Gunshots echoed through the Cowley College halls around 1:00 Thursday afternoon. When the smoke and chaos settled, nobody was hurt -- but lessons were learned.

Arkansas City Police, along with Cowley County Sheriff's officers, emergency dispatchers, and college officials staged several on-campus shootings Thursday. The training missions were designed to teach everybody how to respond in the event a gunman was ever loose on campus.

"We want to be prepared," said ACPD Chief Sean Wallace. "If you look at the communities where these shootings have happened before, they're small towns like us, with high schools about the size of ours."

This is the third year Wallace has helped organize such an exercise, and this year's is the biggest yet. More than 100 officers, school personnel and volunteers participated.

"Officers are either trained and untrained," said Wallace. "We're going to be trained."

Scenes like those inside the halls of Cowley College have played out before, often with tragic results. The 1999 Columbine High School massacre left 12 dead. A gunman on the Virginia Tech campus murdered 32 classmates last year.

The training sessions help law enforcement realize their strengths and weaknesses. One of the big hangups last year was communication, a problem that multiplies when you begin to factor in more than one agency.

But this year, Wallace said there were fewer mistakes. And those that were discovered this year will receive added attention.

"We'll take steps to correct them," said Wallace, "whether it be our communication techniques, our tactics, or even another piece of equipment we need."