Another Day In Gunmerica

A near-tragedy at the headquarters of newspaper USA Today, as Trump's "enemies of the people" rhetoric against the press spawns stochastic terrorism.

USA TODAY's headquarters in McLean, Virginia was being evacuated Wednesday amid a heavy police presence after authorities responded to a report of a man with a weapon at the suburban Washington building.

Alarms sounded inside the building as police squad cars, firetrucks and ambulanes converged on the scene. Law enforcement officers with rifles and body armor were patrolling the area and a helicopter hovered overhead.

The building houses the headquarters of USA TODAY, its parent company, Gannett Co., and offices for a variety of other businesses.

Fairfax County police tweeted around noon that they were responding to reports of a man with a weapon at the building. Officials provided no other details.

Police warned people to avoid the area, which is near the Capital Beltway, major regional malls and office buildings in the Washington suburbs.

The headquarters building houses non-newspaper offices. Hundreds of office workers were herded outside by police.

Workers who fled reported hearing a fire alarm and an announcement over the loudspeaker about an incident inside the building.

"We've been drilled so well in school on this," said Akhil Kota, 21, who works for Appian, a software developer.

Young Millennials and Gen Z have simply accepted that the school mass shooter drills they grew up with will be the workplace mass shooter drills they will live with all their lives.

But I can hear the right now.  "Nobody was hurt, nobody was killed, working as intended."

Why is this intended?

Because the gun lobby makes it so and has for decades.  I guarantee you that your corporate workplace already has a mass shooter plan in place, and that your employer is considering mass shooter drills as more and more of the workforce becomes the people who grew up with this nihilism in school.

Duck and Cover for a new century.  Everyone buy a gun now and protect yourself from the inevitable people with guns!

The number of mass shootings in the last week has prompted many to purchase guns and sign up for classes to earn their license to carry concealed weapons, according to the people who are doing training.

Inside the Laguna Shooting Center, experts offer everything from concealed carry classes to active shooter training. Protocols and practices outlined in the training manuals have changed as the types of mass shooting scenarios change.

Time and time again, we see violent images of horrific shootings. This weekend they came from in El Paso and then Dayton.

“The officers took out the guy as soon as they got there,” said Terry Wingert, an instructor with the Advanced Security Institute.

Wingert, a former police officer, has taught concealed carry classes for 40 years all across California. He teaches up to 300 classes a year, and when a mass shooting happens, inquiries go up 10-15%.

“People will call because they are afraid to go out,” he said.

He and his partner Joe Williams teach the law, civil and criminal liability, and how to use a firearm. The concealed carry classes are 16 hours, spanning about 2 days with several hours on the range and focusing on firearm safety.

In the last few years, they have also offered active shooter training for businesses, churches and private citizens.

“There is classroom training, hands-on training and sometimes we take them in shooting scenarios,” said Wingert.

He also offers an advanced combat stress fire training class.

“Where we put people under stress a number of different ways like having a shooting go on while they are doing it so they get the live sound of it and we have people yelling and screaming,” said Williams.

The concealed carry classes are the most popular. So we asked Sacramentans if they would consider getting their license.

“Yeah, probably, especially in this area,” Julio Lee said.

“I don’t think it’s enough motivation for me to say-preventative measure,” said Denise Lee.

“It was actually a few years ago that we got it because we decided it was something we wanted to do,” Alisha Anson said.

Citizens are taking a step towards securing their own safety. It can take several months to get, but a license to carry is valid for two years in California.

Of course California -- the state with the largest number of registered Republicans in America -- loves concealed carry.

Just another day in Gunmerica.