A shooter is killing people around you!

Note: The things I am about to say are highly opinionated, so if you are hot and bothered by this essay then realize that if you write me a hot email, I will read your point of view but I will not get into an email conversation with you that might turn into a war. I have been in Law Enforcement for over thirty-years and I believe we need to do something to take our country back from the criminal element that our panty waist liberal court systems have turned out into our streets, but... before you misunderstand that statement... I took an Oath of Office and I also believe in the laws of our land, and I believe we have the best country in the world. Therefore I have given and continue to give these years of my life to enforce all laws to the best of my abilities. Even those laws I disagree with.

The Big Question: What do you do when a shooter is killing people around you, and might even kill you?

In the wake of the Virginia Tech murders I have answered hundreds of phone calls from students, faculty and other Police Agencies wanting to know what the policy is at our University for "Active Shooter" situations. (I retired from a large police agency in Texas but am still licensed with a University located in Texas.) The truth is, there is no system, method, procedure or line of attack that can be written into a policy that will prohibit this type of event from happening, or give instruction to potential victims/officers when this type of criminal episode is in the process of happening. So what can I tell these callers?

However, if all people involved in this type of bloodshed can think rationally and react in a common-sensical manner, then maybe the killing won't turn into a massacre as it did at Virginia Tech.

At this point of the investigation, less than one week later, we know only what has been released to the media and, we can only speculate about what actually happened inside the building where thirty-people died at the hand of a madman. With the exception of course, of the brave professor Mr. Lebrescu who stood in front of a classroom door holding it shut while some of his students escaped from a second story window and, another room where students placed a table against a door so it would not be breached. This paper is about those types of common sense actions that protected human life and kept the murder toll to only thirty.

First, let me talk a little bit about death in general and the human reaction to it. Isn't it true that none of us want to die? Some of us are prepared for death in some spiritual manner, or have settled monetary accounts for spouses or children in case we die, but if we knew we were going to lay down and die in our sleep tonight I doubt that we would be able to lay down and go to sleep. Even with the knowledge that it would be a painless, stop-breathing-in-your-sleep death, we would be up walking the floor. I would anyway; I wouldn't be able to sleep a wink! It might not be called out and out fright, but it would definately be a type of anxiety wouldn't it? So it is reasonable to assume that most all of us would have some type of fear involved in our psyche if affronted with a Virginia Tech type situation. Policeman, soldier, student or whatever... if you deny fear in that situation you would not be considered a normal human being would you? I think we can agree on that.

So... tell me what to do, you say! Give me instructions! Give me a policy! There must be an answer! I want to know how NOT to die!

I can't. It's that simple. Trained policemen, soldiers, and firemen who know how to handle most situations die everyday somewhere in this world. Remember the previous die-in-your-sleep situation? How could I write that policy? How to stay awake in thirteen thousand walk back-and-forth easy steps... Why would I try to tell you how to stay awake? Would it do me any good to tell you to stay awake? No. You already know you need to do that! At Virginia Tech these kids and professors knew they needed to stay alive... did they not? Did anyone need to tell them that? No. You already know you need to stay alive!

So here is my policy. Do whatever you can to stay alive; anything you can think of! Throw books, chairs, doors, erasers... break out a window and throw broken glass at them... Stay alive! Charge him, kick him, tackle him, strangle him... yes, someone is going to get hurt but thirty-people aren't going to die! His measly pistol did not hold thirty-bullets for heaven-sakes (he had to reload several times) and he shot some people as many as three-times with the same gun... he could not have carried out such a massacre except that everyone in that building let him... so sad a situation. I know that last sentence was controversial, but it is truth. Sometimes truth is a bitter pill to swallow.

You might say, but no one else there had a gun... how could they do anything? Where were the police?

Okay... it's time for another hypothetical. Let's say you are an excellent underwater swimmer, and you can hold your breath for an inhuman time of fifteen-minutes. There is a sunken ship in 12-feet of water with a cabin holding a hidden, waterproof 10-million dollar gold certificate. All you need to do is take a breath and swim in, get it and it's yours. So... off you go. You are inside the room, one door, no windows very little light and you find the money with 8-minutes of air remaining in your lungs, but the light suddenly is partially blocked by something. When you turn around there is a man wearing SCUBA with one hour of air on his back. You don't have air, he does. Now you have 6-minutes of air and he is still blocking the door. Is he there to get the money? If he is you are trapped, and now you are down to 3-minutes of air and you're feeling the pressure and the need to breathe. You don't have much time for a decision, if you don't do something you will die from drowning suffocation and he'll have the money. You offer him the money. He smiles but doesn't reach for it. So now, you realize that you are going to die over a miserable piece of paper that could've made you rich but you didn't do anything, you just waited. Then you black out and you are gone without even a simple struggle to exit past the SCUBA diver. You died without knowing if you could've swam right by him because you didn't even try. There was absolutely no struggle for life.

What do you think about this situation? Do you think you should have at least tried to get out? Should you have fought "SCUBA dude" for your life or just went to sleep by drowning like you did? The truth is, most humans struggle for air (life?) and would have tried some sort of escape no matter how feeble it might have been.

These are the questions you should ask yourself about everyday life. Not just about living in a college or school situation where a gunman could come in and kill a bunch of people because there are a large group there. It could happen anywhere, at the local gas station, mall, theater, church, mosque, you name it. This is one of the dangers of a free society. Do you think these things happen in other countries that are "Gun Free?" You bet they do! They happen in London, Switzerland, Australia, Germany and the list goes on... In fact, they happen more often in those places because there are no law abiding citizens that can carry a defensive weapon, so only criminals have the firearms and our "politically correct" media won't report on those because of the Anti-gunners who donate bunches of money to them. Cho didn't really need a gun, it was simply his weapon of choice; need an example? Does anyone remember Timothy James McVeigh?

I am getting off track a bit here, but this is what am I trying to say; in situations where you are confronted with a terroristic problem, or see face to face, an active shooter shooting people, you are likely going to be shot also. If he is close to you and you are shot, you are going to be injured and possibly die. But, there are several things you can do when you see a shooter before being his/her victim:

1.          Be a Dr. Lebrescu...Stand in front of a door or barricade so others can escape, or better yet, lie down in front of the door/barricade so maybe bullets won't strike you if it is shot through and through, or maybe an improvement to that would be to make a group plan to attack him from all sides of the room when he enters. Disarm the situation so the killing stops.
2.          What if; he gets into a room with you before you hear him coming and several of you are cornered in a room? You should NOT stand in the corner like a deer in head lights and get slaughtered like cattle; YOU ALL WILL DIE, maybe it would be good for all of you to rush him/her and get the gun away... this would end the situation and stop the entire massacre... Yes, some of you might get hurt or die, but remember the above line if you just stand there? (YOU ALL WILL DIE.) [what if the students in the first room (211?) had done this at Virginia Tech, there would probably only have been three killed in that building instead of thirty.]
3.          If the shooter holds you at gunpoint and tries to spread your group out so you can not gang up on him (not likely) then scatter and run in any and all directions, but someone try and disarm him so he doesn't show up somewhere else to massacre another group.

Here is another part of any shooter situation you need to be aware of. I have been in law enforcement for a long time, and the fact is there is a "response time" factor that is figured into the equation even if you are at home and this is a home invasion. If you call 911 there will be a minimal response time of 3-minutes before officer(s) arrive, (more than likely 7-minutes) and then... they have to figure out what is going on other than a person shooting people in a building, house, or wherever or whatever they were told on the phone. Chances are the situation has changed since they got the call. plus ... They don't know what the shooter looks like, (you do) exactly where he is, (you do) etc... so the reality is, unless the officer(s) are clairvoyant, you as citizens must be able to help yourselves to stay alive by fighting back and not depending on some caped crusader to swoop in and protect you.

My dad always told me that if I was to bury my head in the sand to hide from a confrontation, the rest of my vitals were still sticking up in the air. In some cases at Virginia Tech, those that stuck their head in the sand put other peoples vitals in the air, and those other people died. One professor stood in front of that door and some of his kids escaped. That was definitely heroic. Too bad he and the remainder of the class didn't stay all ganged up around the door and hit the shooter over the head with a student's desk or something else large and heavy when he entered the room so the shooting would have stopped without the professor or anyone else in the room having to die. Just a thought, of course it might not have happened that way but why not? The shooter had not met resistance anywhere else in the building; why would he suspect a chair to come flying out of nowhere to knock him into oblivion? Instead, those that did not make it out of the window died in that room with the professor who was shot through the door.

I upset my college aged daughter to tears when I told her these things. She said, "Dad, those kids didn't do anything wrong, all they did was go to class!" Well she was partially right, they didn't do anything wrong. But, they didn't do anything right either, because they didn't do anything; then they died, and dying is something we are trying to avoid here.

The point is this. You don't want to die. And, every situation is different, every building is different, and every shooter is different. There is no knowing what to write as a policy or procedure that would get you out of any situation safely. If a policy or even some policies were written and practiced, they probably would be the wrong ones that could send you to your death. Just remember, a cow running from a gun probably would not survive, and just as important, it would not save the lives of other cattle by running either, especially when cornered. There are times to run from dangerous situations, and this has nothing to do with being or not being a "hero;" I'm talking about survival here. Just don't forget that there are also times it may make more sense to fight rather than stand in a room to wait, and speculate in fear whether or not you will be the next one cornered... then find out you are a dying calf.