Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun Date:   7/17/2022 7:24:03 PM (updated 7/17/2022 7:27:33 PM)

When it takes only a few seconds to kill many, then why are you worried about 400 policemen requiring precious minutes to arrive and assess the situation? (notwithstanding an incorrect assessment)

If an active shooter had been engaged by an armed responder immediately after beginning his rampage, his focus would surely have changed. He would not have had time to establish his barricaded posture… surrounding himself with certain victims.

However – Surely your facility’s correct measures would be preventive to a point:

1 – As he arrives, you should have created a target presentation that requires hesitation and uncertainty. Make your facility unattractive to him.

2 - Disrupt his progress by creating more uncertainty.

3 - Have someone call 911 and NOT HANG UP.

THE POINT

4 – Take any measure that would shift his focus from offensive to defensive.

5 – Make your response obvious and focused on HIM. Be deliberate.

6 - “No plan survives first contact with the enemy” (Helmuth von Moltke, 1871). Make yourself the enemy and the active shooter begins adjusting his plans to your actions.

7 – It is the number of lives you save AFTER you engage. It is NOT about the number of lives taken before you arrived.

8 – Your focus is to distract him and STOP him – not make a brilliant and impressive kill shot. If you deploy your firearm without benefit of training, and practice, no amount of bravado can take the place of muscle memory. (If this isn’t clear to you, YOU are the WRONG person to respond with a weapon.)  Every bullet that leaves your weapon belongs to you - no matter where it ends up.

9 – If you occupy enough of his attention, focused on you, perhaps the LEOs will arrive in time to take command of the situation. When the LEOs arrive place your weapon on the floor and step back. Keep your hands where they can clearly see them. YOUR PARTICIPATION IS FINISHED.

If he is on the floor with his weapon and accoutrements scattered about him, the situation has been controlled.  Whether he is dead, wounded, or soaked in his own urine, does not matter.  Your ONLY focus was to STOP HIM.