When the wolves are hypothetical.
Last week in my Human Relations class we were confronted with the “Active Shooter on Campus” topic of discussion. We watched a video from some security company hosted by a couple of “experts” in which they watched a video of a handful of security camera recordings of a staged Active Shooter scenario and then commented on it.
Of course, their professional opinions were binary: Run away and call the professionals, or hide and arm yourself with a chair. Run is a good idea, if you can. Hide, not so much, even if you arm yourself with a chair. Sadly, this is about all you can do on a college campus if you follow the rules.
We were then split into three groups and “discussed” what we would do. in my group, after some small talk, I laid out the answer that I knew the instructor needed to hear: Run to “The Safe Place” and lock/barricade yourself in until the professional constabulary arrives to let you out.
I made it sound quite reasonable and with very little struggle the group decided that that was a good answer. The “Team Leader” wrote it down and we informed the instructor that we were ready. After the other two groups signaled their readiness, the instructor had us read off their answers in reverse order of readiness.
The first group was going to run to the hills. The second was going to run to the roof of our two story building. We, as I mentioned, were going to run to the rearmost classroom and barricade ourselves in and wait for the professionals.
The instructor then demolished the first two groups answers and explained why ours was the “correct one”. We were told that, if there was an individual on campus harming people with a weapon and it did not start in our building, his instructions were to lock all the doors to the building with us inside, assemble us into the rearmost classroom that has no windows and only two entrances/exits and barricade those doors until the room was searched by the police and we were cleared to exit.
You can probably tell that I hate this “scenario”. Trust me, so does the instructor. We are all adults in this class, with the youngest being 18 and the oldest being in his 50’s, with the mean in around 28. However, keeping my cover as an average guy requires that I not explain why I dislike the scenario out loud.
During the discussion time, the young men in the other groups were sounding off as young men do when they are amongst their peers. Only one straggler in my group joined in with them and was roundly eye-rolled. While these young men are nice enough guys, and a handful of them have served in uniform, the only thing I will count on should an Active Shooter scenario actually take place is their needing a change of underwear.
About the only upside was that we were told we were on our own if the Active Shooter scenario started in our classroom/shop area. It actually was quite fun to listen to my fellow classmates improvise weapons out of everyday shop equipment. Not only because this is normally not allowed on a college campus.
But I must admit that I liked my improvisations the best as they involve both blunt force trauma AND fire.
Like the new Ford commercials state “And is better than or.”
The barricade idea depends on the shooter not finding the group and as there is nothing to stop him/her forcing entry with the weapon (shotgun to lock say) then all you have is a “target rich environment” as far as I can tell…but then I have never been able to follow “the rules” anyway. This is not to say the “professonals” don’t riddle your building and room with random fire as the new universal procedure by LE on such seens seems to be recon by fire.
And THAT’S why small, concealable pistols sell so well. Personally the last thing I do before stepping outside, REGARDLESS of where I am going, is to drop the wallet and pistol-carrying shoulder harness over my head. When covered by a denim jacket it’s totally out of sight out of mind – unless needed. And if somebody asks, I just reach in and pull out my wallet.