How to Survive an Active Shooting

Beyond Run, Hide, Fight.

Last month, I was interviewed by a local news station here in Pittsburgh about what to do in the event of a mass shooting.

They also asked three random citizens the same question.

“What would you do?”

You can watch the four-minute clip here:

Within days of that interview, there were two more major mass homicide events which reinforced to me, yet again, the urgency of teaching people how to respond. 

In the interview (and in another blog post), I did my best to give some insight, but the clip illustrates something I am often confronted with.

In the event of an active shooter:

• Most people do not know what to do; or

• Their knowledge is incomplete; or

• They lack the proper training to make good decisions in high-stress situations.

I’ve been doing personal protection training for the last 20+ years—from corporate board rooms to classrooms—and time and again, I see the same issues:

The vast majority of people don’t know even the most basic RUN HIDE FIGHT protocol, and those that do, lack the insight and training to effectively use and implement the protocol in order to survive an active shooter situation.

Bottom line: People don’t know what to do in an active shooter situation, and even the RUN HIDE FIGHT protocol that experts teach is incomplete.

People don’t know what to do in an active shooter situation, and even the RUN HIDE FIGHT protocol that experts teach is incomplete.

My goal is not to denigrate RUN HIDE FIGHT.  It’s better than having no plan at all, but a lot of the confusion, I believe, is due in part to the words themselves.

And this is not just a semantics problem … it’s a preparedness problem. So let’s break it down.

When the stakes are high, and our brains are overrun with adrenaline, untrained individuals may interpret the words RUN HIDE FIGHT in ways that put themselves–and others–at risk.

RUN HIDE FIGHT is designed to be a simple, memorable mantra. But its simplicity is also its greatest fault.

The problem with RUN HIDE FIGHT

Words matter.

And different words carry with them different implied meanings.

Let’s take the word “RUN.”

What we’ve seen is that, for most people, the idea of running implies panic. That, Oh my god. At the first sign of trouble, I’m going to flee in the opposite direction.

But what has to happen before you Run, or Hide, or Fight?  First, you have to Decide.  You have to think and make decisions.

Don’t just RUN

Often the best solution is to run, but sometimes moving quietly or slowly is the better solution.

In the event of an active shooter, if “running” is the best solution, what is really meant is to DISTANCE yourself from the danger/threat.

If you can’t distance yourself from the danger, then what’s your next best option?

Don’t just HIDE

From a word-choice standpoint, “HIDE” is simple, but just as problematic as “RUN.” 

“Hide” does not mean “crawl under a desk” or hide under wicker furniture or behind glass.  But all too often, seemingly irrational and tactically meaningless behavior is what we see most when people try to follow the literal meaning of the word “hide.”  All you have to do is look around just about any commercial environment, and you’ll find few places to truly hide, and virtually nothing to hide behind that can stop incoming gunfire. What is really meant here, from a tactical standpoint, is to “lock down,” or put yourself in an environment that can legitimately DELAY contact with the intruder.

You want to get off the X of the initial attack, and get out of sight until the lifeguards get there to respond to and manage the threat. But most importantly, position yourself to ensure a tactical advantage if that assailant comes through the door and you need to fight back.

Additionally, most indoor environments that are targeted–schools, commercial environments, and places of worship, for example–have doors that open outward due to fire code, making it virtually impossible to barricade without an after-market lockdown device installed ahead of time.

Yet what we see is people putting tables or chairs against a door that opens outward, which doesn’t prevent entry, and dramatically limits their ability to get to the assailant or get out of the room if they had to.

But, okay, let’s say you find a sensible place to DELAY contact–a stockroom of a retail store at the mall, for example. That’s a perfectly reasonable solution. But if you can’t lock the door or barricade yourself in, what should you do?

Position yourself to be able to fight if the threat comes through that door.

This brings us to the final stage of the protocol.

Don’t just FIGHT

This is where you have to have some skills in order to survive.

I don’t think courage is truly the issue. In fact, very often, you see people exhibiting surprising courage in the face of life-and-death danger. Take schoolteachers and administrators for example. Time and again, we see teachers and administrators running toward the sound of the guns to put their bodies in front of those children. The problem is … they don’t know what to do when they get there.

You need more than just willingness. You need ability. 

But willingness is a state of mind, while ability is a statement of fact.

Willingness is something you can decide right now. You can decide ahead of time that you are worth defending, and that you are never helpless, even in the face of extreme danger. This Myth of Helplessness is a subject I’ve written about extensively (here, here, and here) but here’s the most important thing to remember: Security is not about being protected, but in knowing that we have the ability to protect ourselves; not in the illusion of security that others will be there to save us, but in our own responsibility; not in the notion that we will never be in danger, but in the confidence that comes from knowing we have the ability to respond.

Ability is something else entirely.

Ability is not found in the moment of truth; it is developed ahead of time. We simply don’t rise to the occasion, we fall to the level of our training.

To know what to do, and how to do it, in the face of the most extreme stress and adrenaline, you must have a simple and workable plan. Ideally, one that has been rehearsed in advance.  Absent such training, my best advice is to go for the gun, not the guy. It’s the gun that can kill you. Control his hands and whatever is in them…

In the end, it’s all about making good, tactical DECISIONS.

The importance of DECISION MAKING

In the event of an active shooter:

• We’re not going to run; we’re going to CREATE DISTANCE

• We’re not going to hide; we’re going to DELAY CONTACT

• We’re not going to fight the bad guy; we’re going to DEFEND AGAINST THE GUN

But before we can do any of that, we need to DECIDE the best course of action.

This is where training comes into play. This is where having done the mental reps could save your life.

The real purpose of training is to ensure you can think and make good decisions under pressure.

I’ve trained tens of thousands of people through my personal protection clinics, and my team and I have helped protect hundreds of organizations.  Yet, the most important fact in personal protection, is that the time to prepare for a crisis is not during the crisis … it’s ahead of time.  It’s right now.

We don’t rise to the occasion; we fall to the level of our training.

Readiness means to be both willing and able.  To have both the mindset and the skillsets.

A new protocol

I’m on a mission to reach as many people as I can and empower them with the skills to protect themselves. As part of this mission, I am currently working on producing my renowned Active Shooter Survival Escape and Response Tactics (ASSERT) course as an online program, so that anyone can learn these fundamentals – from anywhere.

And my goal is to deliver this program FREE to 1,000,000 people.  I want to do my part to ensure if you or someone you love is faced with the unthinkable, you and they can MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS!

In the meantime, here’s a new protocol:

DON’T RUN, CREATE DISTANCE.
DON’T HIDE, DELAY CONTACT
DON’T FIGHT THE BAD GUY, DEFEND AGAINST THE WEAPON

Related reading: The TIME-Line of Violence.