Mississippi State University reported an “active shooter” on campus Thursday morning and went into “lockdown,” but then followed with an update that although a person had been taken into custody, no injuries were reported and there were no reports of any shots fired.

The agreed-upon definition of an “active shooter” by US government agencies (the White House, US Department of Justice/FBI, US Department of Education, and US Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency) is “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.”

No shots fired. That’s not an active shooter.

Apparently the suspect had notified an Army recruiter of his acquaintance that he was considering suicide. The recruiter contacted authorities and police tracked the person to MSU, where he was arrested.

No shots were fired and no gun was found, and apparently there never was a gun or any shooting.

Perhaps the headline and warning should have been “Despondent freshman engineering major considers suicide.” I suspect that false “active shooter” warnings will eventually backfire, like the boy who cried wolf.

Lockdowns have their own special set of problems and generally are a bad idea if you’re getting locked in with a killer. Escape is generally much preferred, even if that means disobeying the “authorities.”