Active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly. Typically, the immediate deployment of law enforcement is required to stop the shooting and mitigate harm to victims.
Because active shooter situations are often over within 10 to 15 minutes, before law enforcement arrives on the scene, individuals must be prepared both mentally and physically to deal with an active shooter situation.
Awareness, training and rehearsal of the following immediate actions will go a long way to increase the odds of surviving an active shooter incident.
Tactics: Immediate Actions: RUN, HIDE, FIGHT!
RUN. Have an escape route and plan in mind. Move away from the assailant immediately, keep your hands visible. Leave your belongings behind. If the assailant is active inside a specific building, move immediately to a safer location away from the assailant, only if it is safe to do so. If you find yourself in an open area, immediately seek protection:
- Put something between you and the assailant.
- Consider trying to escape, if you know where the assailant is and there appears to be an escape route immediately available to you.
- If in doubt, find the safest area available and secure it the best way that you can.
Continue reading Shots Fired! What To Do If You Encounter An Active Shooter or Terrorist
Active Shooter Scenario Advice
When at sporting events, concerts, and the movies, choose seats that give you a tactical advantage always. What do I mean? Choose seats that allow good and east vantage points and a hasty exit point. Always stack the odds in your favor. It’s the reason I still combat park (back in to a space) and sit with my back to the wall when I’m eating.
Take cover and not concealment. Concealment hides, cover hides AND protects. It’s the difference between hiding behind a movie seat or a concrete wall.
Don’t lie there with your eyes closed and get shot. Think and move. In these situations you have to take charge and get in the mindset of self-rescue. You cannot wait for first-responders – it takes too long. A good decision executed quickly is better than a great one never executed. Violence of action, as we call it in the Spec Ops community, will often change the odds in your favor.
When doing close quarter combat drills in the SEALs, we’d draw a gun with someone over 20 feet away running at us. In most cases you can be on someone before they can draw and take a shot. I’m not advocating running straight at someone, but if you have the tactical advantage (jam, re-loading, distraction or the shooter isn’t paying attention) then take the shooter down or get the hell out of there. Remember that a moving target is extremely hard to hit, even for the well-trained shooter. Deal with the situation with your eyes wide open.
Continue reading Navy SEAL Lessons Learned From Aurora Colorado
Active Shooter Snapshot
1) There is no one demographic profile of an active shooter.
2) Many active shooters display observable pre-attack behaviors, which, if recognized, can lead to the disruption of the planned attack.
3) The pathway to targeted violence typically involves an unresolved real or perceived grievance and an ideation of a violent resolution that eventually moves from thought to research, planning, and preparation.
4) A thorough threat assessment typically necessitates a holistic review of an individual of concern, including historical, clinical, and contextual factors.
5) Human bystanders generally represent the greatest opportunity for the detection and recognition of an active shooter prior to his or her attack.
Continue reading The Ft. Hood Shooting & What Motivates The Active Shooter
Active Shooter: A Green Beret’s Response to the Aurora Shooting
My initial response to the theater shooting in Aurora was a simple desire to understand more and learn the facts surrounding it. Who, what, when, where, and why? After reading through whatever news reports I could find, my tactical mind began considering the situation and the environment. I was going through the process of what’s known as “mental rehearsals.”
Essentially, mental rehearsals are exactly what they sound like: rehearsing potential actions to be taken “in the event of…” What would I have done were I faced with the same dire situation of a heavily armed active shooter firing indiscriminately into crowds of people in a dark, smokey theater?
Using these same mental rehearsals in conjunction with a knowledge in firearms, tactics, and the ability to turn on an aggressive attitude, it is possible to mentally rehearse the outcomes of any number of scenarios. With that in mind, the purpose of this article is to ask the question: If members of the audience were armed, could the outcome of this event have been altered? If so, how and to what degree?
Continue reading A Green Beret’s Response to the Aurora Shooting
(Featured Image Courtesy: Damian Mulinix)
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