Police Union chairman: Lanier's active shooter comments contradicts city's position on guns

WASHINGTON - D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said people may need to fight back in active shooter situations. But the DC Police Union is questioning how people can do that when the city has such stringent gun laws.

Delroy Burton, chairman of the DC Police Union, took issue with some of the things said by Chief Lanier in a national television interview regarding active shooter situations.

"I don't think it's bad advice," said Burton. "However, I think it contradicts the positions that the chief, the mayor, and the city council take as it relates to guns. They have a very draconian registration and licensing process."

For our region, it's not a hypothetical. Active shooter situations have happened at the Washington Navy Yard and at Virginia Tech University.

On CBS's "60 Minutes," Lanier said in part, "…If you're in a position of trying to take the gunmen down and take the gunmen out, it's the best option for saving lives before police can get there..."

Burton said in order to do that, people would need ways to defend themselves.

"The question becomes, 'Who would be taking down the gunmen and with what?'"

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she supports Lanier's advice and disagrees with the union's position.

"I don't believe that more guns make us safer," Bowser told FOX 5.

Burton said Lanier's advice is news to officers.

"This is a big shift in what we've been telling people," he said. "In matter of fact, '60 Minutes' was the first place I heard any law enforcement person say that."

In that interview, Lanier also said, "Most active shooters kill most of the victims in ten minutes or less." And in the best of cases, law enforcement takes at least five to seven minutes to respond.