We have all seen these messages, warning us of disturbing content and reminding the viewer to use discretion. This is the opening of an FBI video that was released to train the public on what to do in case they find themselves in an active shooter incident or as they describe, “should the unthinkable happen.” Well, to date, the “unthinkable” has happened more than 200 times in 2023 alone. You know, the unthinkable events that are happening more days than not. The ones that have disrupted life and fractured families and invaded once peaceful spaces. Where we now look for exits before we enter a space with people? The one where there are so many unlocked and loaded weapons in public places that any small grievance can be met with gunfire instead of words.
There is no common accepted definition of what constitutes a mass shooting, nor is there a national registry to collect the data. There are several entities devoted to tracking mass shootings, school shootings, students impacted by gun violence at school and daily gun violence occurrences.
- Gun Violence Archives – a nonprofit research group that tracks gun violence using police reports, news coverage and other public sources, defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people were killed or injured.
- K-12 School Shooting Database – “Widely inclusive, open-source school shooting data Documents when a gun is fired, brandished, or bullet hits school property.”
- The Washington Post Interactive School Shooting Database “The federal government does not track school shootings, so The Washington Post has spent years tracking how many children in the United States have been exposed to gun violence during school hours since the Columbine High massacre in 1999.”
- Violence Project – ‘The Violence Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center dedicated to reducing violence in society and using data and analysis to improve policy and practice.”
Below is the video which requires viewer discretion to watch because the content may be deemed disturbing, I encourage you to watch this FBI training video called Run.Hide.Fight. Many of the tactics demonstrated in the video are part of active shooter drill training in school, not the setting, only the recommendations.
This following information was retrieved from the FBI Active Shooter Safety Resources website:
Run. Hide. Fight.
These FBI training videos demonstrate the three tactics you can use to keep yourself and others safe during an active shooter attack—run, hide, and fight. Learning these principles now will prepare and empower you to put them into practice—and survive—should the unthinkable occur.
FBI – Active Shooter Safety Resources
An active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area, and recent active shooter incidents have underscored the need for a coordinated response by law enforcement and others to save lives. The FBI is committed to working with its partners to protect schools, workplaces, houses of worship, transportation centers, other public gathering sites, and communities.
Although local and state law enforcement agencies are virtually always the first ones on the scene, the FBI has played a large role in supporting the response to every major incident in recent years and has much to offer in terms of capacity, expertise, specialized capabilities, training, and resources before and after an incident occurs. The successful prevention of these active shooter incidents lies with a wide range of public and private entities all working together.
To that end, the FBI provides operational, behaviorally-based threat assessment and threat management services to help detect and prevent acts of targeted violence, helping academic, mental health, business, community, law enforcement, and government entities recognize and disrupt potential active shooters who may be on a trajectory toward violence. The Bureau also continues its research to identify indicators that could signal potential violent intent.
