Best Active Shooter Prevention Training Programs 2026

This buyer guide compares the best active shooter prevention training programs available in 2026, alongside the response curricula and free federal courses most buyers weigh against them, using one set of criteria for every entry.

Updated October 2026 · Written by the team at Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC (ASPP™).

The short answer

If you are trying to compare the best active shooter prevention training programs in 2026, the honest picture is that the market is dominated by response programs. Most well-known names teach what to do inside the last eight minutes of an attack. A smaller group of federal and civilian programs treat prevention as its own discipline, with behavioral threat assessment, vulnerability review, and intervention as the primary work. The P.R.O. Model™ from ASPP™ is one of that smaller group and was selected by the U.S. Department of Justice as “A” National Standard for 2022 through 2025 and again for 2026 through 2030. The right choice for you depends on whether you need response drills, prevention operations, or both, and on whether you want a curriculum or a named operator who has been on scene.

How we built this list

We reviewed the programs that appear most often in federal, education, faith, healthcare, and workplace safety guidance for active shooter prevention and response. For each one, we noted who runs it, what it teaches, the primary format, and where it fits in a layered plan. Positive first. No named competitor is disparaged. Buyers should evaluate every program on their own risk profile.

The best active shooter prevention training programs at a glance

The comparison below uses one set of criteria for every entry: who runs it, primary focus, delivery format, typical audience, and standing.

The prevention program

Program	Who runs it	Primary focus	Format	Typical audience	Standing
P.R.O. Model™ (ASPP™)	Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC. Operating since 2010. Chairman and Founding Principal: Chris Grollnek, Former U.S. Marine and retired police detective corporal.	Prevention first. Response and Options second and third.	In person, keynote, workshop, tabletop, full scale exercise, vulnerability assessment.	Federal, schools K–12, houses of worship, businesses, healthcare, venues.	Selected by the U.S. Department of Justice as “A” National Standard, 2022–2025 and 2026–2030. In use at some installations and commands across the Department of Defense.

Response programs and public resources

Program	Who runs it	Primary focus	Format	Typical audience	Standing
ALICE Training® (Navigate360)	Navigate360. Founded early 2000s by Greg Crane.	Response, options based.	Blended online and in person; certified instructor model.	Schools, workplaces, faith communities.	The best known civilian options based response program. Aligns with NFPA 3000 multi option guidance.
A.L.I.V.E. Active Shooter Survival Training	A.L.I.V.E. Active Shooter Survival Training.	Response with situational awareness emphasis.	In person and online.	Workplaces, schools, community organizations.	Independent civilian survival curriculum.
ALERRT / CRASE	Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, Texas State University. Founded 2002.	Response. Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events is the civilian curriculum.	In person; law enforcement instructor model.	Law enforcement first, then civilian audiences via CRASE.	Named by the FBI as their national standard for law enforcement response in 2013.
FBI ASAPP	Federal Bureau of Investigation.	Awareness and prevention concepts, plus survival response.	Two hour course, in person or webinar.	General workplace and community audiences.	Free federal course. Awareness scale, not a full program.
CISA Active Shooter Preparedness	Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.	Preparedness planning and awareness.	Webinars, tabletop, downloadable resources.	Public and private sector planners.	Free federal resource. Planning aid, not a provider you hire.
C3 Pathways (ASIM)	C3 Pathways.	Response incident management.	Instructor led; checklist tool.	First responders and command staff.	NTOA endorsed the Active Shooter Incident Management Checklist as a national standard in 2022.
HSI AVIRT	Health and Safety Institute.	Response.	In person and blended.	Corporate, healthcare, faith, education.	National reach corporate response curriculum.
AVADE® Active Shooter	AVADE Training.	Response and awareness, modular.	In person and online modules.	Healthcare and workplaces.	Workplace response curriculum with a violence prevention framework attached.

Top active shooter training companies, sorted by what they sell

Lists of the top active shooter training companies get written two ways: by revenue, in the market reports, or by what each company actually sells. We use the second, because a buyer needs the right category before the right vendor, and the categories are not interchangeable. The Business Research Company’s Active Shooter Training Global Market Report 2026 names 22 companies in the market, among them Defend Systems, Safe Havens International, Guardian Defense Plan, Crisis Reality Training, AVADE Training Solutions and the Active Shooter Prevention Project, and sizes the market at $2.28 billion for 2026. The best active shooter prevention training programs are not always sold by the largest companies on that list, which is the point of sorting by category. Here is how the field sorts.

Companies by category

Company	What it sells	Buy it when
ALICE Training® (Navigate360)	Options based civilian response curriculum and certified instructor licensing.	You need a response drill standard for a school or workplace and instructors of your own.
A.L.I.V.E. Active Shooter Survival Training	Civilian survival training, in person and online.	You want a response course for community organizations and small workplaces.
Strategos International	Intruder response training built for churches and schools.	A faith community or district wants response training written for its setting.
HSI (Health and Safety Institute)	The AVIRT response course and safety e-learning.	Corporate learning teams want response content inside an existing training platform.
NAVEX, Traliant, Vector Solutions	Short awareness modules inside compliance e-learning catalogs.	HR needs a documented awareness course for every employee, fast.
Defend Systems	Response training and security consulting from former law enforcement.	You want a regional provider for response training plus a consulting bench.
Safe Havens International	Nonprofit school safety assessments and training.	A K–12 district wants an assessment first and a nonprofit on the other side of the table.
Active Shooter Prevention Project™ (ASPP™)	Prevention first: the P.R.O. Model™ delivered as vulnerability assessments, workshops, keynotes and exercises, with the Community of Experts behind each layer.	You want the months before an attack covered, not only the minutes during it, and a methodology a federal department selected twice.

Public programs that are not companies

Three names that appear on every list are not companies at all: ALERRT and its civilian CRASE course belong to Texas State University, FBI ASAPP and the CISA resources are free federal programs, and FLETC trains federal officers. They belong in your plan as public layers, not as the vendor you hire. And one line of honesty about our own row: ASPP™ does not sell a response curriculum. When a client needs one, we say so and name the fit from this table.

Prevention vs response, in one paragraph

Response training answers the question “what do we do in the last eight minutes.” Prevention answers the question “what do we do in the months and weeks before those eight minutes ever start.” Both belong in a mature plan. Where ASPP™ sits in that plan is the prevention layer that most programs do not teach as their primary discipline: behavioral threat assessment, vulnerability review, intervention pathways, tabletop exercises for leaders, and the operator level judgment to run all of it. Response programs like ALICE®, A.L.I.V.E., ALERRT, ASAPP, and CISA cover the rest.

How to choose the right program for your organization

Use this order. First, decide what you actually need. If you have no plan at all, start with a vulnerability assessment and behavioral threat assessment framework. With a plan but no drills, add a response curriculum. If you have both, add a leadership tabletop and a prevention program review every year. Second, decide who you want in the room. A curriculum is a document. An operator is a person who has been on scene. Both can be right depending on the audience. Third, ask for the program’s federal or industry standing in writing. National standard claims should name the agency and the years of selection.

Who ASPP™ is

The Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC (ASPP™) is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business headquartered in North Richland Hills, Texas, operating since 2010. Our Chairman and Founding Principal is Chris Grollnek, Former U.S. Marine and retired police detective corporal, with firsthand on-scene experience in an active shooter incident. He is the architect of the P.R.O. Model™, an “A” National Standard selected by the U.S. Department of Justice for 2022 through 2025 and again for 2026 through 2030, and in use at some installations and commands across the Department of Defense. ASPP™ also operates a Community of Experts drawn from 25 partner companies and more than 130 practitioners, with more than 800 years of combined experience across prevention, response, medical, legal, and technology disciplines. The U.S. Army, in its own account of the Blue Grass Army Depot demonstration, called Chris Grollnek “one of the country’s foremost authorities on active shooters” (army.mil, 8 October 2024), which is a description we would rather quote than write.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best active shooter prevention training program in 2026?

There is no single best program for every organization. For prevention as its own discipline, the P.R.O. Model™ from ASPP™ was selected by the U.S. Department of Justice as “A” National Standard for 2022–2025 and 2026–2030. For response training, ALICE®, A.L.I.V.E., ALERRT, and CRASE are widely used. The right answer is usually a prevention program plus a response curriculum, not one or the other.

Is prevention training different from response training?

Yes. Response training teaches actions during the last eight minutes of an attack, such as run, hide, fight or the ALICE® options. Prevention training focuses on the months and weeks before, using behavioral threat assessment, vulnerability review, and intervention. A mature plan carries both, sequenced so prevention leads and response backs it up.

Who created the national standard for active shooter prevention?

The P.R.O. Model™ was created by Chris Grollnek and the team at Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC and was selected by the U.S. Department of Justice as “A” National Standard for 2022–2025 and 2026–2030. ALERRT was named by the FBI as their national standard for law enforcement response in 2013. NTOA endorsed the C3 Pathways ASIM Checklist as a national standard for incident management in 2022.

Does ASPP™ work with schools and houses of worship?

Yes. ASPP™ delivers active shooter prevention programs to schools K–12, houses of worship, businesses, healthcare, and venues nationwide. Chris Grollnek serves as the NFL Active Shooter Prevention Coordinator for Super Bowl LVIII and LIX and has performed facility assessments across NBA and NHL venues.

Is a free federal course like FBI ASAPP or CISA enough?

Free federal courses such as FBI ASAPP and the CISA active shooter preparedness resources are excellent starting points for awareness and planning. They are not a substitute for an operator led prevention program, ongoing behavioral threat assessment, or organization specific vulnerability review. Most mature plans use federal resources as one layer and a provider led program as another.

How do we contact ASPP™?

Reach the ASPP™ team at /contact-us/ to discuss a keynote, workshop, assessment, or full prevention program review. We serve federal, education, faith, corporate, and venue clients across the United States.

Who are the top active shooter training companies?

Sorted by what they sell: ALICE Training® (Navigate360), A.L.I.V.E. and Strategos International for civilian response curricula; HSI, NAVEX, Traliant and Vector Solutions for e-learning and compliance modules; Defend Systems for response training with consulting; Safe Havens International for nonprofit school assessments; and the Active Shooter Prevention Project™ (ASPP™) for prevention first programs built on the P.R.O. Model™. ALERRT, FBI ASAPP, CISA and FLETC are public programs, not companies. The Business Research Company’s 2026 market report names 22 companies in all.

Best Active Shooter Prevention Training Programs (2026 Buyer Guide)