j.j. green joins us live by phone in washington. >> randall, the situation that we were talking about earlier is one that re dhs has been concerned about for a while. they've been involved in communities with very specific programming designed to prepare building community colleges full time colleges all sorts of organizations for this type of thing. and basically what they do is they go and meet with the principals from those organizations and talk about security vulnerabilities and each one is different. and this is a situation today that speaks specifically to how difficult it is to put in place a security plan because this particular place is out in the middle of -- as you mentioned earlier -- a logging community. which is very different from most communities that dhs and others are dealing with. this is a unique situation speaking to how difficult it is to secure places across the country for this type of shooting, this type of event. >> we should note according to reports we've received th

let's go to our security consultant j.j. green. he's our national security contributor joining us by phone from washington d.c. j.j. >> hi, randall. >> so you were saying earlier that there are protocols in place at most college campuses because we've had so many of these tragedies in the past decade or so. one thing that obviously is very useful is social media. universities and colleges have developed a system of sending out a warning usually to everyone to stay in place or to seek shelter when these sort of events occur. >> yeah, but these plans that are in place now that are parts of homeland security and local homeland security and local emergency management officials and local police are much more complex than this. what they'll do is they'll go to any college, university, any business, any significant organization that has a significant population and what they'll do is a survey to begin with. they'll survey that organization on what kind of security they have in place now. and that survey will tell them where there are vulne

let's go to our security consultant j.j. green. he's our national security contributor joining us by phone from washington d.c. j.j. >>

and let's bring in j.j. green on the phone. he's al jazeera's national security contributor and he's in washington d.c. j.j., what do you make of the fact that just last year they had a big debate on campus as to whether or not this should have armed security guards on campus and we're also told that they did go through a number of drills in case there was some sort of amajor security issue or a mass casualty issue. is this where we are in this country right now where schools are forced to do this on a regular basis preparing for just this kind of awful scenario? >> yes, it is. it is. we're all there. just from talking with homeland security and federal law enforcement authorities, that's where we all are now. and it's not a matter of being forced to do it. a lot of organizations are going out voluntarily and seeking this kind of training and seeking this kind of engagement when it comes to security. not being nos at that jibbitalg gentleman -- to be safe. so it is where we talgia -- to be safe. so it is where we are. people are