Run Hide Fight

This week my office had active shooter training. This is a first for me to experience. It left me a bit spell bound.

This isn’t a big city that I live in nor is it a third world country…right here in River City good old Holland Michigan I got to learn how to possibly save my life some day. And I pray that day never comes.

This is reality: we have to teach people how to “Run Hide Fight” in response to the world we now live in.

That is what you learn too when to run, when to hide and when to fight.

When you run you have to locate the nearest and safest exit away from the gun fire, not run together and not in a straight line—less of an easy target that way; and you can’t stop to help anyone else get out either as time is of the essence . When you hide you have to be smart turn off your phone, barricade the door and get under something. When you fight you do so with others if you can and find a fire extinguisher to use as a weapon going for the eyes with the foam or the hands with the container to disable your shooter.

I also learned that people who can carry concealed weapons are not required beyond their initial registration in many states including my own to fire their weapon ever again! I assumed that more training was required to carry a permit and a weapon around but it is not.

I learned that we all have a natural freeze state when confronted with a traumatic event. Even those in our military who are highly trained to respond still do a well-be-it ever so slight pause as they jog their brain out of it to respond.

So just how anyone with barely any comparative experience and training expects to defend themselves and others with a gun in the midst of an active shooter event isn’t at all realistic to expect. It frightens me to think of people running around with weapons in anticipation of an event feeling armed and ready when in reality they are not likely to be appropriately responsive at all. They seem almost as dangerous to me as the assailant is frankly.

They have training these days in school for kids too. I can’t imagine that reality. Never in a million years would I have dreamed of being in such potential danger while I was at school care-freely learning and enjoying my friends.

So here I sit in the peaceful surroundings of my living room with the sun shining brightly and the fresh air coming in through the windows. The world seems calm and serene here.

Out there in the world just beyond these walls however in reality in many environments I am a sitting duck. The next “it” could happen any where any time any place…the ticking of a time bomb…and the winner is….

Have you considered preparing yourself and your family to “run, hide, fight’?