Has anybody taken a training class or attended a lecture about an "active shooter" scenario?
The hypothetical is that at your place of work, or your school, or the mall, or whatever, you are minding your own business when you hear gunshots and people are screaming and you quickly establish that some nutcase (let's assume just one or two, not a whole platoon of Al Queida operatives) is shooting up the place, killing anybody and everybody he happens to encounter.
Marietta, GA police had two sets of lectures on this subject recently.
http://buzz.blog.ajc.com/2015/12/10/marietta-police-plan-second-active-shooter-survival-seminar/
Cherokee County has done such training for its citizens, too, this year:
http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/72388380-story
I watched some videos about this on the internet, and what they teach is basically this:
1-- run away. Get out of the kill zone and leave the facility to avoid even seeing the gunman if you can.
2-- hide. If you can't leave the facility, hide deep somewhere that the bad guy is not likely to see you and where he would not want to take the time and trouble of searching for you. Hide in closets, storage rooms, kitchens, inside big cabinets or storage lockers-- any place that the gunman isn't expecting to find a crowd of people. He would prefer to shoot groups of people, not individuals that he has to hunt for and find one at a time.
3-- Obstruct the path to your hiding spot. Lock doors as you pass through them. Block the walkway. Make it difficult for the bad guy to follow you. Even if he "could" go over or through the barriers you put up, it may not be worth his time and trouble. He could choose to march off in another direction looking for easier victims, preferably groups of victims.
4-- If the evil person intent on murder and public massacre finds your hiding spot and is determined to get you, be just as determined to get him or go down trying. Don't huddle in the corner waiting to get shot. Find something sharp and try to stab or slash him with it. Find something heavy and throw it at him. If he's facing away from you trying to kill somebody else, run up to him with a steel pipe and smash the base of his skull. Jump on him and gouge his eyes out, stick a pen or pencil in his ear, hit him in the throat with a broom stick, etc. If you have nothing to use as a weapon, go bare-handed and hope other "victims" will join in. Pile on, and twist, stomp, or break every part of his body you can reach. Especially the genitals, throat, and eyes.
P.S. Special Circumstance-- an Armed Citizen: The classes won't talk about what to do if you're an armed citizen, but according to other sources in law enforcement (I've talked to multiple LEO's about this scenario), they say the armed citizen should still follow all the steps above, and only use the gun in step #4 when the bad guy finds your hiding spot, or in scenario #1 if he intercepts you while you are trying to flee and you can't get away from him. Then you can shoot him, then immediately put down your weapon and follow the instructions of any law enforcement officers at or who will soon be arriving on the scene. You don't want to be mistaken for one of the bad guys and shot by the cops.
(I don't think the LEO advice on this point is good for society-- it may be good for your personal safety, but society in general is better off if armed citizens with decent sized carry guns and the skills to use them effectively would go to where the bad guy is and try to shoot him down. Nothing foils the plans of bad guys expecting helpless victims like one or more victims trying to kill them back.)
The hypothetical is that at your place of work, or your school, or the mall, or whatever, you are minding your own business when you hear gunshots and people are screaming and you quickly establish that some nutcase (let's assume just one or two, not a whole platoon of Al Queida operatives) is shooting up the place, killing anybody and everybody he happens to encounter.
Marietta, GA police had two sets of lectures on this subject recently.
http://buzz.blog.ajc.com/2015/12/10/marietta-police-plan-second-active-shooter-survival-seminar/
Cherokee County has done such training for its citizens, too, this year:
http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/72388380-story
I watched some videos about this on the internet, and what they teach is basically this:
1-- run away. Get out of the kill zone and leave the facility to avoid even seeing the gunman if you can.
2-- hide. If you can't leave the facility, hide deep somewhere that the bad guy is not likely to see you and where he would not want to take the time and trouble of searching for you. Hide in closets, storage rooms, kitchens, inside big cabinets or storage lockers-- any place that the gunman isn't expecting to find a crowd of people. He would prefer to shoot groups of people, not individuals that he has to hunt for and find one at a time.
3-- Obstruct the path to your hiding spot. Lock doors as you pass through them. Block the walkway. Make it difficult for the bad guy to follow you. Even if he "could" go over or through the barriers you put up, it may not be worth his time and trouble. He could choose to march off in another direction looking for easier victims, preferably groups of victims.
4-- If the evil person intent on murder and public massacre finds your hiding spot and is determined to get you, be just as determined to get him or go down trying. Don't huddle in the corner waiting to get shot. Find something sharp and try to stab or slash him with it. Find something heavy and throw it at him. If he's facing away from you trying to kill somebody else, run up to him with a steel pipe and smash the base of his skull. Jump on him and gouge his eyes out, stick a pen or pencil in his ear, hit him in the throat with a broom stick, etc. If you have nothing to use as a weapon, go bare-handed and hope other "victims" will join in. Pile on, and twist, stomp, or break every part of his body you can reach. Especially the genitals, throat, and eyes.
P.S. Special Circumstance-- an Armed Citizen: The classes won't talk about what to do if you're an armed citizen, but according to other sources in law enforcement (I've talked to multiple LEO's about this scenario), they say the armed citizen should still follow all the steps above, and only use the gun in step #4 when the bad guy finds your hiding spot, or in scenario #1 if he intercepts you while you are trying to flee and you can't get away from him. Then you can shoot him, then immediately put down your weapon and follow the instructions of any law enforcement officers at or who will soon be arriving on the scene. You don't want to be mistaken for one of the bad guys and shot by the cops.
(I don't think the LEO advice on this point is good for society-- it may be good for your personal safety, but society in general is better off if armed citizens with decent sized carry guns and the skills to use them effectively would go to where the bad guy is and try to shoot him down. Nothing foils the plans of bad guys expecting helpless victims like one or more victims trying to kill them back.)
