Active Shooter

[mcanton12]

With TX looking like they are going to allow guns on campus. What happens in an active shooter situation where a student has a gun out waiting for the shooter to come in his area?

Cops are in the mindset to neutralize the threat, so how does the student avoid getting shot. As in the confusion, he could easily mistaken for the real shooter.

[Iowa #1603]

With TX looking like they are going to allow guns on campus. What happens in an active shooter situation where a student has a gun out waiting for the shooter to come in his area?

Cops are in the mindset to neutralize the threat, so how does the student avoid getting shot. As in the confusion, he could easily mistaken for the real shooter.

We are not going to discuss tactics on an open forum

[Iowa #1603]

i would suggest anyone not in uniform that has a gun on them during an active shooter situation be prepared to be the one being proactive about not getting shot

[eaker995]

Like Iowa I won't go further than say we train for that.

[CruiserClass]

1) Realize you may get shot. That's a decision you, plain clothes officers, off duty officers, etc. have to make when deciding to intervene.

2) When you see uniformed officers, ID yourself and COMPLY WITH ALL ORDERS.

3) Realize that due to auditory exclusion and tunnel vision, you may not see uniformed officers. See #1.

Whatever you think its like, its not. I've been through scenarios with hundreds of role players and noise makers, etc. Just the scenarios are mind numbing and tough to focus during. See #3, which will refer you to #1.

[tanksoldier]

I'll say that you usually can tell the hunkered down CHLs from the bad guy based on demeanor and behavior, but it's a dicey situation no question. Same problem happens with off duty and plain clothed officers on the street. There are procedures for it but essentially the person choosing to act is taking a risk.

[PhilipCal]

While I totally agree with what my colleagues have offered, I'll add this. Student(You?) exercises common sense. Student thus remains alive and able to pursue his dreams.

[CCCSD]

Jump up and down, scream and shout, demand action...

[Lady Blue]

Or you could get "I'm the good guy" tattooed on your forehead.

[CruiserClass]

Or you could get "I'm the good guy" tattooed on your forehead.

Oh, nice. Needs to be in big letters, though. Might not be a bad idea to get it in a few languages in case you travel abroad.

[DACP]

Cops are in the mindset to neutralize the threat, so how does the student avoid getting shot. As in the confusion, he could easily mistaken for the real shooter.

Keep yelling your O.com name,

[Kieth M.]

Concealed Carry is allowed on our campus. They should know to ground/lower/re-holster/stash their gun when the cops are...who am I kidding, the cop (and maybe the cop's OLD sergeant) is coming.

[Kris396]

Disclaimer, I'm an Auxiliary Police Officer/Peace Officer, not a 'regular' P.O., but the C.O. of our precinct was nice enough to put us armed APO's through the department's active shooter training 3 times in one year with the regular P.O.'s we work with so I am speaking on that experience.

Our active shooter training had a few shoot/don't shoot scenarios in it. There were screaming kids, blinking lights and people running out of doorways with blank shots being fired off in the school. The paintball mask didn't help either. Anyway, a couple of guys (APO's and PO's) shot the UNIFORMED emergency services guys who came down the hallway at you at one point with weapons drawn/flashlights blinding you. Only reason I personally didn't shoot them was because they looked way too well coordinated to be the bad guys (of course, if the bad guys were pretty well trained I guess that would have sucked for me). One guy accidentally shot an "off duty" officer who jumped out with a badge in hand. Point being, this was just training and that stuff happened. If you're in a school with a gun and no uniform during the time of an active shooter scenario, I WOULDN'T expect a uniformed officer to not shoot you, especially if you are out clearing hallways or whatever. If you are just barricaded with your gun out, only thing I could say is you better hope you don't draw on the officer has he walks in thinking it is the bad guy. I'd be ready to drop the gun at the slightest chance of an officer engaging you.

It's probably not going to be the highly trained ES guys who train in room clearing and target identification all day going into the school first. Most likely it'll end up the average sector guy (or in an area with armed Aux guys on patrol it could be someone like me lol). Mistakes can definitely happen.

[Shush]

Disclaimer, I'm an Auxiliary Police Officer/Peace Officer, not a 'regular' P.O., but the C.O. of our precinct was nice enough to put us armed APO's through the department's active shooter training 3 times in one year with the regular P.O.'s we work with so I am speaking on that experience.

Our active shooter training had a few shoot/don't shoot scenarios in it. There were screaming kids, blinking lights and people running out of doorways with blank shots being fired off in the school. The paintball mask didn't help either. Anyway, a couple of guys (APO's and PO's) shot the UNIFORMED emergency services guys who came down the hallway at you at one point with weapons drawn/flashlights blinding you. Only reason I personally didn't shoot them was because they looked way too well coordinated to be the bad guys (of course, if the bad guys were pretty well trained I guess that would have sucked for me). One guy accidentally shot an "off duty" officer who jumped out with a badge in hand. Point being, this was just training and that stuff happened. If you're in a school with a gun and no uniform during the time of an active shooter scenario, I WOULDN'T expect a uniformed officer to not shoot you, especially if you are out clearing hallways or whatever. If you are just barricaded with your gun out, only thing I could say is you better hope you don't draw on the officer has he walks in thinking it is the bad guy. I'd be ready to drop the gun at the slightest chance of an officer engaging you.

It's probably not going to be the highly trained ES guys who train in room clearing and target identification all day going into the school first. Most likely it'll end up the average sector guy (or in an area with armed Aux guys on patrol it could be someone like me lol). Mistakes can definitely happen.

ALERRT Training is the most informative and coordinated scenario class I've taken in a while.

And to answer the question from the OP without disclosing tactics - the good guys will be obvious. You do what they say IMMEDIATELY. No need to over think it.

[tanksoldier]

It's probably not going to be the highly trained ES guys who train in room clearing and target identification all day going into the school first.

My sergeant and I were just discussing this the other day. We often have 4 cars for the entire county and only two schools have a full time SROs. There are two municipal departments, each of which employs 3 officers and don't have somebody on 24/7. IF you're lucky your patrol partner is only ten minutes away, or there's a trooper or wildlife officer nearby, but it's entirely possible backups's 45 minutes away.

Chances are in any ACTIVE shooter scenario, where you hear shots as you pull up, we're going in solo. How many rounds can you dump in two minutes? Nobody is waiting that long for another car while people are getting shot. The "diamond 4" and other crap they taught at my academy is NEVER going to happen in this county.

Our mindset here is that WHATEVER happens, get used to the idea you're dealing with it alone... DV assault, felony warrant popping on traffic, active shooter, bank robbery... whatever. You MIGHT have help, but be prepared to handle it alone for a long time.