Active shooter training workshop in SF’s Castro

CORRECTION: The video above says the Pulse nightclub shooting happened in 2019. It actually happened in 2016.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – An active shooter workshop took place Wednesday night in San Francisco’s Castro District for the city’s bar and club owners.

This comes in response to last month’s mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs. Castro leaders are proactively trying to prepare their community with training that everyone hopes they will never have to use.

This was not open to the general public but focused on LGBTQ+ bar and nightclub owners in the city. It centered on active shooter situations and preparedness.

“We don’t want to work out of fear. Fear is not a helpful thing,” said Greg Carey, Castro Community on Patrol chairperson. He said this training may not prevent an attack but being prepared could lead to a better outcome for both employees and customers at an event.

“You really need a plan in your head before something happens so that you have that confidence and you have that capability of being able to make wise decisions,” added Carey.

With help from San Francisco police, firefighters and other city agencies, organizers came up with a class and handbook to help businesses be prepared. Some ideas included adding security and checking everyone for any weapons.

“The thing I say most often is that it’s really sad that in 2022 that people are still thinking like this and behaving like this,” said Erik Thomas, Beaux Nightclub security manager. For Thomas, the deadly mass shootings at Club Q in Colorado last month and Pulse nightclub in 2016 prompted a need to be proactive.

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The organizers said this training and preparedness is not guaranteed to keep a violent incident from happening, but the information will hopefully be invaluable in terms of being safe.

The Castro Community on Patrol is planning future safety events for the public. Basic self-defense is expected to be one of those presentations.