So many things go into stopping a school or office shooting. In the case of the UNC-Charlotte shooting, a big reason more students weren't hurt or killed was because student Riley Howell fought the gunman.
Another reason, quick response time and a one-button remote locking system. "We have a mechanism that we can lock down every building on campus with one button. And we did that......as soon as we learned of the call, we locked the campus down," explained UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Philip Dubois.
Most colleges and universities have a way to text an emergency message to students and faculty. But this is much more. This is a technology designed to lock all doors in every building... all at one time!
2 Wants To Know talked to the UNCC Police Department about that one-button lock down technology. It's been in place for at least 6 years now and they do frequent testing and practice with the technology to make sure it works.
This was a new technology to most of us, so we called other colleges and universities to see if they had it:
Wake Forest: Has a remote way to lock most buildings on campus
North Carolina A&T: Has the ability to remotely lock down some campus building but not all
Elon: Has a card swipe system that also allows for remote locking of about 325 doors on campus-- mostly including exterior doors on residence halls, academic and common buildings
High Point University: Has 1,500 cameras on campus to watch what's going on, but no remote system to lock doors.
Other related stories on the UNCC shooting: