What would you do?

[asterroc]

You're at work or at school, a normal boring day, and you hear gunshots in the hallway outside the door. What would you do?

The gunman in the VA Tech shooting was ID'd as a student from South Korea, an English major. One student in a room he was shooting in survived by playing dead, so he didn't shoot her. She and others in the room then barricaded the door with themselves so he couldn't push through, but he shot through the door. In another classroom they shoved the teacher's desk against the door to block it closed.

What would you do?

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

You'd do something different depending on the gun? Care to clarify? Not that I have any ability to ID weapons other than "shoots" or "sharp," but I'm curious.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. Pistols are not half as dangerous as the TV tells you they are. They're hard to aim properly, especially if your target is moving, and they don't do nearly as much damage as you'd think from popular culture (especially the calibers the VT gunman was carrying.) One or two determined people could take out someone carrying a pistol, with nothing more serious than a textbook or a ballpoint. They might get hit, but they'll probably live.

That's assuming that the gunman is in the room with you. Otherwise, I'd lock/barricade the door and have the students line up along the hallway side of the room. A pistol round can't go through the cinderblock construction of most school buildings, and the gunman wouldn't have line of sight on any of the students.

Hunting/assault rifles are worse. Their rounds have a chance of going through walls, will definitely go through doors, and they are much more accurate because of the longer barrel. Additionally, assault weapons have a burst setting, and can be modified for full automatic.

If the gunman was outside and hadn't gotten to the room yet, I would kill the lights and have the students collect their belongings and hide against the hall side of the room, so that they couldn't be seen from the door (if that were possible in the room), hoping the gunman would pass by.

I would position the students so that they were somewhat protected by the swing of the door, and myself (or a beefy student volunteer, if there were someone with more emergency response experience than I have) on the open side up against the wall, so that I would have one good swing at the gunman with the nastiest thing in the room before he saw me. If that didn't take him out, the students could swarm him after he swung around to attack me. In that instance, I would have to accept the fact that it was very likely I'd die.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Upon further consideration, it would probably be better to blind the attacker and foul his weapon with an overcoat (or windbreaker or suit jacket--whatever large piece of cloth is handy), in either situation.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Ah, good point. Throw something at his face to start to reduce your chance of him targetting you.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

In that instance, I would have to accept the fact that it was very likely I'd die.

Yeah, that's one of my thoughts too, that if I did respond like that, there's a good chance I wouldn't make it, but that it's what I would do anyway. I think guns feel to me less fight-able than many other situations, due to their long-range capability. If it was a knife I have no doubt that I'd convince the burlier students we should mob him when he enters the room and I'd lead the charge. It's the throwing away my life to attack him with no hope that the students would take him down after that worries me. I know you're right that handguns aren't as bad as we think, but still, they'll hit you when you're at close range.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Knives are way more likely to kill you than guns. I would much rather face someone who had a gun than someone with a knife.

I am a bundle of cheer today.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Meh, this whole shooting thing's a great way to start a week. And the weather really adds to the whole ambiance.