You will find that you have one of three responses? 1. Fight. As the picture shows one could surprisingly attack him. 2. Hide. in the pic you see people squatting downward to hide. Or 3. Run. Jump out a open window or wait till he passes you the run out the door. It sad we have to understand this in these times but we need too. God bless you all.
As a ex-military guy unfortunately I do totally know how to react to an active shoot. Fight, Flight or Hide are the three primary options, but none of them are absolute. It is all situational dependent.
They would say not to seek out the shooter, so hide if you can. Some people would say to run, but if you do not know exactly where the shooter is and there is no clear avenue of escape you could end up running into the shooter. So don't run unless your really sure you can get away... and when you run do not run into open or through open places without seeking cover or toward objects or place that might afford you cover if required. Last thing you want to do is get caught in the open with nothing in between you and the shooter... and of cause always be looking of alternative avenues of egress.
So in most cases hiding is the best options for most people, but as a retired solider I am inclined to fight. If I ran or hide from a shooter I would probably save my own ass, but I also know that most shooters are not expecting to be stalked or pursued... so if there is an opportunity in which I could position myself to ambush a shooter like we see here in the photo I would seek out those opportunities.
For example instead of positioning yourself behind the filing cabinets, like these two in the photo I would of positioned my friend behind the filing cabinet to make noise while he is protected with some cover, and I would of position myself in the door way to the back of the shooter and try to ambush him or distract him so that either myself or friend could rush him from either side. One of us could be killed or seriously wounded but we could safe countless lives so I would fight. No better way for a Solider to die than with his sword drawn face to the enemy, screaming defiance with his last breath. I could not live with myself knowing others died, while I lived and didn't try to help them, and no way am I going out cowering under a desk or behind a filing cabinet.
Secondly if you do hide, you must be prepared for the event in which you are found and be ready to fight... 50/50 chance once found that you will be killed, but if you do nothing with out trying to fight back there is 0% chance of survival. Remember the shooter is there for one purpose, to kill you, once they have crossed that line there is no negotiating with the shooter or talking your way out of it,
Yes, my last workplace had training on the scenario.
From what I remember, don't half-a— anything: ● If you fight, fight 100%, like your life depended on it, because it does. ● If you run, run also 100% like your life depended on it, because it does. ● If you hide, hide also 100% like your life depended on it, because it does.
You know your state & will know your opportunities better than others, so you choose what to do based on your capacities, training, opportunities, environmental advantages, etc. But whatever you do, do it full-power 100%.
Had one of the teachers in the room had a gun they wouldn't' have to hide. All they would have to do is wait on the inside next to the door. As soon as the shooter came through the door he would have been shot dead and 21 people would still be alive.
And that is what the people killed did. They hid in a room from which there was no escape - unless it had windows that is. If there were I have no idea why they did not escape through the windows unless some dumb teacher told them to duck and cover under their desks instead because that is what the idiots in the district office said they should do..
If there is shooting inside I would get outside, through the window. When I was in grade school the classrooms had both front and rear doors and were in separate buildings of 4 classrooms to each.
@Flower7 Hiding is not a bad options... but @daniela1982D is right if you are trapped in a place that you can not secure properly and offers no other chance of escape then you could be trapped. But if you do barricade yourself in to a room... in most cases the shooter is not going to take the time to break through the door, because they want to kill as many as possible in the shortest amount of time possible.
So if you hide behind a locked door, try to grab something like a part of scissors or a blunt object and position yourself to either side of the door crouched down, not in front of the door, and be prepared to try to ambush him in the event that he breaks through. Because if you are trapped in the the room once he is inside it he will kill you, so fighting is the best option.
But again Daniela is correct best to try to barricade yourself in a room with a window or other means of escape. Once a shooter tries to break into the room you will know exactly where the shooter is and should have time to get out, and that would be the best time to run or jump through the window. Because then you know your not running accidently toward the shooter... and then you only have to worry that there is no more than one shooter. But still running at that point in time might be better than fighting. What you do not want to do is just blindly start jumping out of windows or running down hallways without knowing the exact location of the shooter especially if your are already behind a locked door or in a relative place of safety.
No I probably hide because that's best chances I have due to missing knowledge of how to neutralize a weapon and strength to do fight. The problem with running is that makes me vulnerable in being visible to him while I can't see him like if I ran or climbed out of a window he can still shoot me in the back and make me immobile. So hiding in the right place gives me the biggest chances to survive.
I was in a theatre that had a shooting once. It took me awhile to realize what was going on or take it seriously. At first I though firecrackers were going off and then I thought this girl was running from her boyfriend with her shoes off because they had issues. When I found out what was going on I walked to the next bar and got drunk. Then I ended up in the news drunk. I should have gone right home because once the cops got more involved we weren’t allowed to leave the bar (it was right outside the theatre) and it was weird because we didn’t know who the shooter was yet so there were all kind of talk and speculation of bombs and what not.
Wow, what presents of mind not to panic. In situations like that its hard to want to run... and when you don't know who the shooter is or where it is coming form you could just as easily end up walking directly into the shooter. But sounds like you were like fuck lets get drunk... lol
I remember seeing a documentary with reaction tests under scientific conditions. The scenario was to have one or two armed (civilian) persons in a classroom and a shooter enters surprisingly. Long story short, the armed persons were utterly useless. By the time they could react, they were already wounded or dead.
Its nothing I want to find myself in. I've been giving some "training" at work but I really dont care to test how useful that training really is... I Pray never to have to find out!
I don't worry about such things. The odds of being in that situation are so small that it's not worth thinking about. The news might make people think otherwise, but that's why I quit watching the damn news a few decades ago. It so totally distorts reality that it's better to ignore it.
I leave the doors to my house open at night and don't worry about it.
Fleeing is always the best response. Maybe you get away, maybe you dont but it has the best chances that more will survive. Both fighting and hiding will mean you are still around and provide the gunman a chance to kill you and the gunman always has the upper hand in a confrontation since they get to decide when and where as well as prepare beforehand.
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Anonymous
(25-29)
+1 y
1. Move out of America (I did this) 2. Not worry about school shootings
If I remember correctly, the accuracy rate on a moving target is about 10%. Even less if you're not trained. NEVER hide. Running is the best option. And serpentine.
27.2K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic.
We have these door stoppers at the college where I work. We were instructed to close the door and put the doorstop under the door and jam it in good with my foot.
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Anonymous
(30-35)
+1 y
As kids we literally always said we’d throw desks and jump out the window. Sorry but i rather fight or run then just sit there expecting someone to save us
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Anonymous
(18-24)
+1 y
Here is how 3 unarmed green berets deal with an active shooter
I’d tell him To shoot me and I would Smile 😃 the entire Time while saying it. I would do it just because It would add more Years On his Prison sentence.
You make a good point In school, we were trained to barricade ourselves in the classroom and if it was invaded, throw things at the assailant to disorient them. And if able to get weapons away, cover them with an upside- down trash can
Agreed fighting should be the last option for most people, but no matter what you do you must be prepared to fight if need be... so hiding or running might be best but you have to understand the situation and try to maintain clarity of thought and action. No matter what you do end up doing be prepared to fight as a last resort... every second you buy for yourself increases your chances of survival that is fact.
As someone who has Killed before You always Remember The one You killed That wouldn’t work. Best thing you can do in this situation. If the shooter sees you and is Pointed the gun at you. Is to have a conversation with him. Don’t criticize him don’t call him rude Or Try to argue Don’t even cry 😭
You will have to Master The Art of talking angry people out of doing bad things. I can explain it to you but you will have to experience angry people wanting to Beat you up or Kill you to actually rack up experience.
@GatewayRealm is correct you can play dead once you have been shot, he might believe your dead if the shoot is rushed or not taking the time to ensure his kills. But if you are shot your ability to run, fight and hide would be severely limited and if you do run or try to hid you might be leaving a blood trail behind you that would be easy to follow. So playing dead is you best option at that point, but pretending to play dead while your wounded is not easy it takes a strong and determined effort and even then its supper hard.
If he is at a distance from you and not in close proximity to you he would have no way of knowing if your really dead or not. If he was just firing into group of people, then he would not be able to tell. Most of these shooters are not experienced killers, so they are running on adrenaline and not thinking through their actions because they are wanting to rack up as many kills as possible and not taking the time to confirm every shoot. But if you fall to the ground and play dead, then you are leaving yourself in the kill zone, when you might of other wise been about to escape or hide.
But if you got the one active shooter that is being methodical about it, then playing dead is the worse thing you can do. As a retired soldier we are trained to take aimed shoots and to be deliberate in pulling the trigger. So as @GatewayRealm says we would know if we took an aimed shoot at you, even in crowd we will be taking aimed shots and would know, and if you fell to the ground when knew we were not shooting at you, well then we would know.
Once you get caught playing dead its over, because a active shooter has crossed a line they can not return from once the first shoot is fired... they will kill you and even if you do try to beg for your life you are mostly likely doing exactly what this sick mother fucker would want you to be doing and make his killing you even more pleasing.
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