Run, Hide, Fight
It’s hard to believe now, but there was a time in my life when the phrase “active shooter” did not exist.
No one told you to “shelter in place” and there were no such thing as bulletproof backpacks.
A security consultant came to our office this week to give us a rundown on emergency procedures. I’ve been in the workforce since the Eighties so I’ve heard these routines many times now.
The consultant covered such topics as blackouts, explosions, and natural disasters.
But then he started talking about active shooters, reflecting our changing times and deteriorating society. Mass shootings are not new, unfortunately, but they were a hell of a lot less frequent when I was younger.
And I don’t recall getting safety tips on what to do if one some gun-toting lunatic shows up at the office.
Now we have run, hide, fight scenarios, though I’d hate like hell to stand before an armed killer with nothing but a stapler and a swivel chair.
The consultant talked about sheltering in place, an expression that makes my skin crawl, and advised us to try and lock ourselves in an office to keep from being gunned down.
“Even if it’s a glass door, that’s something,” he said. “FBI statistics show that active shooters want to do as much damage as possible, so if they have to struggle with a locked door, they’re more likely to move on.”
…and kill some other poor bastard, I thought.
Most of the offices in my company have glass doors and I thought about what it would be like to stand on one side of the glass while some AR-15 toting freak stood on the other.
Too many people in this country know the feeling having experienced it firsthand.
We had another school shooting in America last week.
Glass Houses
This time it was at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, where two teenagers were killed on Thursday by a fellow student who pulled out a .45 and shot five kids before putting a bullet through his head.
The shooter, who allegedly carried out the attack on his 16th birthday, died on Friday.
The entire attack took just 16 seconds.
This was hardly the first time gunfire has erupted at a school this year. In the 46 weeks of 2019, CNN said there have been 44 shootings at schools.
I’m ashamed to say that when I first heard there were two victims I was strangely relieved, thinking, well, it’s not as bad as some of the other shootings we’ve had in this country, like Sandy Hook, Orlando, and Las Vegas.
This time there weren’t that many lives brutally and senselessly cut short; there weren’t dozens of families grappling with an indescribable nightmare.
Gosh, we sure dodged a bullet on that one—or at least some of us did.
The “thoughts and prayers” crowd have pretty silent on this on.
The body count probably wasn’t high enough and they know that even if 100 kids were shot, absolutely nothing would be done to change the gun laws in this country.
The alleged president tweeted his bogus condolences and his lawyer, who masquerades as the U.S. Attorney General, had the gall to suggest that the current impeachment proceedings have derailed any good-faith efforts to pass gun legislation.
Of course, that doesn’t begin to explain the lack of action before the impeachment hearings, but I’ve long given up getting logic or the truth out of these people.
So, active shooting drills are going to be part of our lives for the foreseeable future. Of course, I hope we never have such an incident at my place of business, but the cemeteries are full of people who thought the same thing.
Until things change, we’ll have to shelter in place and pray the glass door doesn’t break.
No one told you to “shelter in place” and there were no such thing as bulletproof backpacks.
A security consultant came to our office this week to give us a rundown on emergency procedures. I’ve been in the workforce since the Eighties so I’ve heard these routines many times now.
The consultant covered such topics as blackouts, explosions, and natural disasters.
But then he started talking about active shooters, reflecting our changing times and deteriorating society. Mass shootings are not new, unfortunately, but they were a hell of a lot less frequent when I was younger.
And I don’t recall getting safety tips on what to do if one some gun-toting lunatic shows up at the office.
Now we have run, hide, fight scenarios, though I’d hate like hell to stand before an armed killer with nothing but a stapler and a swivel chair.
The consultant talked about sheltering in place, an expression that makes my skin crawl, and advised us to try and lock ourselves in an office to keep from being gunned down.
“Even if it’s a glass door, that’s something,” he said. “FBI statistics show that active shooters want to do as much damage as possible, so if they have to struggle with a locked door, they’re more likely to move on.”
…and kill some other poor bastard, I thought.
Most of the offices in my company have glass doors and I thought about what it would be like to stand on one side of the glass while some AR-15 toting freak stood on the other.
Too many people in this country know the feeling having experienced it firsthand.
We had another school shooting in America last week.
Glass Houses
This time it was at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, where two teenagers were killed on Thursday by a fellow student who pulled out a .45 and shot five kids before putting a bullet through his head.
The shooter, who allegedly carried out the attack on his 16th birthday, died on Friday.
The entire attack took just 16 seconds.
This was hardly the first time gunfire has erupted at a school this year. In the 46 weeks of 2019, CNN said there have been 44 shootings at schools.
I’m ashamed to say that when I first heard there were two victims I was strangely relieved, thinking, well, it’s not as bad as some of the other shootings we’ve had in this country, like Sandy Hook, Orlando, and Las Vegas.
This time there weren’t that many lives brutally and senselessly cut short; there weren’t dozens of families grappling with an indescribable nightmare.
Gosh, we sure dodged a bullet on that one—or at least some of us did.
The “thoughts and prayers” crowd have pretty silent on this on.
The body count probably wasn’t high enough and they know that even if 100 kids were shot, absolutely nothing would be done to change the gun laws in this country.
The alleged president tweeted his bogus condolences and his lawyer, who masquerades as the U.S. Attorney General, had the gall to suggest that the current impeachment proceedings have derailed any good-faith efforts to pass gun legislation.
Of course, that doesn’t begin to explain the lack of action before the impeachment hearings, but I’ve long given up getting logic or the truth out of these people.
So, active shooting drills are going to be part of our lives for the foreseeable future. Of course, I hope we never have such an incident at my place of business, but the cemeteries are full of people who thought the same thing.
Until things change, we’ll have to shelter in place and pray the glass door doesn’t break.
Comments
There have been at least two shootings in America in the last few days. The drills will continue and so will the shootings...
Take care!