We are all familiar with fire-evacuation drills or tornado drills—when the alarm rings, you get up, get in line, and get away from danger.

But since the invasion of Columbine High School in 1999, when two teenage students fatally shot 12 students and one teacher, and since a gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University in 2007, intruder drills have also become increasingly common.

Haunted by what happened at Columbine and Virginia Tech, institutions are working with law enforcement agencies to ensure that response times are as swift as possible.

Last Sunday, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College Police, Virginia State Police, the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office and Goochland County Volunteer Fire-Rescue responded to a simulated shooting at the college’s Goochland campus.

As volunteers gathered in a classroom at J. Sargeant Reynolds last Sunday, Campus Police Lieutenant Rod Davis assigned various roles.

“You’re a dead person, you’re a severely wounded person, you’re going to be able to escape unharmed…”

Although a few volunteers smiled nervously, the implications were grim: in the event of an emergency, if the simulation were real, just how many people would be able to walk out unscathed?

The scenario involved two shooters, a hostage and a campus filled with students and staff.

The drill involved a blur of shooters, victims, law enforcement responders and evaluators.

Although the guns weren’t real, the implied threat was, and everyone involved took the drill seriously.

As a deputy with the Goochland Sheriff’’s Office led the “shooter” to the lobby, he told the volunteer, a student who had donned a black ski mask and had “fired” randomly into the crowd, “You did good man, you did good!”

As agencies continue to work together to evaluate plans and responses, to discover what works and what doesn’t, the good of the entire community is further protected.