There Are No Civilians

I. Run, Hide, Fight.

The police teach.

They point out the person in the video who wanders down the hall, unaware that there's an active shooter. That's why you must keep your eyes open. But what do people do? They wander around looking at their phones!

We see it all the time: civilians just wandering around with their eyes glued to their phones! Students eating lunch. Shoppers in the grocery store. Or sometimes their eyes aren't glued to their phones, but they're listening to music on their headphones. Can you imagine? A student hanging out in a lounge, eating lunch with headphones in and music playing? Just an embarrassing lack of situational awareness, really.

The officer with the Irish accent has previous experience with the Troubles. He explains about the OODA loop. You need to learn to disrupt the attacker's OODA loop to confuse them, and then exploit that confusion.

Don't try anything that takes fine motor control though. During times of high stress, your fine motor skills stop working very well. Large motor skills still work, but enough stress make them stop working too, and even more can make you black out. That doesn't make you a coward: it's a physiological response. Training can help. 

Raise your hands if you know what gun shots sound like in real life — half the room raises their hands.

Keep your hands up if you know what gun shots sound like inside — the only hand that remains is the former prison guard who now works security at the college.

Get in the habit of scanning every room you enter for possible exits, and run through possible attacks in your head. What if someone were to attack inside this room? What if you heard gunshots in the hall right outside? What if they sounded farther away? Would you even know what that sounds like? What would you do in each case? If you haven't imagined it, your OODA loop will be interrupted so much that you might freeze. Fantasizing regularly about your future potential responses will give you a chance.

So, next time you go to the store, or head to your classroom, just think: what if someone pulled out a gun in front of me? Don't get neurotic about it: just stay constantly vigilant and regularly visualize violence.

II. The Soldier

Adam served in Afghanistan. 

Back at home, it took him a while to feel comfortable driving around the town. It took him a while to be able to go shopping at a Walmart. It took him a while to step onto a college campus. 

Adam chose the seat in the back corner where he could see all of the other students in the class and the door. He angled himself so there were no windows behind him. He learned to only need to glance out the window every 5 minutes or so.

The room with 2 walls full of windows was tough, but the rest of them were fine. He learned to reconnoiter the scheduled classroom before registering for a class to avoid that problem in the future.

If only all students were like Adam.

III. There Are No Civilians

How do you like your news? Red, or blue?

• Rachel Scott (aged 17), killed on grass outside west entrance
• Daniel Rohrbough (aged 15), killed at bottom of stairs leading to west entrance
• William David Sanders (aged 47), shot in hallway adjacent library by Harris; died of blood loss in a science classroom
• Kyle Velasquez (aged 16), killed while sat on a chair near the middle of the north computer table in the library
• Steven Curnow (aged 14), killed at the west end of the south computer table in the library
• Cassie Bernall (aged 17), killed under library table No. 19
• Isaiah Shoels (aged 18), killed under library table No. 16
• Matthew Kechter (aged 16), killed under library table No. 16
• Lauren Townsend (aged 18), killed under library table No. 2 
• John Tomlin (aged 16), killed next to library table No. 6
• Kelly Fleming (aged 16), killed next to library table No. 2 
• Daniel Mauser (aged 15), killed under library table No. 9 
• Corey DePooter (aged 17), killed under library table No. 14
• Jamie Bishop (35) Pine Mountain, Georgia—German instructor 
• Jocelyne Couture-Nowak (49) Montreal, Quebec, Canada—professor of French 
• Kevin Granata (45) Toledo, Ohio—professor of Engineering 
• Liviu Librescu (76) Ploiești, Romania—professor of Engineering 
• G.V. Loganathan (53) Gobichettipalayam, Tamil Nadu, India—professor of Engineering 
• Ross Alameddine (20) Saugus, Massachusetts—sophomore 
• Brian Bluhm (25) Louisville, Kentucky—masters student 
• Ryan Clark (22) Martinez, Georgia—senior 
• Austin Cloyd (18) Champaign, Illinois—freshman 
• Daniel Perez Cueva (21) Woodbridge, Virginia/Peru—junior 
• Matthew Gwaltney (24) Chesterfield County, Virginia—masters student 
• Caitlin Hammaren (19) Westtown, New York—sophomore 
• Jeremy Herbstritt (27) Bellefonte, Pennsylvania—masters student 
• Rachael Hill (18) Richmond, Virginia—freshman 
• Emily Hilscher (19) Woodville, Virginia—freshman 
• Jarrett Lane (22) Narrows, Virginia—senior 
• Matthew La Porte (20) Dumont, New Jersey—sophomore 
• Henry J. Lee (20) Roanoke, Virginia/Vietnam—freshman 
• Partahi Lumbantoruan (34) Medan, Indonesia—PhD student 
• Lauren McCain (20) Hampton, Virginia—freshman 
• Daniel O'Neil (22) Lincoln, Rhode Island—masters student 
• Juan Ramon Ortiz (26) Bayamón, Puerto Rico—masters student 
• Minal Panchal (26) Mumbai, India—masters student 
• Erin Peterson (18) Centreville, Virginia—freshman 
• Michael Pohle Jr. (23) Flemington, New Jersey—senior 
• Julia Pryde (23) Middletown Township, New Jersey—masters student 
• Mary Read (19) Annandale, Virginia—freshman 
• Reema Samaha (18) Centreville, Virginia—freshman 
• Waleed Shaalan (32) Zagazig, Egypt—PhD student 
• Leslie Sherman (20) Springfield, Virginia—junior 
• Maxine Turner (22) Vienna, Virginia—senior 
• Nicole White (20) Smithfield, Virginia—junior
• Cynthia Tisdale, 63 (teacher) 
• Glenda Ann Perkins, 64 (teacher) 
• Jared Conard Black, 17 
• Shana Fisher, 16 
• Christian Riley Garcia, 15 
• Aaron Kyle McLeod, 15 
• Angelique Ramirez, 15 
• Sabika Sheikh, 17 (an exchange student from Pakistan) 
• Christopher Stone, 17 
• Kimberly Vaughan, 14
• Lucero Alcaraz, age 19 
• Treven Taylor Anspach, 20 
• Rebecka Ann Carnes, 18 
• Quinn Glen Cooper, 18 
• Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59 
• Lucas Eibel, 18 
• Jason Dale Johnson, 33 
• Lawrence Levine, 67 
• Sarena Dawn Moore, 43
• Alyssa Alhadeff, 14 
• Scott Beigel, 35 
• Martin Duque, 14 
• Nicholas Dworet, 17 
• Aaron Feis, 37 
• Jaime Guttenberg, 14 
• Chris Hixon, 49 
• Luke Hoyer, 15 
• Cara Loughran, 14 
• Gina Montalto, 14 
• Joaquin Oliver, 17 
• Alaina Petty, 14 
• Meadow Pollack, 18 
• Helena Ramsay, 17 
• Alex Schachter, 14 
• Carmen Schentrup, 16 
• Peter Wang, 15
• Victoria Soto, 27, teacher
• Lauren Rousseau, 30, full-time substitute teacher
• Dawn Hochsprung, 47, principal
• Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist
• Rachel Davino, 29, teacher
• Anne Marie Murphy, 52, para professional
• Nancy Lanza, 52
• Jessica Rekos, 6
• Olivia Engel, 6
• Avielle Richman, 6
• Jesse Lewis, 6
• Grace Audrey McDonnell, 7
• Noah Pozner, 6
• Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
• Emilie Parker, 6
• Charlotte Bacon, 6
• Catherine Hubbard, 6
• Josephine Gay, 7
• Daniel Barden, 7
• James Mattioli, 6
• Caroline Previdi, 6
• Allison Wyatt, 6
• Dylan Hockley, 6
• Madeleine Hsu, 6
• Chase Kowalski, 7
• Jack Pinto, 6
• Benjamin Wheeler, 6
• 2 additional adults
• 19 additional elementary school children
• and counting