How To Protect Yourself From Mass Shooting

Most people think that mass shootings tend to happen in large and urban areas. However, that is not the case, because they can also happen in suburban, rural and urban settings.

According to recent year’s reports, a mass shooting happened at gathering places as well as houses of worship for different faiths.

Therefore, you have to remember that shooting can happen anywhere and anytime, so you need to know how to react wherever you are. Experts state that in American schools, between 2000 and 2014, no one died from a school fire, but active shooting killed 117 people in this period.

These schools and universities have regular fire drills and comply with fire codes, but only a limited number of them conducts active shooting training that may happen as well.

Talking about the active shooting is always controversial, but it is vital to prepare ourselves in case it happens.

Fires were disturbing back in the day, and today, the collateral damage is minimal. Therefore, we can say that lack of knowledge makes it disturbing. The idea is to learn how to be an active participant in your own survival.

Being Passive during Active Shooting Is the Worst Thing You Can Do

We have to mention the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, in which lone gunman entered the second floor and started with the killing rampage that ended with 32 students dead.

Check out this site: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/massacre-at-virginia-tech-leaves-32-dead to learn more about this particular massacre.

Just to understand the actions that lead them to survival, you should know that different classrooms acted differently and the results were not the same.

In the first classroom, students hid beneath desks, and the gunman killed ten of them, while wounded more of them. In the second one, a few students decided to jump from second-floor windows, and those who escaped survived.

In the third one, students barricaded the classroom doors with chairs and tables, and they held it in place while they were lying down. Even though the shooter tried to breach inside, he fired two rounds into the room and never entered. Everyone inside has survived.

You can see in a particular example that during an active shooting event you have to be in control to make it. Your actions are the only thing that keeps you alive in these situations, which is why you have to be active during the process.

According to security professionals, they have learned to analyze everything before it happens. It means that before attending some event, venue or concert, they tend to review the venue layout as well as remembering emergency exit points and entrances.

It is vital to think ahead because by knowing a location’s layout, you will be able to make a quick exit or find a way to hide without affecting your safety. In the world of close protection, this particular process is called advancing a location.

It is vital to know the location on-site as well as exit points so that every single scenario could be planned out before it happens. Therefore, before you settle into a spot or seat when you are in public, think about the potential active shooting and what should you do in case it happens.

When you are at a concert or theater, we recommend you to choose seats that are close to exists. At restaurants, sit with your face to the entrance and back to the wall.

Before you decide to let it go and relax, analyze all escape routes, exit points, doors, fences, turnstiles, and windows you can access. If escaping is not an option, you should move into rooms where you can barricade yourself from the attacker.

Finally, if the attacker enters the room, you should be prepared to fight with improvised weapons such as pen, scissors, fire extinguisher and many more. The idea is to be fast and to attack as a surprise so that you can assess the problem with ease.

When you arrive at a new location such as hotel lobby or restaurant, apart from analyzing emergency action plans, you should stop for a moment so that you can absorb the new environment including smells, sounds, sights etc.

As soon as you start feeling brink of normalcy within the new area, you will be able to identify the things that are not normal, as well as dangerous. When people are at a gun range, hearing sounds of gunshots are normal, but that will not happen at a concert.

You can read more about it in the link we shared with you.

On the other hand, yelling at concerts is normal, but at restaurants it is not and so on. Anything that goes far from normal should catch your attention, because it may be an indication of danger.

For instance, if you see someone walking at the front entrance in a wool trench coat during the hot summer day, it means that something is happening.

As a result, you should analyze the behavior in real-time to determine whether the actions happen due to eccentric behavior or secret agenda.

In addition, if a man in a trench coat reveals a rifle beneath it, it means that you should already start to execute the emergency and evacuation plan you created beforehand.

If you are in a line of fire, getting down is the normal reaction that will help you stay away. However, whatever you do, avoid lying down for a long time, and try to move as soon as possible.

Remember that hiding under a desk or table will not provide you the level of protection you assume, which means that you should evacuate as soon as possible as run from cover to cover until you do.