Active Shooter Response Training is More Than Watching the Run Hide Fight Video

An individual once wrote me asking what I thought of his company’s “active shooter training.” All of the employees were sent a nice letter from HR explaining the importance of active shooter training, so they would be prepared in case of an active shooter or other active threat incident. At the end of the letter was a link to the “Run – Hide – Fight” video on YouTube with instructions to watch the video, as this was important. That’s it. That was their training.

I wrote him back and said I teach anywhere from one hour to eight hours, depending on the group and what they bring me in for. Sometimes it’s a keynote, other times a breakout session, and sometimes a half or full day of training for organizations. I asked him how he thought a five-minute video on YouTube compared. He agreed with me, and thought it was just a way his company was trying to cover their butt and say they cared about people and did something.

The fact is, training people costs money. And it’s not just the fee paid to me, or other trainers. It costs a lot to have employees attend a course, the longer the more it costs. But it’s worth it. It can save lives, and it also can increase moral and provide peace of mind when people are scared. The person who wrote me didn’t have the best impression of that company’s leadership. How would he have felt if they had provided actual training rather than a video link?

I have had so many people comment that they felt better, empowered, after training. They realized they could do something to keep themselves and loved ones safer. Investing in training is investing in people. There are other benefits to training, and other values associated with providing active shooter response training to employees. But I do believe one of the biggest is having employees feel cared about. When you provide training, and a tool such as Reflex Protect, to help keep your employees safe and provide peace of mind when the news is bombarding them with tales of violence, you aren’t just spending money. You are investing in your employees. You are showing them you care about them and their safety. And that is worth a whole lot more than the actual cost of training.

Alain Burrese, Safety Seminar, Billings, MT, Aug 6, 2019

What is the biggest active shooter response misconception?

active shooter response misconception by alain burreseWhat active shooter response misconception is the biggest? There are many, and while I’m not sure if this is the biggest, it is very prevalent in some circles and I’m going to look at it today.

Active Shooter Response Misconception: The ONLY way to stop a bad guy with a gun is by a good guy with a gun.

This is often said by the pro-gun crowd, but it is not accurate. While I will agree that if you have to face an active shooter, it would be better if you were armed with a firearm too, but that is not realistic for all circumstances. Because of laws and different personality types, people are going to face active killers unarmed. However, unarmed people HAVE stopped these sick individuals. There are many instances where ordinary unarmed people have stopped active shooter and terrorist threats.

It’s ridiculous to say if you are not armed with a firearm you must resort to being a helpless victim. It’s not true! You don’t have to be a victim. That’s what the Survive a Shooting book and course are all about. I’ve taught many teachers, medical providers, government office workers and others who are prohibited from carrying a firearm at work. I don’t care if you agree or disagree with these laws. The fact is, they exist and I teach people strategies that work within the parameters they must work with.

I refuse to believe this active shooter response misconception and say unarmed people must be victims. Not when so many unarmed people have successfully stopped these killers. I’m not saying it is easy. Nor am I saying it is ideal. I am saying it is possible. And with the things I teach, it raises the chances people can successfully survive these horrific events.

It is important that people learn to harden targets and look for potential indicators to prevent the event from happening in the first place. That is always best. But if bullets are flying, there are things people can do to increase their chances of survival, and to save lives. People must know how to escape, deny, attack back, and stop the bleeding. Knowledge and training can prepare people so they don’t have to live in fear, but rather can enjoy life safely with a plan if the worst case scenario does happen.

 

Clint Eastwood made a movie about a terrorist active shooter that was stopped by unarmed passengers. Here is an article titled The True Story Behind the Movie The 15:17 to Paris

Movement Saves Lives! Active Shooter Response

Movement Saves Lives!

There is a reason “Move!” is in the center of the Active Shooter Triangle used in the Survive a Shooting course and featured on the Survive a Shooting posters. (See them over in the right sidebar.)

In an active shooter situation, you must do something immediately. You must move! When the adrenaline rush hits, people go into the fight or flight response, but there is another “f” and that is freeze. We can’t afford to freeze in such situations. Remembering to breathe, having a plan, and prior training are all important to reduce or prevent this freeze reaction. Freezing and remaining motionless can mean death. Movement can save your life.

What Movement Saves Lives?

Any movement is better than freezing, but what you do will be determined by your location to the shooter and your environment. You can escape, which could be running away or going out a window. You might move quickly to lock and barricade the door to deny the shooter access to you by keeping him out. If the shooter is right there, your best option my be to attack back and take him out. You attack back with anything available. If you are armed, use what you have. If unarmed, grab an improvised weapon or just use the tools you were born with by tackling the shooter and pounding his head into the floor with hammer fists. What you do is sometimes not as important as doing something. In almost every situation, doing something is going to be better than doing nothing.

I remember when a report came out regarding a plan to throw cans at an armed intruder if he came into a classroom. Some people were quick to criticize this. I’m not going to criticize it, because it’s better than not moving! Creating chaos and movement make it extremely difficult to shoot someone. Being hit with cans is going to mess up the killer’s OODA Loop and make it difficult to focus on his original task. This can create the opening to then tackle and take out the shooter. This is a lot better than jumping under desks to hide and hope.

Bottom Line

Movement saves lives, so move. Do something. Escape, deny, or attack back. I’m always ecstatic when people in my classes say, “I never thought of that, but I could do it if I had to…” That is what the Survive a Shooting course (read review) is all about. It provides people with options to increase their chances of surviving. Moving is key. Movement saves lives!

Movement Saves Lives – FaceBook Live video recorded 8/1/17

Why the Survive A Shooting course?

This is why Alain Burrese created the Survive A Shooting course:

After the July 2012 mass shooting at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, Alain made and posted this video to his Best Safety Tips YouTube channel. (Later moved to the Survive and Defend channel.)

Alain made a commitment right then to do something to help people so they wouldn’t have to live in fear and be helpless victims when these sick killers took out their frustrations and sick notions against innocent people.

Less than six months later, December 2012, the terrible Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred. Being a father of an elementary school age daughter, this senseless killing hit Alain hard and he reconfirmed that he must do something to help people.

At this time, Alain had considerable experience teaching people. He’d taught conflict resolution, safety and self-defense classes and courses, as well as the martial art of Hapkido. But these Active Shooter and Active Threat situations needed something a bit different. So to add to his knowledge of safety and self-defense, Alain started studying Active Shooter incidents and how to respond to them.

Survive A Shooting Course resources

This study included books, DVD programs, on-line courses, and articles (both on-line and magazines) on the topic. It included networking and discussing the topic with other experts. It also included attending an 8-hour Emergency Response To An Armed Intruder course taught by Safariland Training Group certified instructors. Alain then went through the instructor training and became certified himself. Over the last three and a half years, Alain has taught as part of a team that has taught this 8-hour course to around 4,000 community members on what to do when the unthinkable happens.

Alain started appearing on radio shows around the country to share information to help people when these events happen. He’s been on the radio in Florida, New York, California, Montana, Nevada, Michigan, Texas, and he continues to appear as time permits.

Alain found with all of this study that many of the resources lacked what he wanted to see in a book on the topic, so he is working on his book Survive A Shooting. It will be the definitive book resource for people on this topic. But just reading a book or watching a short video on YouTube isn’t enough.

Literally thousands of evaluations of the course Alain and the team were teaching commented on how empowering the training was. But because that course takes a team to teach, logistically it is difficult to get it out to more organizations. The 8-hour time commitment is also difficult for many businesses and organizations.

Alain wanted a course that would still empower people and show them that people don’t have to be helpless victims and that there are things that can be done before, during and after these horrific events to increase your odds of surviving. Alain wanted to empower people and teach them to be survivors.

The Survive a Shooting course does just that. It is only 4 hours long, so it is much easier for many businesses and organizations to fit into their schedules. Alain can bring this course to businesses and organizations all over the world. Bring him in and he can teach your people. So logistically it is also much easier than the course taught by the team of instructors.

Alain is saddened by the increase in these horrific events. But he is glad that his goal, standing out in front of the Batman movie poster, of helping people in these situations is now materializing on such a large scale. Helping thousands of people is not enough, he wants to help tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. People should not be helpless victims!

To increase these numbers into the hundreds of thousands, or millions, yes, let’s think big and help millions, Alain will finish the book to introduce the basic information to people in that format. He will continue to teach as many as he can, but realizing that he is limited to so many days a year, he is also creating a Train the Trainer course so others will be able to learn from him and use the Survive a Shooting course as a platform and class to teach their own organizations and communities. He’s also looking at developing an on-line course to help others in that format.

Read a Review of the Survive A Shooting course.

Yes, the goal and commitment Alain made in front of that movie theater is materializing. Stay tuned for these new developments to occur, but right now, go ahead and book Alain to teach your group or organization while he still has time slots on his calendar.

Learn to survive, you don’t have to be a victim!