Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Today I went to an active shooter training session that taught about what to do in such a situation. Obviously you can never be completely 100% prepared for every situation but you can be prepared enough that you would know what to do in situations to save yourself and save someone else’s life.

At the training session which was about 2 hours and 15 minutes we got training from a police officer and swat team member about mindset and how you have to think of yourself as a survivor and that you will do everything in your power to live through a situation because you can take concrete steps and actions to ensure a higher survival rate. A lot of people panic and don’t know what to do because they have not prepared or taken drills or kept things in the forefront of their mind for “adverse” scenarios. This applies to camping, surviving and being in the wilderness and just the overall mindset.

Some key points I took from the training are:

• You have to envision that you’re going to get out alive so that people that you care about, loved ones, family, and young children who need you can see you again. Whether you are lost in the woods and need to find yourself back to civilization or have yourself in a bad situation you have to have the vision and one goal which is to survive one more minute, and one more minute to at least get yourself closer and closer to getting out of the situation.
• Any bad guy wants to ensure you don’t get to see your people you care about and live to talk about it and so it’s important that you “Do whatever it takes to get out”.
• Don’t depend on other people for your sole survival. The trainer said that even when a soldier is injured and being carried to safety he has a weapon in hand to continue combat and fight off even rogue attackers even when he’s flanked by medics because should they go down he has to be able to still fight on and live on. Help is great, but the lone soldier is his own escape plan and doesn’t rely on them alone or wait for them to make his escape.
• Another key point that was you have to “THINK FOR YOURSELF”. The trainer said to his daughter / son after watching some of the videos, that no matter what a teacher or principal or whomever, that in a survival situation which nothing makes sense, all bets are off and sometimes you have to do the opposite and run the opposite direction or just escape when your instinct is telling you otherwise. Basically if you’re in danger you need to go into survival mode. It’s one thing to go on lock-down, but an entirely other thing to be negligent and go on lock-down and continue a lecture. And that’s what was a good point. Just because there’s no immediate threat doesn’t mean you go back to business as usual. You have to barricade yourself off or get ready to flee or other actions if you’re still potentially in danger. And if a teacher or principal or coworker etc is telling you something counter to your survival in such a situation you need to act to survive. You may have to get away and think on your feet. Don’t be a sheep. Sheep get slaughtered.
• The rules of engagement for such a situation usually means that if you are typically non-combative or non-confrontational then you may have to be confrontation or get in someone’s face or physically do what is necessary to survive. No one deserves to be victimized.
• We learned that the front of the weapon is the most dangerous and you have to act accordingly. For a short range weapon, you should get as far as way from as possible. But a long distance powerful weapon it may actually be better to get closer to disarm and disengage. And anything can be weaponized.
• We learned that belts and barricades are extremely useful for preventing entry near doors.
• We learned that changing, shifting, moving and dodging can prevent being an easy target making a “pray and spray” attack to be less likely.
• We learned extremity injuries have a high likelihood of survival.
• We learned once you commit to disarming an attacker and stopping them, don’t stop until the threat is fully neutralized.
• Learn to ask what if. Such as, what if this happened in this location and scenario. Not thinking a scenario could happen to you is failing to prepare and a mindset failure.

And we also learned a little about an alternative strategy of ALICE which is:

• Alert (other people)
• Lock-down (the room especially if unsafe to evacuate)
• Inform (others about the location of threat and direction)
• Counter (as a last resort or disrupt and distract but not necessarily confront)
• Evacuate (once safe)

This is different but similar to the shorter DHS strategy to get out of the area, hide and shelter, and combat if no other choice.

We learned that you can survival projectile wounds and may need to change strategy as needed, to run or be still or pretend as needed to get to the next instance where you can escape or get help. And that successful survival mindset is critical. You have to have a game plan in any scenario, practice and drill over and over and be prepared to use it. That’s like anything in life. And you don’t necessarily need it to rule your life, but every now and then think, if I needed to suddenly go into survival (beast) mode, can I do the things needed to ensure I get to see my family and loved ones again.

The trainer emphasized that the picture or vision of someone you care about focuses you every day on what you need to have the right mindset every day.

And with that stay safe and be well, SWM’ers.

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