A Practical Guide To Preventing School Shootings

Federalist Radio Hour

Radio America

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.5 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, John Menna, a longtime safety engineering and regulatory affairs leader and founder of Principled Safety LLC, joins Federalist Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to flip the school shooting safety conversation on its head and share practical tips on how to best equip parents, teachers, and students with the tools they need to prevent, not simply minimize, the harms wrought by armed suspects.

You can find Menna's book, Before the Next Tragedy: Preventing Harm in School Shooting Scenarios, here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We are back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
0:20.1	I'm Matt Kittle's senior elections correspondent at The Federalist
0:23.3	and your experience Sherpa on today's quest for knowledge.
0:28.1	As always, you can email the show at Radio at the Federalist.com.
0:32.4	Follow us on X at FDRLST.
0:35.3	Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and of course, to the premium version
0:39.8	of our website as well.
0:42.1	Our guest today is security expert John Mena on his new book Before the Next Tragedy,
0:48.4	Preventing Harm in School Shooting Scenarios.
0:53.3	John, thank you so much for joining us in this edition of the Federalist
0:56.0	Radio Hour. Thank you for having me, Matt. Absolutely. This is a sobering topic for those of us,
1:03.8	parents, grandparents who have kids in school, we have seen over the last several decades,
1:10.2	just the trauma that is the school shooting. And we have seen over the last several decades, just the trauma that is the school shooting,
1:14.0	and we have seen that all too often.
1:16.8	But take me back to where this all began for you.
1:21.2	Was this a personal subject?
1:23.7	Did it impact your life in terms of the loss of someone you knew, someone you loved?
1:30.1	How did you come to this topic?
1:34.4	Well, I think it was the event itself. If you're anything like me, there are certain headlines
1:42.9	that lodge themselves in your soul and never quite leave.
1:47.9	The shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14th,
1:54.9	2018 was one of those moments by me.
	...

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