JimConway
Instructor
The following was posted on another private board. I assume that many of you would be interested. Read on:
Okay, I am not trying to be a fly in the ointment, I was reading in the Training Announcements section about such a class at the Tactical Conference and it got some juices flowing.
I make no comment nor inference regarding the training that was put on there; reading the instructor list sounds like they were top quality individuals - many of them "T-Rexes" here, and I don't doubt the topics of instruction were right along the lines of what I will outline here.
But since we have had the dubious pleasure of entertaining some absolutely goofy ideas from other trainers (not just Gabe, bless his heart) regarding dealing with "hadjis" (and those pesky uniforms who try to keep you out!) should they attempt a Beslan style takeover while you are dropping off your kids at school, I'd like to address some things regarding active shooter response for the armed citizen that will hopefully take it beyond the realm of "Armed Role Playing."
I will make no bones about it. If you believe, or are being taught, to respond to the location of an active shooter from an area away from that location (in other words, you see something on CNN and jump in the car with your long gun and bug out bag in order to "go hunting," or "help out") you are a PROBLEM, not the solution.
If you are being taught to do so your teacher is mentally unbalanced. RUN rather than walk away from such an instructor.
That's right, the big bad evil tactical LEO telling you stay the f*** away! I don't trust many of the LEOs I work with to handle such a situation well, including former military, without shooting innocents, or shooting me in the bargain, adding a wannabe armed role player in a real time situation to the mix is a recipe for disaster. A man's got to know his limitations. We are reaching critical mass in the tactical training community with people NOT knowing their limitations because its oh so f***ing cool to look and act the part. I understand people need to make a buck selling fantasy to people, or re-living their own glory days, but don't let them do it at the potential cost of your life.
So, on to practical matters.
Since active shooters are an almost weekly occurrance these days, and quick action by private citizens and LEOs (rather than waiting for the "cell" to form up to go hunting) has been proven to effectively resolve such matters, any armed citizen response to active shooter should begin from certain premises.
Should you happen to be on scene when such a situation occurs, certain things should come to mind:
* Carry Gear:
In the vast, vast majority of circumstances you will need to address it with what you are carrying/wearing. Running out to your rig to get your plate carrier, extra mags, blow out kit and long gun is armed role playing. Carry that shit, sure. You might one day have such a need, but by and large you should practice with what you will be carrying in your day at the office, at the restaurant with the wife, or the Mall or Zoo with the kiddies.
* Protect Your Own:
YOUR FIRST RESPONSIBILITY IS TO THE SAFETY OF YOUR OWN FAMILY. Cops are not bound to protect you individually and logistically, we can't. We will show up and try to stop him from shooting more people, but we can't be your personal bodygaurd. We will not stop to administer aid while the bad guy is still out there.
You do us a huge favor by having the wherewithal to get you and yours the hell out of there. If you are not directly in the location of the shooter, you should cover your family's evacuation. Move AWAY from the sound of gunfire. Arm yourself, unobtrusively if possible because a man running through a Mall with a gun and a family just became a hostage taker in the eyes of the untutored public - and that armed security gaurd who decides to save the day and in shooting at you misses and hits your kid in the head. Get the family out.
* Cover Other's Retreat:
Post at an exit and provide security for others to escape. Indicate your location so that people know where to go. Lots of people will freeze and go to the ground and stay there waiting for "something" to happen or for someone else to give them permission to flee. Remember they may be freaked out by your gun, reassure them and tell them you are there to protect them. Call 911 on your cell phone and keep them on line, give them a description of yourself and that you are armed, and evacuating people from your location. That may become the staging point for the LE response, and it would cut down on the liklihood of friendly fire.
If you know police are still not on scene and everyone you can help has been helped without engaging, and you can guarantee your family will STAY safe, by all means then go hunting.
If you do, you must understand that you take responsibility for your own life in your own hands. You may get dead, real quick. The time to realize you didn't sign up for shit isn't when the bullets are flying around you, or coming to rest inside of you.
* Individual Tactics:
Hunting cells of more than two or three with "traditional" active shooter tactics are too slow, even with trained LEOs who practice it, together, a few times a year.
I would get rid of any notion that you will form up with other armed citizens, with the $12 an hour security gaurds, or with the responding LEOs, and work in a cell to go find the shooter.
Certainly work on tactical movement and communication, but even with LEOs most of the situations resolved quickly are by single man actions. Aggressively taking the fight to the shooter, putting rounds on his location to at least keep his head down will do a big favor until more guns get there that can take him out. Remember to Get off the X, change your position and location regularly so long as you can make use of cover.
* Other Considerations:
Assess for a bit if you can. Time is critical in these situations, but think while you act.
If you are hearing rifle fire you may want to reassess your ability to engage the bad guy(s). Are those other people really worth dying for?
I can tell you with personal knowledge that sometimes they are; when its a professional or moral obligation, or when its your family or other innocents (children) who cannot protect themselves. Otherwise, I'd go back to Sun Zi and tell you not to choose a fight you can't win.
Consider not engaging but gathering intel for responders, since you have at least some ability to defend yourself. Responders need to know exactly who you are, what you are wearing, what you look like, and that you are armed as you do this.
Remember secondary shooters. They are not always obvious, one may have deployed from a different location, or be laying in wait to ambush any identified resistance.
Remember IEDs. They are frequently used during active shooter incidents. If we want to get really complex, how about an active shooter/suicide bomber?? Think outside the box when visualizing what you may face and how you would deal with it.
* OBEY LE COMMANDS
Once officers have responded and contacted you, (hopefully not overreacted and shot you), OBEY ALL COMMANDS they give you. It will most likely first be to drop the gun. Do so before you do anything else. Don't wave the gun around pointing at where the bad guy is, drop the gun and tell them where the shooter is. Don't get frustrated that they are concentrating on you and missing the bad guy - every cop in the county is either pulling up on scene or busting ass to get there, so there will be more cops flooding that place while the guys hooking you are up are doing their job.
Okay, I am not trying to be a fly in the ointment, I was reading in the Training Announcements section about such a class at the Tactical Conference and it got some juices flowing.
I make no comment nor inference regarding the training that was put on there; reading the instructor list sounds like they were top quality individuals - many of them "T-Rexes" here, and I don't doubt the topics of instruction were right along the lines of what I will outline here.
But since we have had the dubious pleasure of entertaining some absolutely goofy ideas from other trainers (not just Gabe, bless his heart) regarding dealing with "hadjis" (and those pesky uniforms who try to keep you out!) should they attempt a Beslan style takeover while you are dropping off your kids at school, I'd like to address some things regarding active shooter response for the armed citizen that will hopefully take it beyond the realm of "Armed Role Playing."
I will make no bones about it. If you believe, or are being taught, to respond to the location of an active shooter from an area away from that location (in other words, you see something on CNN and jump in the car with your long gun and bug out bag in order to "go hunting," or "help out") you are a PROBLEM, not the solution.
If you are being taught to do so your teacher is mentally unbalanced. RUN rather than walk away from such an instructor.
That's right, the big bad evil tactical LEO telling you stay the f*** away! I don't trust many of the LEOs I work with to handle such a situation well, including former military, without shooting innocents, or shooting me in the bargain, adding a wannabe armed role player in a real time situation to the mix is a recipe for disaster. A man's got to know his limitations. We are reaching critical mass in the tactical training community with people NOT knowing their limitations because its oh so f***ing cool to look and act the part. I understand people need to make a buck selling fantasy to people, or re-living their own glory days, but don't let them do it at the potential cost of your life.
So, on to practical matters.
Since active shooters are an almost weekly occurrance these days, and quick action by private citizens and LEOs (rather than waiting for the "cell" to form up to go hunting) has been proven to effectively resolve such matters, any armed citizen response to active shooter should begin from certain premises.
Should you happen to be on scene when such a situation occurs, certain things should come to mind:
* Carry Gear:
In the vast, vast majority of circumstances you will need to address it with what you are carrying/wearing. Running out to your rig to get your plate carrier, extra mags, blow out kit and long gun is armed role playing. Carry that shit, sure. You might one day have such a need, but by and large you should practice with what you will be carrying in your day at the office, at the restaurant with the wife, or the Mall or Zoo with the kiddies.
* Protect Your Own:
YOUR FIRST RESPONSIBILITY IS TO THE SAFETY OF YOUR OWN FAMILY. Cops are not bound to protect you individually and logistically, we can't. We will show up and try to stop him from shooting more people, but we can't be your personal bodygaurd. We will not stop to administer aid while the bad guy is still out there.
You do us a huge favor by having the wherewithal to get you and yours the hell out of there. If you are not directly in the location of the shooter, you should cover your family's evacuation. Move AWAY from the sound of gunfire. Arm yourself, unobtrusively if possible because a man running through a Mall with a gun and a family just became a hostage taker in the eyes of the untutored public - and that armed security gaurd who decides to save the day and in shooting at you misses and hits your kid in the head. Get the family out.
* Cover Other's Retreat:
Post at an exit and provide security for others to escape. Indicate your location so that people know where to go. Lots of people will freeze and go to the ground and stay there waiting for "something" to happen or for someone else to give them permission to flee. Remember they may be freaked out by your gun, reassure them and tell them you are there to protect them. Call 911 on your cell phone and keep them on line, give them a description of yourself and that you are armed, and evacuating people from your location. That may become the staging point for the LE response, and it would cut down on the liklihood of friendly fire.
If you know police are still not on scene and everyone you can help has been helped without engaging, and you can guarantee your family will STAY safe, by all means then go hunting.
If you do, you must understand that you take responsibility for your own life in your own hands. You may get dead, real quick. The time to realize you didn't sign up for shit isn't when the bullets are flying around you, or coming to rest inside of you.
* Individual Tactics:
Hunting cells of more than two or three with "traditional" active shooter tactics are too slow, even with trained LEOs who practice it, together, a few times a year.
I would get rid of any notion that you will form up with other armed citizens, with the $12 an hour security gaurds, or with the responding LEOs, and work in a cell to go find the shooter.
Certainly work on tactical movement and communication, but even with LEOs most of the situations resolved quickly are by single man actions. Aggressively taking the fight to the shooter, putting rounds on his location to at least keep his head down will do a big favor until more guns get there that can take him out. Remember to Get off the X, change your position and location regularly so long as you can make use of cover.
* Other Considerations:
Assess for a bit if you can. Time is critical in these situations, but think while you act.
If you are hearing rifle fire you may want to reassess your ability to engage the bad guy(s). Are those other people really worth dying for?
I can tell you with personal knowledge that sometimes they are; when its a professional or moral obligation, or when its your family or other innocents (children) who cannot protect themselves. Otherwise, I'd go back to Sun Zi and tell you not to choose a fight you can't win.
Consider not engaging but gathering intel for responders, since you have at least some ability to defend yourself. Responders need to know exactly who you are, what you are wearing, what you look like, and that you are armed as you do this.
Remember secondary shooters. They are not always obvious, one may have deployed from a different location, or be laying in wait to ambush any identified resistance.
Remember IEDs. They are frequently used during active shooter incidents. If we want to get really complex, how about an active shooter/suicide bomber?? Think outside the box when visualizing what you may face and how you would deal with it.
* OBEY LE COMMANDS
Once officers have responded and contacted you, (hopefully not overreacted and shot you), OBEY ALL COMMANDS they give you. It will most likely first be to drop the gun. Do so before you do anything else. Don't wave the gun around pointing at where the bad guy is, drop the gun and tell them where the shooter is. Don't get frustrated that they are concentrating on you and missing the bad guy - every cop in the county is either pulling up on scene or busting ass to get there, so there will be more cops flooding that place while the guys hooking you are up are doing their job.
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