“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around
like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1
Peter 5:8)
With the ever-increasing unpredictability of our daily life, there
is also an increasing number of life-threatening dangers we need to prepare ourselves
against.
One of the most dangerous, life-threatening events is when you’re
faced with an active shooter scenario.
Active killers come in many forms and can include active shooters,
terrorist attacks with knives, guns, bombs or vehicles and workplace violence
offenders. With a growing number of
these incidents over the past few years all across the United States, and the
world, now, more than ever is the best time to equip yourself, your family, and
your church with the right knowledge, mindset, and skills to increase your
chances of safety and survival response under such dangerous circumstances.
I was scanning security and self-defense websites online late in
the afternoon of December 29th when I saw several of them discussing the active
shooter attack that had happened several hours earlier at the West Freeway
Baptist Church in White, Texas. Although
it had been less than eight hours since the attack, many of them were already
getting information about the shooting that initially killed two and wounded
one, although later the wounded man died.
Only a few minutes after first hearing about the church shooting, the
News was broadcasting a knife attack that had happened the day before in New
York wounding five persons in the home of a Rabbi.
The shooting and knife attack were grim reminders to everyone that
these attacks don’t just happen to other people. Sadly, you and your loved ones are not immune
to the threat created by the broken and evil people around us. Sadly, even carrying a firearm does not
shield you and your family from attack, but any knowledge about active shooter
events may help to prevent them from becoming a victim. We need to learn all we can about these
potential situations and to share some of this knowledge with those you love to
enhance their chance of survival if they are caught in one of these attacks.
Some of the things to share, on an age-appropriate basis, include
the following:
Maintain Situational Awareness
Poor Situational Awareness makes it difficult to identify
threats and respond to them in a timely manner.
Practice this skill and then encourage your friends and loved ones to
keep their noses out of their phones when they’re in public, and look around. Help them to develop the habit of scanning
the area around them, watch what people are doing and be mindful of changes to
their environment. Teach them to look for people and things that don’t belong,
or don’t follow the pattern. Most of the
public couldn’t tell you what’s happening beyond six inches from their
nose—don’t let friends and family become one of these zombies.
Know Where the Exits Are
Teach your friends and family to make a habit of identifying ways
to get out of whatever space they find themselves in. Look for doors, stairs and service entrances. Look for things that can be used to smash
through windows, or even walls, to create an exit where none exists. Identify the obstacles and choke points that
could prevent you from getting out when a crowd rushes that way in a panic.
Figure out the exit that most people will probably flock to, and then locate
one opposite of that location. Have a
plan for getting out, and have a backup plan in case that one doesn’t work.
Get Off the Floor
Hitting the deck during the initial moments of an attack might make
a lot of sense and prevent you from getting hit by gunfire, but it might be a
bad place to stay in the long run. Every
situation is different, but in many cases, staying on the floor will only lead
to you being trampled by the crowd or targeted by an attacker that’s moving
faster than you. If you’re on the floor,
try to get out of the traffic flow, and move to a place where the attacker
can’t see you (concealment), or where you have the physical protection (cover)
necessary to get up and run.
You want to spend as little time in the target area as possible, so
don’t freeze in place on the ground. It might make sense to stay still in some
situations that provide cover until you find a good opportunity to escape, but
in most cases, your odds of survival will improve if you get out of there
quickly. A moving target, slumped over
to make yourself appear smaller is hard to hit, especially one running away at
a slanted angle. But a slow-moving or
stationary target on the floor is easy work for an attacker.
Don’t volunteer to be Deaf and Blind
Anything that interrupts normal hearing or vision can make it
difficult to sense danger and take appropriate measures. For example, loud music can mask the sound of
gunfire, and dark rooms can hide the presence of a threat and make it hard to
find the exits. If your friends and
family are going to hang out in loud and dark places, they need to make up for
the sensory loss in other ways. Scan the
crowd more frequently, know how many exit rows you have to touch before you’re
near the door, hang out near the exit, bring a good flashlight, and find ways
to make up for your loss of vision and hearing.
Have a Plan
Friends and family should understand what they’re expected to do if
they get caught in an active shooter situation.
First, they should break the freeze and get moving
to safety. In some cases, they may need to fight, and should be mentally
prepared to do so. Have them think about
and discuss an offsite rendezvous point (something outside of the immediate
area, away from the Hot Zone) for the group if they get separated. Teach them if they get out, to stay out, and
not to go back inside looking for someone.
Be Careful with your Communication Devices
Encourage friends and family to keep a charged cell phone on their
person. Off-body carry (in a purse, in
the console of a car) is not recommended, because it’s too easy to get
separated from the phone, put it in a pocket so that it’s there if you have to
run. Discuss the critical information
911 needs to know when reporting an emergency, and have them practice making a
good call with the right elements of information. Ensure youngsters know how to operate a
traditional, land line phone (no, I’m not joking). Encourage loved ones to memorize essential
phone numbers, so they can call family from someone else’s phone.
Know How to Act When the Police Arrive
Friends and family must understand how to act when the police
arrive to ensure their safety. Teach them the importance of following commands,
avoiding anything that looks like a sneaky movement, and keep their hands out
of their pockets and off of responders.
Teach them that the first responding officers are trained to bypass the
wounded and put the shooter down first, before giving aid or evacuating
victims. Teach them how to communicate
the essentials to responding officers, description, weapons, location, number
of suspects, and the direction of their movement.
Learn Basic First Aid
Have at least two people trained in how to stop
bleeding, how to put someone in the recovery position and how to
move a wounded victim. Teach them about
the best locations in the area to transport a wounded victim for treatment.
Be prepared
Most important, teach them to take the threat seriously. The shock and stress of an attack like this
can lead an unprepared mind to panic and freeze. Teach your loved ones that these events are
survivable, even if they are wounded, if they keep their head and make good
decisions. Teach them “tactical breathing” or other skills that
will help to calm them down, and gain control of emotions so they can think and
act. Ignoring the threat won’t make it
go away, and will only set them up for failure if they’re unlucky enough to get
caught in one of these situations.
None of us wants to discover that a friend or family member has
been involved in one of these attacks, but it would be even worse for us if
they were hurt because we failed to tell them what they needed to know to
survive.
Take the time today to discuss these awful realities with those you
love. It won’t be a fun conversation,
but it may be a lifesaving one.
Be safe out there, and pray for your congregation, family, and
friends.
I have developed and made available to anyone interested, for FREE, a series of Security & safety forms that can
be printed for your use:
1) A Safety & Security Risk Assessment Form
2) Church Security Plan Template
3) Church Emergency Plan Template
4) A General Fire Safety Checklist
5) A Bomb Threat Checklist
6) A Bomb Threat Distance Chart: Includes various types of
explosive devises and to be referred to in an event of a bomb threat
evacuation. These are minimum distances to evacuate away from the area of
explosion.
7) Facility Lockdown Checklist
8) Child Protection Covenant
These MS Word documents can be adapted as necessary to fit your
church size and needs. I will be adding new forms as time allows.
For a copy of any of these FREE
forms, or if you have any questions, you can contact me at:
Integrity Security Consulting
Russ Sharrock
405-762-2471 | integrityseccon@hotmail.com
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