Let’s Talk Podcast with Robert Anderson: What an FBI Insider Can Finally Say About Active Shooter Response
Watch the full interview on YouTube below. Let’s Talk Podcast with Robert Anderson and Katherine Schweit, originally released January 4, 2026.
Watch the full Let’s Talk interview here or on YouTube.
For decades, conversations about mass violence in America have focused far more on reaction than understanding. When an active shooter threat unfolds, what actually happens once law enforcement arrives? What truly changed after Columbine? And what does the public still misunderstand about these incidents today?
In a recent episode of Let’s Talk, I sat down with it host, my long-time friend, Robert Anderson, himself a former FBI Special Agent Executive. We shared a wide-ranging conversation about progress made by the FBI and what still needs to change.
Robert began by asking about my origin story, which took us back to the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 when he member of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team. We knew federal response models were built around barricaded suspects and negotiations, situations where time was presumed to be on law enforcement’s side. We recall how Columbine changed the rules. The attacker had no demands, just wanted to kill people.
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School killing of 20 kids and 6 women, I, too, was in the thick of it, creating a team that conducted the FBI’s first national research on active shooter incidents. We helped government agencies adopt run, hide, fight response protocols and reshaped law enforcement training.
From my lips to your ears: progress has been uneven, but it has been made. I explain why in my sit-down with Bob. It was a fun and frank conversation with an old friend, the kind you have over a beer on your back patio.
This conversation goes beyond Columbine. We share:
How active shooter incidents differ from other forms of violence
Why early response models failed
What has improved since Columbine — and what hasn’t
Why prevention happens quietly, at the local level
Join us. Watch the full Let’s Talk interview on YouTube. Get free online resources here and be sure to subscribe to my no-junk email list.