What should I do in a school shooting?

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Colt117

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My highschool is quite large but not because of the amount of students. It's connected to a church. They have taken ordinary security measures to ensure safety against shootings and bomb threats but I'm nowhere near content. They have a vet. police officer on campus as well as multiple security carts. The main educational building is two stories and each door is locked magneticly all across the property but I, being a student have never had trouble getting past undedected so I therefore don't have much faith in it... I am an experienced IPSC shooter and would be able to manage any firearm that I could get my hands on but here's the question: In the event of a terrorist attack or just a normal school shooting, what could I do? I fully realize that I am not invincible though I can't bear the thought of doing nothing whatsoever. They lock down the rooms and lock the doors and keep contact over radio but nothing else. I fully understand that I am to do exactly what my teacher says when he or she says it but what if I am on my own? I almost feel that I have a responsiblity to take action though I know that this thinking is wrong. If-- and I know that the odds of this are one in a million-- there is a rampage and the students evacuate and I am able to get my hands on a weapon...do I fight back? Is this illegal for a 16 year old to do? If there is a lockdown and I am in a classroom then what can I do then? I don't really know how terrorists work. Do they just burst in the room and start shooting or take hostages? what can I do? I want to know what I can and should do if there is indeed a shooting. If I get access to a weapon? If I don't? What will the court say? THanks this has been on my mind for a long time. Any advice and info is much appreciated.

PS. I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be some fancy rambow kid or somthing. I just want to be able to react effectively to any situation that may arise.
 
You wouldn't be any more legally liable than any other citizen if you acted in lawful self-defense. It is good to think about these things no matter how unlikely; it is a sign of maturity and reason to be prepared for whatever life thwos at you. My advice would be to sit tight, stay observant, and if the opportunity or necessity to act presents itself, do what your instincts tell you.

After the initial shock o Columbine, which happened when I was in high school, I couldn't help but think "At least Harris and Klebold were amateurs. Anyone with decent training could have killed far more than they managed to." A well-armed terrorist team of four or five could easily kill hundreds of students in your average school before anyone could intervene, especially in a rural or semi-rural setting.

Be Prepared.
 
I don't think there is any one answer. The first thing you need to do is get away, as fast as you can. Do not try and engage a shooter or attempt taking a firearm away from them.

If you can not leave and find yourself face to face with a shooter, attack. He is going to shoot you anyway, just maybe you will win. Odds are that you will not, but you might. Shout to others and encourage them to attack also, Yell and scream for everyone to attack him. Maybe, just maybe it will work. Use whatever you can get your hands on, throw trash cans, books or anything heavy as you attack him and then when in contact with him, bite, stab, poke out his eyes or what ever it takes to defeat him. Of course I am saying if you have no other choice. Then again that is only what I would do.

The last thing I would worry about is the law prosecuting me. I don't think anyone would berate you for trying to protect yourself or others, regardless of your age.
 
I have heard that it is legal for anyone 16 or older to carrry a taser? Can anyone verify this?
 
You can do whatever the emergency plan that the school administration and the local police have agreed on tells you to do. That's it. That is your job during an active shooter incident.

Forget you ever saw a handgun. I don't care how much IPSC experience you've had. Pick up a firearm that a shooter has dropped and try to take any action and you will most likely be shot dead where you stand by the police as they respond to the active shooter. You have to remember that the information flowing to the responding officers will most likely be fragmentary and incorrect. You're setting yourself to be killed in a blue on blue engagement.

You may think that you're being told to be a sheep by the administration and the police. That's not true. If your police department has learned the lessons of Columbine their response will be very different. Students roaming the halls and corridors or running around the school is going to slow the response and probably allow the shooter to take a higher toll then he might otherwise.

This doesn't apply if the shooter is actually in the room you're in. Then you might think of rushing and overwhelming him.

But if you aren't directly involved, stay the heck out of the way.

I'm not going into the actual nuts and bolts of an active shooter response on an open forum. Following the plan and instrustions you are given by the staff is the best thing you can do.

Jeff
 
Something to consider...

Use what you have available: cover, concealment, etc. Start looking at your school not as a shooting trap but as a tactical puzzle: what would you do? Points of egress, points of cover, points of concealment, etc.

Here's something to work on: instead of trying to take out the BG, figure out how you'll take control of a classroom full of terrified kids and get them the Hell out of there. Do this for every class, every location.

Your mind is in the right place - use it wisely.

Take care and be safe,
DFW1911
 
DFW1911 said;

Here's something to work on: instead of trying to take out the BG, figure out how you'll take control of a classroom full of terrified kids and get them the Hell out of there. Do this for every class, every location.
Click to expand...

Do not, under any circumstances try to take a classroom full of kids and evacuate them. You most likely will not know where the shooter(s) are located. You will not know what direction the police teams are coming from. 25 or 30 kids in the corridors looking for a way out is going to interfere with the response and someone else may die or be severly injured because your class delayed the response. The last thing a couple officers making an active shooter response need is to run into a group of 25 or 30 kids who may or may not have the shooter among them.

If you are going to organize them, organize them to fight if the shooter enters your room.

Jeff
 
active shooter

I think before we start giving advise on active shooter you should ask about the size, strength, and location of the local PD. We need geographical info as well. Active shooter is the "new" methodology but it's not everywhere. Two officers attempting to run active shooter is not going to be as effective. If officers have to respond from farther due to simple geography (large beats/response areas) and your school is small shooters are gonna find you first.

some things come to mind....
1. Almost everyone who carries concealed has their reasons. One of those reasons is that they realize the police can not protect everyone all the time. You are going to have to be self reliant.

2. You are going to have to "set your mind right" before the event happens.....now. Decide whether you are going to defend or attack. I believe after reading your post that you are going to be on the defensive. Look at the location of your class in the hall, how the door opens, 1st or second floor, will the door support a charlie bar or other door stop. Where is your desk located in relation to the door. Any delay at a doorway is to your advantage.....if your armed. A door way is a bullet funnel...that is to your advantage. The list goes on and on....

GOOD Post....it ought to get folks thinking............

Well High Roaders....I got a question for the rest of you..........
What are you going to do when your young'ins are in the school and the police havent arrived or set up yet????
 
I guess I'd call the Provost Marshal. Heck, if you've got an active shooter on military installation, I can just about guarantee that guy isn't coming out of the school alive.
 
It's a reality we ALL must face, that there will be times when we're stripped of the most effective tool for self-defense (for many of us), the gun. Not just school/university students either...

Therefore, I applaud the OP for thinking about how to best deal with the situation, of being disarmed but still in a potentially dangerous situation! :cool: The earlier you start, the more ideas you'll probably get!

Some good advice given so far. Your #1 priority should be survival. How you do so is dependent on many many variables. Run? (but I agree with Jeff about leading a mass escape) Hide?

Of course, in the worst case neither may be an option...

Frankly, my opinion is If I'm going to die, I am NOT going to "go quietly!" :fire:

I can't carry at work. Of coure, I DO have other options - even if I read the policies to the far extreme and (in other words, like a student would be subject to :rolleyes: ) exclude knives and OC.

I always have my bare hands, for the good they would do. If possible, do try to get some sort of formal fighting training if you haven't already.

(I WOULD say better to start young - but with so much !@#%! homework and extra-curricular activities in public schools these days...honestly I think my 9 yo nephew is BUSIER than *I* am! )

And there are improvised weapons as well. Most bookbags I carried would have been effective...IF I snuck up on the bad guy and had 5 seconds to heft it with 2 hands and clobber him on the head! Heavy is good...TOO heavy, like most are, is too clumsy to use as a weapon IMO.

I think I may have mentioned this before, but would the school allow you to carry a Mini Maglite, or even a "real" Kubotan? Of course, you'd need training to be the most effective, especially against a gun-toting assailant...!

In summation - Make the school YOUR territory. Know where cover, escape routes, and if comes down to it, something you could improvise as a weapon is.

Maybe talk to others in the school about the subject too. The less "bona-fide" sheep, the better the chances for everyone if the crap DOES hit the fan...!
 
I think before we start giving advise on active shooter you should ask about the size, strength, and location of the local PD. We need geographical info as well. Active shooter is the "new" methodology but it's not everywhere. Two officers attempting to run active shooter is not going to be as effective. If officers have to respond from farther due to simple geography (large beats/response areas) and your school is small shooters are gonna find you first
Click to expand...

We aren't going to talk about those things here. This is an open forum and anyone can surf in and read what's posted here. There will be no discussion of the tactics, techniques and procedures involved with an active shooter response.

Jeff
 
I already have a Surefire E2D Defender that I keep in my back-pack and from what I know and have heard, I'm not violating anything against school policies.
 
....

What the heck is with all this talk of fighting the gunman and such....there are windows in your school right? If you are on the second floor use an extension cord or wire (class rooms are full of em') to lower yourself down far enough to jump.


(just make sure you tie the wire down to something:neener: )
 
You can go somewhere else and post all the details about an active shooter response you want. But you won't do it here. I'm not having this thread found in the cache on the computer of the next nutcase that decides to shoot up a school. Think about what the mainstream media would do with that.

We have a responsiblity not to discuss certain things in an open forum.

Jeff
 
Run like all the other sheppie and just blend in.

I would like to think some people actually think about what they post and the impact that could have on THR if anything ever happened.
 
just one question said:
What the heck is with all this talk of fighting the gunman and such....there are windows in your school right? If you are on the second floor use an extension cord or wire (class rooms are full of em') to lower yourself down far enough to jump.
Click to expand...

That's been part of my plan for a school schooting as long as I've had a plan (a few weeks :eek: .) Many of the rooms in my school (three stories) have about a 15 foot drop at most, and I plan on utilizing that if the shooter is nearby. And if you have to use power cords, remember: most girls could braid in their sleep, and it makes the cords stronger too ;)

Also, I plan on barricading the doors with whatever is handy. The teachers have some really big desks, that would take a while to get through. Also, I believe all our doors are steel core with HEAVY wood on the outside, so it's definately a detterent.

Improvised weapons are rather easy to find in a school, once you start using your imagination. Wooden chair legs, text books, bunsen burners, metal compasses... The list goes on and on. I need to get a flashlight to stand in for a kubaton, myself. And training.
 
Fire extinguisher

If there is a fire extinguiser in reach, it can deliver a nice shot that will temporarily incapacitate an attacker, during which you can hit him with it.
 
This is just my personal opinion but I'd think that if you can figure out where the problem is and avoid it, do so and get the hell out if at all possible.

If the problem is right there in front of you then you (and everyone else with you) should attack with everything you have available, shoes, books, hands, feet, teeth, chairs, desks, anything! All out attack! Somebody might (and probably will) get hurt but in my book it beats the hell out of being lined up against a wall and shot at the bad guy's convenience.

I'm also going to go a little outside your question and give another bit of advice. You always hear people saying "he just snapped" or "nobody saw it coming". That's BULL! There are always signs and I don't care if it's your best friend, if you suspect someone is planning something bad then for God's sake PLEASE TELL SOMEBODY! (parents, school admin, teachers, a cop, SOMEBODY).
 
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