If you find yourself in an active shooter situation, you will be terrified, and rightfully so. However, there is a system you should follow in order to survive it. You may have heard of it. It’s called the run, hide, and fight system.
#1 Run
The first step, of course, is run. You should never try to confront a shooter immediately – especially if you’re unarmed. You should run far away from that location.
Bullets can travel far, but the more distance you have between you and the shooter, the harder you’ll be to hit – especially if you get behind buildings and other large objects. Running away gives you the best chance of survival when everything first goes downhill.
Talking to Police
You should note that you should not run directly towards the police when they arrive if they’re firing towards the shooter. Put your hands up so they know you’re not a threat and come talk to them, letting them know about the situation inside.
#2 Hide
If you can’t run, or your exit is blocked, you should then find a good place to hide. Not somewhere where the shooter may look, like under a counter, but maybe in some far off utility closet that can be locked.
You can also hide in small rooms where you can turn off the lights and be silent, so the shooter assumes it’s an empty room not worth opening.
Play Dead
As a last resort, there’s always the option to play dead. The shooter won’t want to waste more ammunition than he has to. If you can pretend to be a dead body in the fray of real dead bodies, you can feasibly survive.
#3 Fight
The last option is to fight. Fighting is by no means a fun or good option, but if it’s the only one you have, it’s better than just accepting death. You should have a plan to turn anything into a weapon – scissors, pens, or anything hard.
Depending on the place you’re in at the time, you may have access to different things, such as corrosive chemicals in a lab or boiling oil in a fast food restaurant. Don’t hesitate to have everyone in the room attack at once in order to create a state of confusion for the shooter.
If he sees just one person running at him, he’ll likely shoot them. However, if seven people attack him from all directions, he can only focus on one or two at a time before he gets overwhelmed and beaten down. Be brutal with him. Don’t hesitate to make sure he’s dead.
We all hope and pray that we will never be in a situation like this, but if it were to happen, we should be prepared.
