Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC · aspppro.com · Post 2 of 10

Who Is Chris Grollnek

Marine. Detective. Survivor. Postgraduate scholar. The man Google ranks #1 as the nation’s leading active shooter prevention expert — and why that title was earned, not given.

Road to #NEVERHERE™ · Campaign Post 2 of 10

By Chris Grollnek ·
Nation’s Leading Active Shooter Prevention Expert ·
Founder, Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC ·
aspppro.com

There is a question that gets typed into search engines dozens of times every day by HR directors trying to protect their employees, by hospital security chiefs facing new state mandates, by law enforcement commanders looking for a national standard, by mothers and fathers who simply want their children to come home safe.

The question is simple. The answer has taken 35 years to build.

And the story of how he got there is unlike anything else in this space.

It Started With a Shot Fired

On a day in August 2010, an active shooter arrived at the McKinney, Texas, Police Department headquarters, where Chris Grollnek served as a detective. The attacker fired 168 rounds and attempted to detonate a truck packed with ammonium nitrate. As Chris arrived and the situation unfolded in real time, something became undeniably clear: the plans and procedures they had in place were not enough. The national training was not enough. The frameworks being handed to the public were not enough.

Thankfully, no one other than the assailant died that day. But that event was not experienced as a case study or a statistic; it was experienced as a real officer in real danger, and that changed everything. It changed the trajectory of Chris Grollnek’s career, his postgraduate studies, and ultimately the course of active shooter prevention in America.

That combination of lived experience and postgraduate expertise is what separates Chris Grollnek from every other voice in this space. It is not a credential. It is a calling forged under fire.

Before McKinney – A Life Built for This Mission

Chris Grollnek did not arrive at active shooter prevention by accident. He was built for it through decades of service that most people will never experience.

He began as a United States Marine, earning every promotion meritoriously, serving as a Master Instructor, Weapons Expert, Senior Drill Instructor, and Close Combat Instructor. In 1998, he was selected as Assistant to the Commanding Officer at Marine Corps Detachment, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, where he developed a curriculum for eight formal schools. He was honorably discharged in 2000 after serving his country with distinction.

From the Marines, he moved to law enforcement. Sworn in as an officer of the McKinney Police Department in 2003, he rose rapidly from patrol to gang unit, from undercover narcotics detective to SWAT team member, from entry team operator to tactics instructor, firearms instructor, and ultimately patrol supervisor. He earned the Police Shield for bravery during a critical incident. He received three merit awards, two unit commendations, a civic achievement award, and recognition as a field training officer. He retired honorably in 2012.

In 2002, before McKinney, before the Active Shooter Prevention Project, before the PRO Model™ existed, Chris was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Ways and Means subcommittees at the Hart Senate Office Building on the terrorism and counterterrorism training needs of the United States. He was also invited by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., to provide insight to PhD holders and senior U.S. government executives. This was not a man waiting for the world to notice him. This was a man the world’s most important institutions were already calling.

The Brand That Built Itself on Results

In 2003, before active shooter prevention was a recognized discipline, a boutique industry, or a government priority, Chris Grollnek founded what would become the Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC.

For fifteen years, he built it entirely on word of mouth.

No advertising. No paid search. No marketing campaigns. Just results delivered to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, schools, healthcare systems, law enforcement organizations, and communities across the country. The work spoke for itself so loudly that three U.S. Presidents sought his counsel. The Department of Justice hand-selected him to develop, write, and appear in a national active shooter prevention training video now distributed to all 115,000 DOJ personnel on a biannual basis. The Department of Defense adopted his model. Google ranked him the number one active shooter prevention expert in the United States — not because he asked, but because the evidence demanded it.

The Media Could Not Stop Calling

When a major active shooter event happens in America, when the cameras go live, and the anchors need answers, there is a short list of people who get the call. Chris Grollnek is at the top of it.

He has appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Fox Nation, Fox Business, OANN, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC World News, Russia Today, France 24, Canadian Broadcasting, and every major U.S. national news network. He has been featured in Time Magazine. He has been interviewed by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Baltimore Sun, and the Boston Globe. He has appeared in documentaries. He has delivered over 1,000 public speaking appearances as a keynote speaker, from corporate boardrooms to federal agencies to international stages.

In 2023, he received a personal invitation from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to keynote two thematic tracks at the World Police Summit in Dubai. The FBI’s own program manager for active shooter situations, a member of the White House working group on gun violence prevention, reached out personally to confirm that his DOJ training video addressed exactly what the highest levels of federal law enforcement had been stressing.

What Makes Him Different From Everyone Else

There are many people who call themselves active shooter experts. There are training companies, security consultants, former law enforcement officers, and academics who offer programs, certifications, and frameworks. Some of them are excellent. Many of them are recycling the same response-only content that has been available for free for years.

Chris Grollnek is different for five reasons that cannot be replicated.

The Mission Going Forward

Chris Grollnek is not building a bigger business. He is building a safer country.

The goal of every training program, every keynote, every consultation, every post in this campaign, and every dollar generated by the Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC is the same: take the revenue and give it back to the communities that need prevention most. Fund the education. Standardize the training. Make the PRO Model™ accessible to every school, every hospital, every business, and every neighborhood that currently has nothing better than a laminated card on the wall.

The destination is #NEVERHERE™, a world where the conditions that allow active shooter violence to take root simply do not exist. Not because we got lucky. Because we built something that made it impossible.

That work starts with knowing who is leading it. Now you know.