Survival Options -
Shooting Rampage

The seven survival options for the targets in a shooting rampage: waiting and hoping to be spared, begging, running, hiding, playing dead, body-shielding someone else, or... attacking the shooter. See Optimal Mindset for the attitude needed.

Colin Ferguson prowled the aisle of a Long Island Railroad commuter train on December 9, 1993, randomly shooting passengers with a handgun. He stopped to reload then resumed shooting people. When he stopped yet again to reload, several men finally attacked and disarmed him.

Why didn’t they attack him during the first reloading? Simple. Paralyzed by the surreal horror suddenly exploding before them, they watched spellbound – until one hero broke the spell and the others followed him.

People targeted in a shooting rampage should flee toward outdoor exits rather than windowless, dead-end rooms. If trapped in a first-floor room use furniture or anything to smash a window, if necessary, to allow escape. Also, if possible, use a fire extinguisher to spray a dense fog to block a shooter’s view as you escape.

A shooter would likely be stopped quickly if his targets were to mob him in a frenzied swarm. For example, on September 11, 2001, the heroes of United Airlines Flight #93 swarmed their hijackers and crashed the plane into an empty Pennsylvania field rather than a presumed Washington target – teaching an unforgettable lesson to all Americans.

The Airline Pilots Association says pilots need all the help they can get. If hijackers are wielding sharp-edged weapons, a passenger can grab a seat cushion as a shield or wrap a jacket around his arm and hand to deflect a blade. If you merely defend, you're likely to lose. You must attack the hijacker. Even throwing objects or hot liquids at a hijacker while others attack him in other ways can save lives. Use anything from belts used as whips to serving carts to ram him. Overwhelm him with the sheer number of passengers. See Hostage Escape and Improvised Weapons.

Before 9-11, random groups of people weren’t psychologically prepared to rise en masse and weren’t aware of their collective power. And the sudden, ear-splitting shock of gunfire often paralyzes people.

On the one hand, a single brave soul rushing the shooter might be quickly cut down, thereby discouraging others from following. On the other hand, reactive aggressionby a single victim may well open the floodgates of a mob rush to kill the killer – the best survival alternative to a continued massacre.

Trey Perkins, a student at Virginia Tech, recalled the gunman who burst into his class, pointed a handgun at each student and pulled the trigger. Then the gunman suddenly stopped firing and left the room... A few minutes later, he tried to force his way back inside and managed to open the door a crack, but the students pushed back hard enough to stop him. Another student, Derek O’Dell, said, “It was almost like you had to fight for your life. If you didn’t, you died.” ... Mr. Perkins said he was struck at how Mr. O’Dell managed to help hold back the gunman, given his injury. “It was just amazing to me that he was still up and leaning against the door,” he said. “Derek was able to hold him off while I was helping other people.” ... Mr. O’Dell said that initially at least he had not noticed he had been shot. “I looked down and realized I was bleeding,” he said. “That’s when I took off my belt and used it as a tourniquet...
Excerpted from The New York Times – 18 April 2007

However, the news media lavishes publicity on the killers, even though it glorifies and rewards them, in their twisted minds, and inspires the inevitable copycat maniacs. The extensive April 2007 publicity of the Virginia Tech gunman’s ranting manifesto was especially disgusting – and served no purpose other than pandering to morbid curiosity as well as enticing more monsters to kill.

Instead, if the news media were to give the killers minimal publicity while showcasing the heroes in grand fashion, the public would learn a profound lesson again and again: ordinary people can indeed heroically stop killers. Moreover, potential killers would be less prone to seek a global platform for their demented messages.

Unfortunately, journalistic ethics demand only “truth” – not a moral purpose – thus the negatively lopsided villain/hero publicity ratio will continue while the vultures cater to the monsters.

It's not hard to see how the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech happened, nor how the gunman was able to move around the campus so freely. As a 1992 graduate, I lived in the hall where the first killings took place Monday morning. Blacksburg, both on and off-campus, was an extremely safe place to live and remains the sort of town where people can walk the streets at night without fear. What happened there could have happened anywhere.
Excerpted from Beau Yarbrough’s report in The Hesperia Star (WA) – 17 April 2007

Rampage shooters – whether in schools, shopping malls, or the workplace – all display the same Shooting Rampage Early-Warning-Signs described in Risks & Remedies. Also see School Violence in Safeguarding Children.

See all worst-case scenarios:
• Survival Options - Overview of the do-or-die realities of worst-case crises.
• Shooting Rampage (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE): seven options for surviving.
• Hostage Taking: the slightest edge makes all the difference in survival.
• Hostage Escape: optimizing hostage survival and escape.
• Kidnapping avoidance and prevention.
• Kidnap Escape: optimizing kidnap survival and escape.
• SOS Distress Signals for summoning help in all survival situations.
• Surviving the Worst: options for the worst of the worst-case scenarios.
• Recap of Survival Options.
• Pepper Spray & Devices.

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