Active shooter

[brat]

It's come up a couple of times in discussions and often in the news lately. I suspect we'll see more in the future. We all prepare for shtf stuff, but let's face it, in your daily travels until then, being prepared to face a terrorist or crazy person (yes there's a difference) with the proper mindset and training is likewise important. I'll pass on another opinion that may be of interest to some.

From the book "Killing the Active Shooter"....Suarez

It has become a regular thing...some sort of terrorist, extremist, or simple psycho deciding to go out and make a statement about their world view by killing others en mass.

In a perfect world, we would know about their plans and stop them before they ever got started. In a perfect world, neither terrorists, extremists, nor simple psychos would be able to get weapons much less have the opportunity to deploy them. We could go on about that mythical perfect world, but to what end? Such a world does not and will never exist regardless of how much meddlesome and intrusive into everyone's lives the authorities become.

So what solutions can we look at?

One simple one that does happen from time to time is that the police arrive and terminate the bad guy. As courageous and eager for contact as the police may be, the reactive circumstances of events are such that they will only be there coincidentally. When that happens we are all happy...but there are many times that may not happen in time.

With the prolific spread of the concealed carry culture, there is a trend for the good guy to be on scene. So this is my advice to the armed CCW that may happen to be on scene, and decides to engage the bad guys.
 

1 ). If you are there with your family, or other loved ones, see to their safety first. It may sound harsh and selfish, but I don't think you intend to trade the life of your child for that of a stranger. It is not cowardly to run away with your family to keep them alive and safe.

2 ). If your family is safe, or you are alone, you can certainly engage. But like the gunfight philosopher Dirty Harry Callahan once said, "A man's got to know his limitations". The presence of that new Glock or the Kel-Tec, or whatever means nothing without skill and will.

3 ). Engaging in the context of the active shooter means simply bringing your gun to bear and killing them. This is not the time for challenges, commands, or any sort of dialog. They are condemned by their actions. If you have not come to terms with doing that very thing...pointing in on the back of the bad guy's head and blowing his eyes right through the front of his skull without uttering a word, then simply don't engage.

4 ). One thing I recall from the old days is that there is always a back-up. In SWAT, we would never enter a room alone. When going intently into harm's way we always sought to bring another with us. There is safety in numbers. The bad guys are not stupid and do this as well. So look for the second man, before and after.

5 ). Identify the second man by their actions. What would most people do when there is a mad man shooting into the crowd? They tend to run away from the danger. Those that freeze in terror tend to be fixated on the gunman with wide eyes and open mouths.

A layoff man will not be doing that but rather be focused on the actions of everyone else...your specially if you are too overt in your draw and announcing of intentions.

6 ). This is not the shooting range where you stand tall and proud in your weaver/isosceles shooting position. This is not defensive shooting, or reactive shooting. This is an ambush that you are pulling off. Use cover. Hide and protect yourself...then shoot them in the back from cover.

7 ). I will bet that J-Frame or that .32 is a dream to carry. I will bet you even forget its there as you move through your day. But when you find yourself in one of these events, you will yearn for that "heavy and hard to carry" Glock 19 and spare magazines.

Everyday...if you are serious about protecting your world, dress for battle as if today was the day you will face the spawn of evil intent on the death of innocents. If you do not carry the correct tools, all the good intentions will amount to nothing.

8 ). Although it has not become very common yet it has in fact been a factor in some of these events. Understand the dynamic that a mortally wounded active shooter can still easily detonate a self-improvised-explosive-device before expiring, thereby killing anyone your actions may have saved. My counter terrorist friends around the world make it a practice to close on the downed bad guy and placing an additional three to five rounds into the head to nullify any possibility of activating an explosive device. I doubt anyone would have the gall to question it.

9 ). Stopping the active shooter is about killing, and killing is simple. Ask a killer what works best. He will say the simple way works best. Why do non-killers want to complicate this with warnings and fear of liability and all manner of non-issues?? The active shooter has already given you license to do anything you wish based on his own initiative. Draw the gun, point it, and shoot them to the ground.

Anyone desiring the whole 90 page book, it is currently on sale for half off here...........

http://www.onesourcetactical.com/killingtheactiveshooter.aspx#.VnF2w79unIU



If you really want to push the envelope, consider the class.....

http://www.suarezinternationalstore.com/terrorist-active-shooter-interdiction.aspx

[JohnyMac]

Awesome stuff brat. Thx 

[brat]

A little follow up info that may be of interest to some......

THE BAD GUY(S) - ACTIVE SHOOTER/JIHADIST STATS

There have been a number of academic studies done on active shooting incidents. Here are some statistics to utilize in developing educated tactical responses.

The average active shooter incident lasts 12 minutes, while 37 percent last less than five minutes.

49 percent of attackers committed suicide either at the conclusion of the event or when challenged, 34 percent were arrested, and 17 percent were killed by responders.

51 percent of the attacks studied occurred in the workplace, while 17 percent occurred in a school, 17 percent occurred in a public place, and six percent occurred in a religious establishment.

Two percent of the shooters bring improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as an additional weapon.

In 10 percent of the cases, the shooter stops and walks away. In 20 percent of the cases, the shooter goes mobile, moving to another location.

43 percent of the time, the crime is over before police arrive. In 57 percent of the shootings, an officer arrives while shooting is still underway.

The attacks ended before the police arrived 49 percent of the time. In 56 percent of the attacks ongoing when police arrived, officers had to use force to stop the killing.

My Comments:


* Think short duration, high intensity event.
* Think where you are strong and where the shooter is weak.
* Think of the places you frequent, which are likely venues for such an event.
* Are you prepared to respond in those places?
* Think the shooter may be equipped with an IED. Most likely self-activated.
* Think how best to prevent a wounded shooter from detonating an IED.
* Think you will probably be able to intervene before the police arrive.
* Think how you might avoid being mistaken for the bad guy.


And think - "what sort of weapon are you likely to ALWAYS have with you that would serve in this situation"?

Now let's see what we can do with this information.

Suraez -

[Kentactic]

If a person has an IED on them, they're probably going to just use it. There's no logical reason to scare everyone off with a rifle before you set it off. That coupled with the 2% of shootings they've seen them used(which is probably only once or twice ever) and the fact that they can rig them so that releasing a button results in detonation, I'd say just don't clutter your mind with IED equipped shooter defensive "training".

If a guy is shooting people, the gun is overwhelming likely to be his best attack weapon.