A new panic alarm system that was triggered during Wednesday’s deadly shooting at a Georgia high school likely saved countless lives, authorities and advocates for the technology said.

Lockdown warnings flashed on classroom screens at Apalachee High School as gunshots rang out, prompting students and teachers to lock the door, turn off the lights and huddle in the farthest corner from the entrance, witnesses said.

At the same time, alerts automatically went out to law enforcement officers, who responded and ended the shooting rampage within minutes, according to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith and Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey.

  • Mereo
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    10 days ago

    As a Canadian, I find it very sad that schools have to resort to panic alarm systems as if they were living in a Mad Max movie without a government.

    • poo@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      As a Canadian, I literally worry about being shot whenever I have to visit the US (I try to avoid it). That’s the kind of reputation the US has

      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 days ago

        As an American, I get it. Personally I’m very weary of being out in large crowds at this point, which sucks because, you know, life.

        It may ultimately be a subset of our population which has directly or indirectly caused this situation, but make no mistake: we put ourselves in the hole.

    • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 days ago

      While I agree with regards to school shootings, this has a lot of other value as well, such as medical emergencies. I think its great to have a system like this available, I just wish the reasoning behind it was more for those medical emergencies and less because school shootings are all too common…

      I’m glad it helped in Georgia. I hope its never needed for the same reason ever again - though with the idiots out there that think guns are more important than kids, its likely my hopes will be dashed soon.