Unfortunately, active shooter-related events are a part of our modern world and are on the rise in the United States.  The media and politicians place salacious focus on firearms. But, they rarely, if ever, mention preparing for an active shooter event so that people know what to do if they are caught up in this nightmare scenario.

Preparing for an Active Shooter Event Makes Sense

All one has to do is read the FBI report on active shootings to understand they can happen anywhere at any time. This increase in active shootings makes it more critical than ever to understand what to do during an active shooter emergency. Not only should you learn this, but as a tragic series of school shooting shows over the past few years, your children should learn it as well.

As a former Army Ranger, firefighter-paramedic, high threat security specialist, and international security director, I’ve spent years training on and dealing with scenarios much like the Florida school shooting and other similar incidents. In addition to my background, I’ve spent decades working alongside Delta Force Operators, Green Berets, Navy SEALS, SWAT team members, and others.

Together, with the lessons learned from these great people and my own first-hand, real-world experience, I’m going to provide you with some solid advice on how to react to an active shooter situation. This advice is a starting point for you and your loved ones to increase your chances of survival should you ever be in an active shooter situation.

These Events Usually Happen FAST.

Before we get going, it’s essential to understand a couple of things. First, the odds of your direct involvement in an active shooter incident are extremely low. Regardless, preparing for an active shooter event is very important. Secondly, many active shooter concepts are applicable across the situational lines of various active shooter incidents. Whether it is a Florida school shooting or a Las Vegas concert shooting, many of the concepts are the same.

To start with, you should understand that active shooter incidents happen fast. In fact, according to FBI statistics, approximately 36-percent of active shootings are over in less than two minutes, with the majority lasting less than five minutes.

So, what does this mean to you? Unfortunately, it means that once an active shooting starts, you’re probably on your own. That also means you won’t have much time to think your way to safety.

Identify the Problem and Take Action

The first step is to identify the problem. That means understanding what is happening in the world around you. In the military and law enforcement, this is known as situational awarenesss. If you’d like to learn more about situational awareness, you can read up on it in our blog post here.

Once you become aware of the problem, in this case, an active shooting, your next step is to take action. Taking action means just that, T-A-K-I-N-G  A-C-T-I-O-N! In other words, don’t just stand there, do something.

Far too often, when people are confronted with a very stressful situation, they freeze. This often happens because of normalcy bias. Normalcy bias is the thought that a tragic event won’t happen to us. In short, normalcy bias is our brain trying to convince us that everything is alright. Well, in this case, it isn’t, so we need to act.

Another reason that people freeze is purely physiological. It's called "tonic immobility." Daisy Luther writes:

Many people freeze in a disaster situation.  The ability to break this paralysis is paramount to your survival.

"Freezing" is called "tonic immobility" in behavioral science and it is a biological impulse.  A study exploring the "freeze response" to stressors, describes the reaction...

...In the context of this particular study, the freeze response could be related to an overload of stimuli because of the demands of creating your plan.