School Thinks a Printer Can Stop an Armed Attacker: Nonsatiracle
This is going to be one of the rare cases where I shelve my typical humor for a subject I take seriously. I don't consider armed attackers to be a light matter, and one of the best parts about running my own site is that I get to write whatever the heck I want. As a self defense enthusiast who works professionally with children, I have a lot to say about the lack of preparation public places seem to have in the case of an armed assailant.
It all goes back to 2024 when I was working in a school performing a drill for armed attackers. The students were instructed to run into a closet that had a giant glass window on the door. Meanwhile, the teachers protocol was to push a cart with a printer in front of the main door. The door itself had a window that could easily be blown out by a single shot, giving an attacker the ability to reach his hand in to turn the handle.
It's not hard to see the errors of protocol in the school I described. Glass windows on the doors, a printer cart anyone can easily push aside, and children being instructed to hide in a room with a giant glass window. Your kids have become like sitting ducks because teachers are not being taught how barricade a door properly. Furthermore, school safety codes seem to be lacking when it comes to foolproof doors.
It's not just schools having this issue. While working for my county in 2023, I was given a self defense training from two self proclaimed "experts" whose advice was arguably less than useless.
Firstly, both of them suggested that "all martial arts don't work." They came to this conclusion because one of them couldn't handle himself in a fight after 11 years of taking kung fu. Instead of admitting that Kun Tao doesn't work, he just blamed every martial art for his personally wasted years.
Secondly, their training on dealing with an active shooter consisted of a fifteen minute common sense instructional video. The video had nothing of value to offer much like a lot of the ones online. This is concerning given that self defense solutions exist that can increase the chances of ones survival in such a situation. My training for the county and the lack of preparedness for unarmed civilians is unnerving as you are about to see.
The video played in the county training I took emphasized the phrase "run, hide, fight." At one point in the video, as the narrator speaks about the importance of blocking the entrance, an actor is seen shoving a basket plant in front of the door before hiding beneath his desk.
As we all know, potted plants are a shooter's kryptonite. Plus, it's just brilliant to hide beneath your desk after placing your plant in a position that makes the room's occupancy a dead giveaway. What a perfect place to be vulnerable when a blood thirsty psycho comes walking in to find you curled up like a ball.
No, I don't think anyone watching the video is dumb enough to try to barricade their office with a plant. I do, however, think that if a video is claiming to prepare people for an active shooter situation, it should explain how to do things right. Believe it or not, you can barricade a door wrong, as seen in another instructional video where actors are barricading the inside of a door that opens outwardly.
You can't barricade this door, but you can wedge the door knob if it's a handleset. These people could keep the table where it is and stack items up to the door knob so it can't turn. After shutting the lights off, when the shooter tries to turn the handle, it will be wedged. This increases the chance of him thinking the door is locked before he moves on.
Unfortunately, I haven't found any training videos showing this trick being used. For example, in this video, two men push a table against a door but don't bother to wedge the door knob. The knob is a handleset like the last example. But instead of teaching this method, the actors go off on some tangent about the door being impossible to lock. You can see in the picture to the right that there are appliances behind the actor that may make wedging the knob possible. Unfortunately, low budget training video producers don't have the will to use their imagination.
Instead, the actors panic, saying, "there's no way to lock the door. Grab a weapon!" While preparing to fight the attacker, they leave the lightweight table in front of the door like a bunch of morons!
There's no better way to jump an armed shooter than with an item blocking your route. While letting the coffee table obstruct your path, don't forget to choose a plastic chair over something more lethal like a knife from the break room drawer. As the shooter walks through the door with the gun, don't try to blind him by spraying the fire extinguisher in his face. Instead, swing it at him and hope he doesn't dodge it while pulling the trigger. If you are a medical patient willing to sacrifice your IV bag, be sure not to extract your needle to use as an improvised weapon. Instead, use the cheap metal pool holding your IV bag to put distance between you and the shooter while he aims his weapon at you. Finally, if you have the coffee pot, don't break the glass before swinging it at the shooter. WE DON'T WANT TO CUT HIM!
Yes, I freaking hate the half hearted effort being put into preparing people for an active shooter scenario. Every time 20 people die of this kind of tragedy, the nation panics. Our response? While police are getting state of the art training on how to neutralize a killer, we the sitting ducks are getting useless videos with flawed demonstrations.
During one Walmart shooting, it took police six minutes to arrive on the scene. Imagine how many lives a shooter can take in that short amount of time. Yet here we are with an endless selection of videos using generic terms like "run, hide, fight" as if the common man doesn't already have this in the back of his mind when he is being shot at.
How about you so-called experts start showing our teachers and students valuable information when it is time to run, hide, and fight? For instance, the importance of knowing exit points the minute you enter a building. How about showing teachers how to properly barricade a door or how to position themselves in a room to properly defend their students? How about teaching people how to determine what improvised weapons are best suited for life or death situations? I know for a fact the "experts" aren't teaching this because another useless instructional video shows students throwing paperbacks at a shooter!
Every classroom has a pair of scissors to stab the shooter in the jugular. But hey, let's just hit him with chemistry shall we? Also, I'll try not to mention that this is another terrible job on barricading the door. Oops... I mentioned it....
He got right through it! Plus, you're a complete moron if you think a bloodthirsty killer holding a gun is going to react this way to paperbacks being thrown at him. He has the gun and you're trying to convince me that the students are the bold ones?
The only video I found online with useful information for unarmed civilians consists of an actual simulation involving a young female. Rokus is an MMA practitioner who recently released a video on active shooter self defense. His wife was put through a simulation requiring her to barricade a door before an active shooter came in. As you can see in the first collage, she failed.
That's ok, because the experts were able to assess and show her what to do instead. Look what they accomplished in 15 to 20 seconds.
Now you know where I got the trick of wedging the door knob.
There are several things I like about this video. First, more than 70 percent of student teachers are women. Having a female perform this simulation shows how vulnerable people are and the importance of proper training.
Secondly, it shows how experiencing a simulation prepares a person so much more than watching a 15 minute video on common sense statements mixed with poor actors giving lousy examples. If you are going to instruct people to run, hide, and fight, SHOW THEM HOW TO DO IT!
I highly recommend all teachers put themselves through a simulation for the sake of their classroom. Yes, it is intense. That's the point. Learning to think critically in a short time frame can be the very thing that saves the lives of your students. These simulations not only teach you how to cope, but how to examine your assets to make improvised weapons, barricade your room properly, and to position yourself if you are forced to defend your kids.
A major mistake I keep observing in training videos is people positioning themselves far away from the door. Asside from lousy barricades, distance is also not always good when you are about to get shot at. Knowing what items in your class make the best improvised weapons is crucial. Knowing where to position yourself in a worst case scenario matters just as much. Self defense is not a light matter. It's one of the reasons I am planning to attend a simulation in Pittsburgh in the next couple of months. That experience shapes a person forever and may be the very thing necessary to save a life.
Comments