I was driving to work

earlier this week and was listening to newstalk radio as is my habit, and a story comes on about a new Emergency Alert system being tested and implemented at UC Davis - one of those lockdown the school kind of systems.

Unfortunately, we need systems like these because we have stupid people in the world. There has been a lot of talk about systems involving email and text messaging and the costs required to implement these alert systems. But almost immediately the thought occurred to me - Why are we re-inventing the wheel? I say we simply use a slightly modified version of air raid/tornado sirens. When I was kid living in Nebraska, if the siren went off that meant there was a Tornado warning, please take appropriate action. You could place 3 of those sirens equally spaced across a campus to alert EVERYBODY that idiots with guns are onsite. If you are worried about it being confused with another siren (tornado, for example), use a pulsing or burst siren instead of a steady one. Doesn't this sound like a very cost effective way to notify people quickly? If you are concerned about hearing impaired individuals, marry the system with some kind of flashing lights....

Just a thought.