General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat to do if there is an active shooter. Sent to us by county HR
This video is intense (warning)
Heres a primer on what you should do during an active shooting event. Our advice: Practice. Practice. Practice.
Run
Always know the exit or stairwell nearest to your office or desk. Pay extra attention to how to get out of the building during any office fire drills. The second you hear the first pop-pop-pop of gunfire, leave the building. Fast.
Take nothing youll retrieve your purse or laptop later and wait for no one, experts say.
Run as fast as you can, warning people on your way out the door, Jason Porter, a regional managing director for the Pinkerton risk and security company. Dont let other people slow you down.
Hide
If you cant get out of the building:
Hide in a room with, preferably, a door that locks.
Turn off lights.
Push heavy objects against the door.
Silence cellphones.
Keep quiet.
If you cant find a place to duck into or under, and you can hear gunshots, curl up into the smallest possible target, Frank Scafidi, an FBI agent for 20 years. Firing is generally done from the hip. If someone has an automatic weapon and is sweeping back and forth, its better to be as low to the ground as you can be.
Fight
If all else fails, fight for your life. Grab anything you can hurl at the attacker a chair, fire extinguisher, stapler, even a cellphone and wait for the moment he or she hesitates to, say, reload. The moment the attacker pauses, you attack.
This isnt a schoolyard fight; its someone coming to kill you, says Porter. You need to commit to fighting to the finish. The Paris train attack heroes rushed the gunman in a group and didnt stop until they had subdued him. One of them, Anthony Sadler, who is a college student from California, told NBC that we just did whatever we could to disarm him.
Renew Deal
(81,866 posts)It's sad that this is necessary
TeddyR
(2,493 posts)France has very strict gun laws and that didn't prevent the recent attacks in Paris. If a terrorist wants a gun they can get one.
Renew Deal
(81,866 posts)But you can make them more difficult. Here we welcome terrorists to get guns.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)on a regular basis like we do here in GunHumperstan.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)In a year than days of the year... Oh wait, that is us
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)It doesn't make much sense to me, but that's the way our country runs.
951-Riverside
(7,234 posts)Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)Some SD experts warn Against massing in one room with the lights out, as the attacker probably knows the building (and some of the "lock down" procedures) and where people will hide. The recommendation to Fight is long overdue, but a good one.
I have one idea to offer: Toss a couple of ringing or otherwise noisy cell phones into an empty room, so the murderer is lured into that room, creating delay.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)TeddyR
(2,493 posts)ISIS, and Al Qaeda before them, have changed the rules of engagement. They aren't coming to take hostages to make a political point or bargain for the release of detainees, but are coming to cause as much bloodshed and death as possible.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Almost.
Aerodynamics cause bullets to spend a little more time traveling just above the floor. So the recommendation in the "active shooter" training we had to take in a DoD setting was to curl into a ball, with your feet on the floor and the rest of you a little above the floor.
As opposed to a situation where you're expecting explosives, in which case you want to lay on the floor, with your head away from where you expect the bomb to go off in order to minimize shrapnel hitting you.
Now, for chemical or biological attacks......
(There was a lot of training for scenarios one would rather not be in)
arcane1
(38,613 posts)We have to take these yearly certifications for all kinds of things, usually related to the business. This is the first time we have ever had to pass a test on how to avoid a mass-killer.
ck4829
(35,078 posts)shooter" document and put it somewhere to opened and read upon your death.
These spree shooters leave 'manifestos' and expect them to be taken seriously after their act of mass murder. What if a victim did something similar but as the victim? That would probably take a lot of wind out of the shooter's bag.
* I wasn't killed by a person who was *just* mentally ill, I was killed by someone with an ideology and who was cheerled by the media and saw the actions of other mass shooters as good
* Don't write a Wikipedia page about the person who killed me
* (Whatever your views on guns are)
* Don't vote for Trump
* Or "I knew too much" (Black humor I know)
And whatever else you want to write.
Tipperary
(6,930 posts)What a world.
B2G
(9,766 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,384 posts)I'm dense.
B2G
(9,766 posts)from the outside.
Laffy Kat
(16,384 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)brilliant indeed.