ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky State Police held an active shooter training session Friday at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, an effort to teach school faculty and staff how to keep students and each other safe in the face of danger.

The training was part of KSP's Safe Schools program, which is designed to prepare the state's teachers for active shooter situations. 

"Given today's current climate and the way society has turned off, I'd rather have these teachers prepared for this type of event," KSP Detective James Martins said. "It's not a matter of where or how. It's when."

Martin said faculty and staff had a chance Friday to hear shots being fired from a real AK-47. The gun shot only blanks, but it's a very loud sound, something he said many of them had never heard before. They also detailed how to barricade a door and exit the building or find a safe room properly.

"The world we live in right now, this is what we're faced with," said Brent Holsclaw, chief financial facility officer at ECTC. "We have to prepare ourselves as much as we possibly can."

KSP does this same training with schools, from elementary to high school.

"We hope we never use this information," Holsclaw said. "I mean, that would be a great, great accomplishment if that happened. But we have to be as prepared as we possibly can for the worst. The important part of this training is that we count on each other, and I think we saw that today."

For more information about the Safe Schools program, click here.

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