people in the room, I want to make eye contact with them.

- Officer Frisk kept us engaged.

It was never a dull moment and you had to pay attention because they'll call on you, which is good.

You got to participate.

- Be honest with you, who in here does not think they could physically or willingly attack or grab the gun?

You don't think you could, man?

No?

Well, thank you for volunteering.

Step on up for me.

More than likely, and there's actually a video of this online where somebody actually grabs it when someone's pulling that trigger, it will jam the gun and she's got two hands on this gun.

- Definitely didn't fall asleep.

Officer Frisk is very engaging.

I didn't feel like I was here for two hours.

To be fair, he did call me a lot, so very interactive.

- Guys.

- [Jason] While discussing lessons learned from previous shooting incidents, Officer Frisk never mentions or shows any mass shooter by name, only showing the victims and heroes of those tragic events.

- Tell me, when these incidents occur, specifically active shooter incidents, a lot of times the media outlets or social media feeds, a lot of times, who's the one person they're showing us?

The who?

Shooter, right?

Glorifying them and sensationalize them.

We have to show what they did because we also want to show what some of the victims did and then what some of the victims maybe should have done.

So that's part of the training.

(911 caller speaking faintly) - [Caller] Kennedy building.

There's been a shooting.

- [Jason] Playing a 911 call from the 2019 UNC Charlotte shooting, Officer Frisk makes a point to recognize Riley Howell, one of two students who died that day.

- He should be recognized because he did the right thing.

He went after the shooter and he slowed down the shooter or he stopped the shooter and he saved lives on that day.

After Columbine, a couple programs started to come out.

One of the first ones, some of you, you might be familiar with it, it is called Run, Hide, Fight.

Quick show of hands, who's heard of Run, Hide, Fight?

- [Jason] As for some program specifics, the Run, Hide, Fight theory you may have heard about is considered outdated.

- We, with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, we have never utilized the Run, Hide, Fight program.

- [Jason] It's been replaced with ABC, Avoid, Barricade, Counter.

- Because we are talking about movement and distance.

That is the key thing.

That is kind of the meat and potatoes that a moving target's very hard to hit.

We want people essentially to actually get out of the building.

If you thought about trying to maybe have a conversation with him, if you thought about trying to pray with him, if you thought about trying to deescalate the situation, if you thought about trying to play dead, I'm going to prove to you throughout the presentation, those responses alone will get you killed.

It's that simple.

Now, for those of you who made the immediate decision to get up, to get out of this room, to get out of this building and get as far away as you can, that's taking an action.

- [Jason] If unable to get out, don't just hide, but lock doors and barricade them.

- If there's furniture, like in this room right here, if that door locked over there, we would lock it and then every piece of furniture, we would put it in front of the door.

- The only wrong answer is to do nothing.

- [Roger] Closing in on 2,000 overall presentations, it's obvious Officer Frisk enjoys his way of serving the community.

His program is so popular, it has a two-month waiting list.

- Sometimes we're desensitized to these things because they happen so frequently, but like hearing it again and kind of brushing up on your survival skills, it was necessary.

- Now, Jason, what else can you tell us about mass shootings specifically here in the Carolinas?

- Yeah, some interesting statistics.

Of those 365 total shootings that we told you about at the beginning of our story, 26 of them have happened in the Carolinas, 10 in South Carolina, 16 in North Carolina.

It's hopefully something each of us never has to face, but if we ever do, the more knowledge, the better, especially it's those split second decisions that we all going to maybe have to face.

- Absolutely, and like I told you before we started, I just did my training yesterday with CMPD and great information there and it really helps you think like, what would I do in that situation?

- Yeah.

- A few seconds, like you said, can save a life.

- Makes a difference.

Yep.

- Thanks for sharing, Jason.