Rules of conduct during a mass shooting: what to do to survive

Mass shooting occurs in the countryside, suburbs and cities. In recent years, massacres have taken place in crowded places and prayer houses of various faiths: churches, an Islamic center, a Jewish community center, a Sikh temple, in the subway, supermarkets, schools and just on the streets. This can happen anywhere and anytime. It is imperative that everyone knows how to respond in such cases, reports TheLily.

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Dave Grossman, author of On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Killing in War and Society, speaks regularly on this topic and often begins his lectures with this question: “How many children in America have died in a school fire lately? Years? His answer: "None." Meanwhile, active shooters killed 2014 people in schools between 2000 and 2013, according to a 117 FBI study. Most adults also lack preventive training and knowledge in this matter.

On the subject: Mass shooting in Philadelphia: 3 dead, 11 injured

Talking about these attacks can be difficult and heartbreaking. But we cannot but prepare just because the topic excites. As James Hamilton, who worked for the FBI for many years and taught corporations, government agencies, and the security services for public figures, says, “You must actively participate in your own survival.”

Be an active participant in your own survival

During the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, a lone shooter had two handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He entered the second floor of Norris Hall and began the final phase of a murderous rampage that killed a total of 32 students and faculty.

One lesson from this tragedy is that the actions of students and faculty in different classrooms affected their chances of survival. In room 206, where students were hiding under their desks, a gunman killed 10 students and injured several while walking between the rows of desks. However, in room 204, where two students were killed, several students jumped out of the windows on the second floor, and all those who managed to escape survived. In room 205, the students barricaded the classroom door with tables and chairs, holding it all in place while lying on the ground. Despite the shooter's attempt to break through the barricade by firing two misguided shots into the room, he never entered and everyone inside survived.

During active firefights, as the attacks in Texas and Las Vegas infamously demonstrated, some things are beyond our control. However, like the students in rooms 204 and 205, we can take actions that can improve our chances of survival.

Take the time to prepare an emergency plan

“Recently, at a coffee shop with my wife, I nodded toward the door and asked her, “What would you do if a man walked through that door right now with a gun?” She replied, “I would throw my hot coffee in his face and distract him long enough to run out the side door.” I liked her answer. She had a plan,” says Dave Grossman.

When asked by security specialist Nick Perez, who attended a Las Vegas concert with his girlfriend during the mass shooting, what he thought was important to survival, he said, "I had a plan." Before attending the show, Perez checked the festival app on his phone. He noted the layout of the facility, including entrances and emergency exits. He said: “I thought ahead because I am trained in this. I always want to know the location plan in case I need to leave the premises quickly or find security or medical services on site. And to be honest," he said, "I wasn't thinking about mass shootings, but more common cases like a medical emergency or a fight."

In the world of bodyguards and personal protection, we call his actions "advancing" the location - preparing for the arrival of the guard. We want to know the location of security and paramedics, exit points, and most of all, our planned escape routes in case we need to evacuate the area due to an emergency such as a fire or shooting.

When you are in public, before you take your seat, ask yourself: if there is an attack, what will I do? To answer this question, you only need one minute before you sit down, relax and enjoy your holiday. Think of it like making regular deposits to a survival bank and then, in the event of an emergency, being able to withdraw potentially life-saving funds.

In theaters and concerts, consider choosing aisle and exit seats. In restaurants, sit with your back to the wall and facing the entrance. Before relaxing, determine escape routes and exit points, including turnstiles, doors, scalable fences, and accessible windows. If escape from the building is not possible during an attack, consider moving into rooms where you can barricade yourself and others from the intruder. If an intruder breaks into this room, be prepared to use improvised weapons—a fire extinguisher, scissors, a pen, etc.—to disable them with swiftness, surprise, and force of action.

Practice situational awareness

Perez said he was standing with his girlfriend just a few meters from the stage when gunfire pierced the crowd. “After the second burst,” he said, “I knew it wasn’t firecrackers, I knew we were under attack. I saw a police car speeding down Las Vegas Boulevard towards the hotel."

“Right then,” he said, “I grabbed my friend’s hand and ran in the opposite direction to the exit that I remembered from the floor plan on the festival app.”

When arriving at a new place, such as a restaurant or hotel lobby, in addition to thinking about your emergency plan, pause for a moment and allow your senses to take in all that is “normal” about the new environment—the sights, sounds, smells, etc. d. Once you establish a norm, it will be easier for you to identify anything that is not normal and possibly dangerous. During a mass shooting, guns and gunshots are normal. Almost everywhere they are not. It's normal to scream at a concert. In a restaurant - no. Anything that is “not the norm” comes to your attention as “abnormal” for that environment and is possibly a sign of danger.

If you see a man walking through the front door of an establishment dressed in a wool coat on a hot August day, his winter clothes should break the usual sense of normality. As a result, you observe his behavior a little longer. If his actions continue to suggest abnormal behavior and cause you concern, you will listen to your intuition, like any animal striving for survival, and react to the perceived danger. This reaction can be simply continued observation or something more, for example, you are getting closer to the exit. And if a strange person, whom you now intuitively imagine as potentially dangerous, draws a rifle under a woolen coat, you do not need to hear the first shot. You should already be carrying out your evacuation plan before anyone else.

Get out of the affected area

When one of the Columbine High School teachers heard gunshots during the mass shooting at that school in 1999, she ran to the library and called 911. At one point, she told the students in the library to "go down" and hide under the desks and tables. When the gunmen entered the library, it became a killing zone, and teenagers caught statically sitting under those tables began to die.

If you are caught off guard in the kill zone, it is useful to go down if the shooter is firing from a position located at the level of yours. But whatever you do, don't stay down for long. As soon as possible, "move from the X point," as the personal security experts say. A table or desk provides little protection and gives the shooter a static human target to shoot from. However, targets moving through the affected area are harder to hit. And targets that have completely left the affected area are much more difficult to hit.

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If you are being shot at and you know the shooter is firing from high ground, don't "go down" and stay down. This creates a stationary human target with more surface area for the flurry of falling bullets. Instead, immediately run out of the kill zone to pre-planned exit points and eventually find cover, be it terrain or structures that are likely to stop bullets.

If, like many Las Vegas concert goers, you don't know the killer's whereabouts and don't have a hiding place nearby, you can still try to escape the kill zone. This is your best bet. And when you evacuate from the affected area, try to take others with you. If more people flee the affected area than remain paralyzed in it, others will follow.

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