'Run, Hide, Fight' strategy common in lockdown generation

ABC News ^ | 2/14/2023 | Associated Press

[Saije]

The terror induced by an alert to “Run, Hide, Fight” is not unique to Michigan State, where a gunman fatally shot three people as students barricaded doors and raced across campus in search of safety. The strategy, which follows best practices developed by the Department of Homeland Security, is familiar to most students in the lockdown generation.

When a shooter is nearby, it holds, people should fight only as a last resort and only if confronted by a shooter.

But when it’s deployed, the results can be traumatic.

After a shooting last fall at the University of Virginia, a campus alert to “RUN. HIDE. FIGHT.” sent students scurrying inside laboratory closets and darkened dorm rooms. Many were veterans of lockdown drills from their elementary school days.

Still, actually hiding for hours was terrifying, said Shannon Lake, a third-year student from Crozet, Virginia, who spent 12 hours sheltering, much of it in a darkened, barricaded storage closet in the business school.

At colleges and elementary schools, “Run, Hide, Fight” goes by several different names. But the theme is the same: Get out of harm’s way, hide or barricade, and if an assailant finds you, take action. Backers say it gives individuals a proactive list of options that go beyond the traditional lockdown approach.

But critics say it’s misguided to teach students, especially younger ones, to fight back. Some school safety experts say it needlessly puts students in danger, and opponents push for stronger lockdown policies and better training for school safety officials.

[Saije]

I didn't know there was such a thing as "lockdown generation" but I guess it makes sense. Not sure fighting back would be an effective option for very many people.

[Tell It Right]

It’s hard to fight back when only the bad guy has a gun.

[frogjerk]

How is it possible that the bad guy has a gun? It’s illegal to have one in a gun free zone.

[olivia3boys]

Running is a good option and seems underutilized.

[Valpal1]

You are only supposed to fight when running or hiding is not possible, when you can’t escape or your hiding place is discovered.

Don’t just close your eyes and wait to die, fight back.

The people who wrote this ard morons that don’t understand basic concepts of survival.

[bigbob]

Here’s another option:

Ready. Aim. Fire.

[frank ballenger]

Right. That horrible witch Gov. Whitmer is drooling over her chance of being VP or President soon so she pushes harder on abortions (new amendment guarantees them) and gun confiscation and covid jabs and lockdowns.

The “fight” part of the slogan means broken chair legs, baseball bats or dinner plates thrown across the room.

She will make it so no one has a gun but the criminals anywhere. Already “gun free zone” where the cowering students had to wait to see if the criminal was disarmed or dead yet.
She will take them from homes and businesses if she can harness the emotional hysteria.

[Paladin2]

Run to your gun, aim, shoot.

[ConservativeInPA]

The leftist approach: run, hide, kiss your ass goodbye.

[Bonemaker]

Run, hide, fetal position, cry.

[rlmorel]

I despise this mindset. I saw this at Dover AFB:

On a military base. It really bugged me.

I have to get corporate training on this, take a test, and sign off on it. I detest it.

I don't know what I will do in a situation like that. But if I saw a guy with a smoking gun walking down a hallway in the direction of people I have worked with and known for decades, I simply don't think I could run in the other direction and wait for the "professionals" to arrive.

Maybe I would run towards safety and let someone else try to stop him. But when I think of that, how could I do that? How could I live with myself after that?

It just bothers me that they try to indoctrinate me in that fashion, to think of my own safety first.

I think the shelter-in-place is perfectly acceptable for some people. I just hate feeling like I am being shoe-horned into that mindset.

[End Times Sentinel]

How could I live with myself after that?

Exactly.

I'd rather die doing what is right than live another 20 years as a coward.

[TigersEye]

Run, find cover, check battery, check mag, assess backstops, assess alternate cover, ...

(it’s a process so the list goes on in ever evolving priorities)

... assess egress routes, contemplate cover stories and alibis, burn clothes, ... plan dinner,

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I prefer "Draw, aim, shoot"

But that is just me.

[Yo-Yo]

How about allowing law abiding students who are licensed to conceal carry a firearm to exercise their second amendment rights on campus just like they can off-campus?

[metmom]

But critics say it’s misguided to teach students, especially younger ones, to fight back. Some school safety experts say it needlessly puts students in danger, and opponents push for stronger lockdown policies and better training for school safety officials.

Fighting as a last resort when confronted by an armed shooter, is NOT going to end well. He has the gun. You don't.

The solution is Constitutional carry, which would allow anyone armed to take out the shooter. He cannot fight everyone at once and while he's engaged with one person, someone can get him from another direction.

[rlmorel]

Yes. I may indeed be a coward, I hope I never have to find out. But in my gut, I cannot imagine abandoning people, some helpless.

I hope I never, ever have to find out.

By the way, loved your Freep Page. Especially the quotes from VDH and Ayn Rand, and particularly, Milton Friedman.

Love Milton Friedman...:). He is like some wizened Yoda-like economic genius!

[metmom]

I don't know what I will do in a situation like that. But if I saw a guy with a smoking gun walking down a hallway in the direction of people I have worked with and known for decades, I simply don't think I could run in the other direction and wait for the "professionals" to arrive.

You can ask a lot of parents in Uvalde how waiting for the *professionals* to arrive and don something worked out for them.

[DouglasKC]

It should be attack, fight, kill.

[rlmorel]

Absolutely. To me, running the other way is tantamount to abandoning them to murder.

Sad. The whole thing, the whole mindset, is just sad.

It encourages and fosters helplessness. What the hell good is that?