Lexington police are teaching local people how to deal with active shooters.

Chief Terrence Green and his department have scheduled an active shooter training class later today.

Across the US, law enforcement and private trainers are helping businesses and individuals prepare for threats from people like former Lexington resident and mass killer Dylann Roof.

Roof killed 9 people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston 4 years ago.

Mass shootings are rising and becoming more deadly.

School officials, concert promoters and private companies are taking a more hands-on approach.

Courses go beyond the “run, hide, fight” advice.

Survival classes teach how to build barricades, break through windows, create distractions and care for those who are wounded.

Training emphasizes “avoid, barricade, counter, survive” – the ABCS.

Since 1998, there have been more than a dozen school shootings that resulted in multiple deaths.

In 2017, more active shooters struck than in any year since 2000, killing 138 people, the most of any year on record, the FBI reported.

A Florida law requires schools to conduct active-shooter drills as often as other types of drills.

Experts say classrooms should have designated “hard corners” where students are better protected from gunfire. They recommend faculty be trained to treat the wounded.

“There is the potential for people coming into contact with violent individuals at any given moment, time or location,” said Greg Crane of the ALICE Training Institute.

They have taught employees at more than 3,000 businesses to “alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate.”

The National Fire Protection Association recommends public education courses including “survival strategies and actions” as well as bleeding control and basic trauma care.

Said John Montes, the association’s emergency services specialist, “That’s going to make a difference.”

Some complain that active shooter drills can be too realistic and traumatic. Safety officials caution that barricades can prevent law enforcement and medics from reaching the wounded.

Experts say it may take 5 minutes or more for police to arrive. Can you survive 5 minutes? That’s the goal.