Keeping Customers Safe A Priority For Businesses Amid High-Profile Mass Shootings

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The latest high-profile mass shootings are putting a renewed focus on security.

Businesses in our area are seeking out ways to make sure customers can feel safe.

“Keeping your patrons or employees safe is the most important thing,” explains Julius Ulanday, with Security Consult Inc.

Ulanday helps develop security plans for local businesses, schools, and churches.

Each time there’s another high-profile mass shooting, he gets calls from potential clients who want to make sure they can keep their customers safe.

“It’s always reactionary when it comes to people reviewing their security protocols in businesses and faculties,” Ulanday says.

The latest shooting happening in Louisville, Kentucky on Monday.

That’s where a 23-year-old bank employee, armed with a rifle opened fire, killed five people and injured at least eight others, while live streaming the attack.

Two weeks ago, three children and three adults were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville.

The 28-year-old shooter died after being shot by police.

Ulanday says businesses need to work to develop a plan and update it annually.

“Access control, surveillance, panic buttons, that sort of thing will help,” he says.

Debate rages over the best approach to prevent mass shootings.

We asked our friends on the WCCB Charlotte Facebook page.

Hartley says, “We need armed personnel at every school. It might not stop every shooting but if it saves just one life, it’s worth it.”

And Colby says, “More guns in the right hands, less guns in the wrong hands.”

“Let’s not wait until another one of these Louisville attacks happen before we plan and set up your facilities correctly,” Ulanday says.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 146 mass shootings so far in 2023.

That’s a shooting where four or more people get shot, not including the suspect.

In 2022, there were 647 mass shootings.