Trending: Dramatic video shows how to survive an active shooter

By Nicole McCormick, CityNews

This morning, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, looking for updates on yesterday’s San Bernadino mass shooting.

I came across a tweet containing a video called “How to Survive An Active Shooter.” Curious, I clicked on the link. It’s a video that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department produced in March. The video was created help people answer the question “What would you do?” in the event of a sudden attack by a gunman while at work, at school, or in public.

Warning: The video below and at this mobile-friendly link contains violent images.

Living in Canada, mass shootings are rare, I thought to myself – I have no idea what I’d do if I was in this situation.

In my job as a manager of the CityNews assignment desk, I see disturbing types of video on a daily basis but I’ve learned to separate my emotions from I watch. I remind myself that I don’t know these people involved, it’s not my situation. I’ve actually become desensitized to what I watch, so I’m surprised with how this video affected me.

The video begins with familiar pictures – snapshots of reporter stories on mass shootings. I immediately start to think of stories I’ve covered over the years – the Columbine massacre, Newtown shooting, the Colorado threatre shooting … the list goes on.

An “active shooter” as an armed person or people, killing or attempting to kill people in a confined, populated area.

I’ve heard the term, but it’s hard to hear it so simply defined in such complicated situations.

The first situation portrayed in the video is a man who gets laid off from work. The man then takes a gun out and begins shooting his co-workers.

As I sit here writing my thoughts, I look around the room and can’t imagine something like that ever happening in the place I spend nine hours of my life every day, surrounded by colleagues I care about.

Then, a statistic. Since 2006, the United States has averaged an active shooter event with four or more deaths every 2.9 months and that number is increasing.

Before I found this video, I had just read the list of the 355 mass shootings that have taken place in the U.S. this year.

I then hear the narrator say that like a fire drill, making an advance plan is important.

It almost sounds like it’s minimizing what an active shooter incident is, but I now see that’s the point of this what to do video.

I see a male student. He has a bag on his lap outside a university. Another man sits down beside him to read a book. The first man looks over, says “hey buddy” to get his attention, at the same time, pulls a rifle from out of the bag and shoots the unsuspecting victim.

So sad, he didn’t see it coming.

I then learn that killers usually target random victims, looking for easy targets, so the harder you are to see or to hit, the safer you are.

My heart actually starts to best faster at this point in the video … it is about to lay out step-by-step what you do when an attack happens.

First, get out. You must think calmly and clearly. Use cover. Something that will stop a bullet.

Use any available means to get out – emergency exits. The scariest thing I hear is that even in the best cases, police are minutes away, not seconds. Often times, it’s up to you to keep yourself safe.

If you can help others, without compromising yourself, do so. If you can’t move safely to exit – get to a room or a confined area.

Next, secure your location. Walls won’t stop a bullet. Lock or barricade the door. Get away from windows. Turn lights off. Silence your cell phone.

I didn’t understand how important that last point is. My first instinct would be to call 9-1-1, but you must be careful not to alert the suspect.

You should always have emergency bag available containing a first aid kit, gloves, emergency plans for the building and casualty cards to alert first responders to victim.

It would NEVER occur to me to have a kit like at the ready. I just never think this will happen to me.

Most active shooters incidents are over in 10-15 minutes.

I can only imagine this would be the longest 15 minutes of my entire life.

When you see and hear police arrive, their first responsibility is to stop the suspect. Not help the victims. Medical responders will only enter when safe to do so, when the suspect is no longer an immediate threat.

Next step, defend yourself. If you can’t escape yourself, you may need defend yourself as a last resort.

Almost anything can be turned into a improvised weapon – look for anything that can disrupt the shooters ability to see, breathe or control their weapon.

I ask myself, would I be calm and rational enough to attempt to stop someone who has potentially shot other people.

When law enforcement arrives, they will be looking for aggressive movements, so keep your hands up. Follow commands you are given. Do not engage law enforcement — even to thank them — as it could put people at risk. They don’t know how you fit into the equation.

I found this useful information –- I know my first instinct would be to run to the people who symbolize safety, someone I know who could safe my life and get me out of this life-altering experience.

The video ends with the victims running into the arms of their loved ones.

I know it’s only a video -– but I feel relief, happiness — that people are able to survive these situations by being calm under pressure and smart in their actions as they work to survive.

I try to learn something new every day. Today I learned how to potentially survive an active shooter.

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