Ordinary citizens being trained to treat bullet wounds during mass shootings
A new federal training program aims to teach ordinary citizens, like teachers and custodians, what to do to save lives in a potential mass shooting or terrorist attack.
The goal of the "Stop the Bleed" initiative is to make sure wounded victims do not die due to blood loss while they wait for emergency responders.
At a recent training session at Stony Brook University in New York, paramedics taught people how to treat a bullet wound and how to use everyday objects, like shoelaces, to fashion a tourniquet.
"They're preparing for nightmare situations that have become all too real in the United States," Rob Schmitt reported on "Happening Now."
He noted that in many attacks, authorities later realize that some deaths were preventable. In the June massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, an 18-year-old named Akyra Murray died of a single gunshot wound to her arm.
Murray slowly bled to death in a bathroom, texting her parents as she waited hours for paramedics to arrive.