Disaster Prep Wednesday: Active Shooter Preparedness

Suppose you had been on the campus of Virginia Tech when Seung-Hui Cho went hunting for people or are on a high school campus when a couple of young thugs decide to get revenge against people who have hurt their feelings - what you need to have is some form of preparation for such an event - no matter how unlikely it might seem that it could happen to you.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and FEMA have some advice for you if you find yourself in what is referred to as an "active shooter" scenario.

A definition:

An active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and other populated area. In most cases, active shooters use firearms and there is no pattern or method to their selection of victims. Active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly.

Further,

DHS has developed an independent study course entitled Active Shooter: What You Can Do. This course was developed to provide the public with guidance on how to prepare for and respond to active shooter crisis situations.

Upon completion of Active Shooter: What You Can Do, employees and managers will be able to:

• Describe the actions to take when confronted with an active shooter and to assist responding law enforcement officials;

• Recognize potential workplace violence indicators;

• Describe actions to take to prevent and prepare for potential active shooter incidents; and

• Describe how to manage the consequences of an active shooter incident.

The referenced course is available as IS-907: Active Shooter: What You Can Do.

DHS also has a video:

Get out, or get into cover and concealment.

Here's a slightly more aggressive take:
Run, hide, fight.

The question of what changes when members of the threatened group are armed is not addressed, but . . . be careful to take out the bad people and not your fellow innocents.