Some moments remain etched in my memory from the morning of June 12, 2016, when a lone gunman entered the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, just after last call.

The 3:15 a.m. phone call from my partner: “They’re not even sure how many people are dead. And he’s still in there, with hostages.”

Arriving on scene minutes later, encountering a dizzying blur of emergency lights, crackling radio traffic, and survivors’ screams.

The terrifying volley of gunfire, as SWAT operators killed the shooter, a terrorist who had pledged his allegiance to ISIS.

And, just after daybreak, when then-Orlando Police Chief John Mina stepped out of the command post before a media briefing that would be carried live, all over the world, and whispered, “It’s 49. Forty-nine people are dead.”

Standing on the street in front of Pulse that morning was my initiation into a club none of us wants to join: public information officers (PIOs) in communities that are the target of a mass shooting. And the devastating reality is that if you haven’t been through such an ordeal, the question is not if—but rather when—it will happen.