Threat Extinguisher Non-Lethal Defense System was designed to help save lives. In the wake of increasing violence at many places of worship, as well as, schools and businesses our founder created an easy to use system to combat the violence.
Threat Extinguisher provides an innovative solution by providing simultaneous communication and defense.
1) Alert: texts with vital information to designated contacts while sounding a loud alarm.
2) Notify: immediate calls to police & fire for automatic dispatch that includes info on where the activated base is located.
3) Defend: a non-lethal, easy-to-use option for defense, if necessary, in the critical moments while waiting for help to arrive.
Threat Extinguisher Design
Active shooter and violent threat training has been evolving in the past 10 years as mass shootings have increased. An important addition has been “fight”. We wanted to develop a system that provides this element but also assists in first response, from the building staff to first responders. Our co-founder Sam Fasone has said “I wanted to design a system to give people a fighting chance in the unfortunate event of an active threat”. Our system utilizes what we call AND, Alert, Notify and Defend.
We help people in the building or area “run” with an Alert, sending texts to designated staff of the active threat as well as identifying which base has been activated. It sounds a loud alarm allowing people nearby to immediately know where the activity is occurring. People will know which exits are away from danger or allow them to “hide” in a secure place.
We Notify with an instant call to police for immediate dispatch to the activated base location. This eliminates the need for a phone call from a potentially frantic person who may not know specifically where the activity is occurring. This reduces the response time providing important time for action by first responders. “It can pinpoint the exact point or location where the problem is, when someone pulls out the can it can send a signal where the box is”, says co-founder Mr. Fasone.
Finally we Defend, no more throwing staplers, desks or whatever is at hand. Our non-lethal, easy to use canister “fights” with a powerful tactical grade pepper spray at a range of 30 feet to immobilize an attacker in the critical moments while waiting for help to arrive.
Why now
From January 1 to October 3 of 2017 there have been 274 shootings where four or more people have been killed or seriously injured, and 10 of those of those classify as mass shootings. The increase is not just in the number of shootings, it’s the frequency as well as the number of people killed and injured. Three of the deadliest US mass shootings have occurred in the past year.
Our co-founder Paul Stevens said “watching innocent people being killed inspired us to improve Run-Hide-Fight with instant communication and defense against an attacker. Our system works easily for everyday people – no guns or gun training needed. Loss of life still a possibility, but the time has come to find solutions, to help save lives and reduce deaths. Doing nothing is not an option”.
What people are saying
In response to these statistics, Threat Extinguisher was recently installed at Worthington Christian Schools in Worthington Ohio. Head of School Troy McIntosh wrote in his message to the school; “Any person – staff member, student or guest – can use the pepper spray to incapacitate and disarm the threat until first responders arrive. We had also considered arming select staff members, but because the pepper spray is non-lethal, the concern of having armed staff members handling lethal weapons in a high stress and confusing situation for which they have little training is avoided.”
WORTHINGTON CHRISTIAN INSTALLATION: NEW SYSTEM IS ANOTHER MEASURE TO KEEP STUDENTS SAFE
Additional EMS Support
We also offer EMS pendants/wall mounted buttons to call for ambulance support when a medical need arises. These are coded so the authorities know the difference in violent threat versus a medical emergency. A great addition for places where there are people with potential medical needs.
About our Co-Founders
Sam Fasone and Paul Stevens developed the Threat Extinguisher System to save lives, to keep more guns from being a solution, and to reduce the amount of trauma caused in active shooter events and other violent situations that occur too often in schools and other spaces.
After noticing a rise in the shootings and violence, especially after the tragedy at Sandy Hook in December of 2012, Sam and Paul knew action was needed to improve safety for these events. After the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado in 2015, they decided they needed to accelerate working on this idea, to make it a communication and defense system that worked easily for everyday people. They understood that there was still a high likelihood of loss of life in these events, but they knew the time had come to launch the system and work to help save lives because doing nothing was not an option.