Back to Basics Pt. 2
Heads up, this is a long one. I humbly ask you to follow the path as we discuss both overriding and taking advantage of natural impulses during a crisis.
The Department of Homeland Security’s official recommendations to survive an active shooter are to run, hide, and fight. They offer explanations of these general, vague rules and don’t help people understand the reasoning behind them, so we’re going to dig back into the primal brain again and examine the pluses and minuses of these, and how a typical person versus one with a vigilant mindset would most likely react. I was listening to the Fieldcraft Survival podcast this past weekend, and, as usual, host Mike Glover (a retired sergeant major from US Army Special Forces) spoke profound words to me.
First, we’ll start with the short definitions:
- RUN and escape, if possible.
- HIDE, if escape is not possible.
- FIGHT as an absolute last resort.
Now let’s talk about why these steps, these guidelines, lack clarity, and clarify them.
- RUN – okay, where? Know where you’re running. Have that mindset, plan your routes according to PACE principles. Don’t just blindly head out of the office, what if there’s an accomplice? Columbine was perpetrated by two attackers. San Bernardino was committed by two terrorists. Not a good runner or out of shape? Better keep pumping those legs if you plan to put distance between you and your assailant.
- HIDE – like a scared fawn? Hunker down and cower, putting yourself in a vulnerable position if you’re discovered? No. Take cover. Take note of the officer in the training picture below: he's in a position called "junkyard prone." It allows him maximum cover while being able to decently observe the situation in front of him and effectively return fire. But he can also duck back to avoid incoming fire. He's not hiding, he's taking cover.
Taking cover allows you to be out of sight and ideally protected from incoming fire, but you’re of the mindset to fight back when discovered, and you should be in a position to do so. Would you rather be in a fetal position or crouching like a tiger? Huddling your knees or coiled like a rattlesnake?
- FIGHT – only as a last resort? Nope. Always be ready to fight. You’re running around a corner and you run face first into the attacker, or his second. You were already running, now you have to transition to fighting. If you aren’t mentally prepared to fight every step of the way, you aren’t going to win that encounter. You are never out of the fight. Just because you ran doesn’t mean it’s over. It’s over once your attackers are dead or in custody. And in the aftermath, you’ll have a different sort of fight. This will never happen here? That’s what a lot of people say, then someone happens. Be prepared now…
Everything is a fight. Your evolution into a vigilance mindset, or lack thereof, will determine whether you are safe, or a target, in almost any scenario. But before I digress further, Mike proposed a supplemental process he calls “OFF.”
- Observe, Flee, Fight
OR
- Observe, Fight, Flee
Fight or flight is the basic instinct. Do I fight this saber-tooth cat or do I run from it? Good luck either way, they had a top speed of at least 40 miles per hour, and their canines grew to 11 inches in length and were serrated. So the obvious answer was to stay alert and be like "hey, there's a saber-tooth here, let's put some distance between us and him."
Something people forget is the third F: freeze. Deer in the headlights. That’s the worst thing you can do. All you do is focus on the threat in front of you and your brain stops processing solutions.
As I said in Back to Basics Pt. 1, prairie-dogging is a good practice. Get a sense of what’s going on, then decide and act. Everyone’s brain is primed from birth to run, fight, or freeze. With survival instincts kicking in, your brain starts a series of effects via the sympathetic nervous system that instantly prime your body to act. Even something as simple as ducking when an MLB slugger hits a line drive into your section of the stadium, because you’ve got to protect your cranium! Unless you’re prepared for it, with your lucky mitt, your instant reaction is to duck and flinch, you’re bracing yourself for an impact that could send you to the Great Hereafter. If you have no background in baseball, getting beaned is a much more terrifying concept than if you are aware of the risks and how to mitigate them. Like having played baseball!
So now we transpose this to your security. When you strip your training mindset back to basics, and you start figuring out how to gain control of those gross motor skills you'll rely on (like running as fast as possible until you get out) in a crisis situation. 30,000 years ago, you're running from a pack of wolves as fast as you can. You're dumping adrenaline and other hormones into your body and you're just going. You're bouncing over rocks and roots and dodging obstacles like some primitive game of parkour (are they games?). That's not ideal for the corridors and sharp turns of an urban setting, such as a school, office building, crowded street, or anywhere really where we spend our lives, places that limit your peripheral vision. Think of it this way: how many times do we see characters get caught by the villains/monsters in horror movies?
And how many times do these characters freeze? This is obviously an exaggeration of reality, but that, in a way, is what horror stories are. They are exaggerations of our fears. This isn't to say don't be afraid. You don't want to walk into a hostage situation at a bank and try to conduct your normal business. That's not normal. Fear is a normal and acceptable response. It activates your brain to process information in a different way so you make the right decisions for self or group preservation.
It's up to you and your understanding of basic reactions to utilize your own vigilance and preparedness to override blind action. Blind action is just as harmful as no action in these cases. Observe, be aware of what's happening as it happens, then decide on Run, Hide, or Fight.
Thanks for sticking with me through this one.