Just when you thought your customers demanded too much...

[KuariKaydrith]

I know that a bullet proof vest doesn't solve all the issues - if you're shot, you're shot. And hope they didn't hit anything vital. If a person is going to be foolhardy enough to try to stop a shooter with anything less than a gun of their own, it's best to tackle them from behind and flatten them. I do have the necessary training, but I hope I never have to use it in an active situation.

[wordgirl]

The thing is, the police count on store employees and customers running away. They want as few people in the vicinity of an active scene as possible. Police want to be able to easily identify the good guys vs. the bad guys. They don't want hostages. And if they have to take a shooter down, they want a clear line of fire.

Speaking of that, let's say that the big hero act is successful, and a stocker succeeds in wresting away a Bad Dude's gun. And then the police show up ... and there's the stocker, holding a gun. How do they know he's actually a hero rather than the perp?

We've been in our current location for six years. It wasn't until last summer when a similar incident made the news that I began to wonder, "Is there a back door out of here?" It turns out, there is. I know where it is, and so do my colleagues. NOW the path to the back door is unobstructed.

That's exactly it.

The safest, smartest thing to do is know how to get out and be ready to do it. Want to be a hero? Look around your workplace now and figure out the best escape routes and any escapes that are currently blocked. In one recent mass shooting, the body count increased considerably because exits were blocked.

[EricKei]

(but scammers costing them money is fine, since they consider the scammer a customer?)

Well, yeah. They can blame empployees for getting scammed (said as: "Being careless with your till/OUR money").

[Cia]

A bullet proof vest doesn't protect your head, arms nor legs.

[MoonCat]

A couple years ago we had a safety seminar by some law enforcement people. It was all about what to do in an active shooter situation.

Hint: It did NOT include "rush the perp and try to take his gun away."

We were told to know where all the exits are, how to get to them, and to know places to hide that we could barricade ourselves in, in case we could not get to an exit. The ONLY time they suggested fighting back was if the shooter managed to get into your hiding place, and then it was basically "use anything and everything you can get your hands on as a weapon." And that's assuming you could hit the shooter before YOU got shot.

Also, keep this in mind: When LE gets there, they're going to be searching for the shooter. If you are still on the premises, they need to be sure you're not the bad guy - but also, if you have been injured, guess what they're going to do? They're going to leave you there and keep looking for the shooter. Sounds awful, but in an active shooter situation, that's their priority.

So your best bet for survival is to get the hell out, don't take unnecessary risks like trying to be a hero, and if you meet LE on the way out, make sure you have your hands in the air so they can see that you don't have a weapon.

[Slave to the Phone]

I work behind locked doors. The only time I actually see my customer is when I choose to leave my safe are to get signatures. There are big concrete things outside the doors to stop people from into the doors with cars. We have armed guards who can't be everywhere at once.

Even with those precautions, nobody feels safe at work.

We do have active shooter training and its pretty much the same as has been posted up-thread. Run, hide or fight. Notice the order? Run away. Hide if we can't run. Fight only if there is no other option.

I am a government worker, these are my state's rules, but seeing as the feds overrule everything, I tend to assume that these are Federal workplace rules that have been handed down to the states.

I don't know if anyone remembers that Giffords. She was a politician having an outdoors meeting when she was shot. This happened in Tucson, Az. We do like our guns in AZ and there were a number of legally armed citizens at the meeting. Every single one of them reported that they didn't shoot at the crazy guy because the couldn't get safe shots. That means that they didn't try to shoot because there were so many people running around that they didn't shoot because they could have made things very much worse if they had.

Most gunowners aren't crazy.

[morgana]

I'm not risking my life for some trailer park queen who was yelling at me about the price of tortilla chips 10 minutes ago.

Amen!

I'll be under/behind the nearest thing that'll hide me. My momma never raised no idiots.

[RootedPhoenix]

I'm not risking my life for some trailer park queen who was yelling at me about the price of tortilla chips 10 minutes ago.

I didn't mean that I thought people were wrong for running. Self-defense is a good thing. And when I said help, I meant "help shove people into whatever hidey-hole I found to get us away from the shooter". Alternately, I meant "be a human shield in order for others to actually survive the trip". I'm slow on a good day, I'm not rushing a shooter.

I apologize for my words before, because it made it sound like people shouldn't run. They can! I just...I wouldn't likely run. I'm stubborn like that.

[Nunavut Pants]

...That means that they didn't try to shoot because there were so many people running around that they didn't shoot because they could have made things very much worse if they had.

Most gunowners aren't crazy.

Thank heaven for that! But the people (who are never in such a situation, of course!) who claim that they "could have stopped the shooter with a tooth-pick" are not in the non-crazy camp, IMHO... Those are the exact sort of people that I really hope never are in such a situation while armed!

[Blue Ginger]

How many companies provide actual training on what to do in a shooter or terrorist situation? I know most government departments would, but what about retail or your everyday office?

Most of my knowledge came from talking with security people. And the advice basically boils down to run and hide, take your phone if you can and wait to be rescued. (That advice came from 3 ex-cops and 2 ex-armed forces security guards.)

I worked in the mail/courier rooms of two major bank's head offices in Dublin and London, so I got bomb threat training, how to recognise suspicious parcels and what to do if you suspect a parcel is contaminated (biological threats). But nothing about what to do if the office was invaded.

Hell, even after the London/UK riots in 2011, where banks were targeted in the destruction, we still didn't get any training on what to do. I had been on reception for months at that point. (I did find out until last year that most of the street level glass for that building is bullet proof, so that would have helped protect us. But even security didn't know that at the time, only a couple of facilities people knew.)

I understand that it might be hard to have everyone do emergency response training, but I think that all front facing staff should have at least some idea of what to do. We had a least one security guard in the reception area at all times, but most of them were glorified pass checkers.

If reception staff are expected to help in emergencies, and I've yet to work somewhere that hasn't expected this, then we should be given training on what to do in all kinds of emergencies. All retail staff, including those that only work in the back areas, should be given training on what to do. Most retail places don't have a lot of lockable doors or good hiding places.

[Deevil]

How many companies provide actual training on what to do in a shooter or terrorist situation? I know most government departments would, but what about retail or your everyday office?

I work in the call center for a company that sells party supplies and novelties (and has in the last five years branched out and acquired a company that sells "brainy toys") in the Midwest. Granted my city is the largest in the state, but still it's corn country. We have a yearly refresher training that among other things includes a what to do in a shooting situation video...
I'm 99%certain this is the one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcSwejU2D0. A bit of overkill IMO for what the job entails, but it get me off the phone for an hour.

[bankworking]

My workplace has active shooter training. They changed "Run, Hide, Fight" to "Avoid, Deny, Defend" basically to clarify that sometimes running is not the best way to avoid.

One question asked was "You are in a locked room with several others. A co-worker comes to the door begging to be let in. Do you?"

The recommendation was NO, because that co-worker could be the shooter and you risk the lives of everyone in the room if you unlock that door. Trainer was all about, your priority is to survive. You are responsible for doing everything you can manage to do to save your own life.

It's not a fun class to sit through...

[KuariKaydrith]

I'm in security, and I've voluntarily taken quite a bit of training for various situations. Considering that my client provides something that is pretty much an essential service (and we've been targeted in the past, although the client took major CYA moves), I figured that it's best to be as prepared as possible. It's also why I'm in charge of two separate sites for the same client. That and I'm slightly nuts for even wanting to be in a management position.

[Blue Ginger]

I'm glad more companies are taking steps to train staff on what to do. Maybe it's because I live in Oz, and we just don't have the same access to guns, that we don't have that kind of training. It would be good if it was still covered though.

A few years ago we had a homegrown terrorist hold hostages in a Lindt cafe in Sydney. He killed one hostage, police killed him and another hostage was accidentally killed by a police bullet ricochet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_S...hostage_crisis

We have also been lucky enough that police have managed to stop people before they were able to carry out terrorist threats. This includes a large group that were targeting ANZAC day dawn services and had managed to get their hands on a number of guns and other weapons. (ANZAC day is a bit like Remembrance Day, but commemorates April 25th 1915 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day ) The Dawn Service in Melbourne attracts upwards of 30,000 people. Unless you are a police officer, or one of the small percent of armed security guards, no one carries a gun. Even the armed forces personnel that would have been there would not have bullets in their guns beyond the blanks for the salute. If these pieces of shit had succeeded, it would have been a blood bath similar to the recent Las Vegas shooting. It is held in a massive park with no buildings except for the Shrine of Remembrance and dozens of individually placed trees.

Out of all my friends, acquaintances, family friends and work people, I only knew 1 person, that wasn't a farmer, that actually owned guns. He used to go pig shooting frequently with his son and friends. Less than 12 months after he died in a tragic workplace accident, his 15 year old son used one of the guns to kill himself. The farmers that do own guns only have them to put down dying animals or to shoot the occasional deadly snake found in the sheds or around the house paddock.