Van Brunt quoted on preventing campus shootings in Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Some experts say that it is possible to prevent some shootings before they even occur, by identifying potential perpetrators. Brian van Brunt, senior vice president at the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM) and president of the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (NaBITA), said that emergency responses in the event of a fire and a mass shooting are similar in some ways. “It’s sort of like talking about how effective a fire department is at stopping fires—they do a nice job at that because they put out the fire … but we really want to get to that issue beforehand, before the fire has started,” he said.

In his work at NCHERM and NaBITA, van Brunt provides training to behavioral intervention teams at colleges and universities across the country. “[We can put] interventions in place, sometimes counseling, with student conduct, sometimes with law enforcement, to sometimes stop things before they escalate into an attack,” he said.

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