Brussels Bombing

Woke up this morning to the news of a terrorist attack in Brussels...... As I watched the news coverage there were some things I noticed. Situations which seem to repeat themselves every time there is news coverage of an incident. We won't be discussing the reasons for the incident. They are irrelevant to what we are talking about.

Explosions go off, chaos consumes the moment and afterwards you realize you are still alive! What comes next? Your prior planning.............

We talk about having situational awareness, looking for the exits when you enter an area is part of this. Now is the time you can put this to use. Maybe you can lead others to the exit? Maybe everyone is stampeding toward the obvious exit and you can go out a different way? For the photo above, taken in the subway system after today's attack, knowing where the exit is important. If this is your daily commute odds are you know which exit is closer. Is it faster to walk toward the station you just left or head down the tracks to the next one?

Here is also where your Every Day Carry comes into use. Do you carry a flashlight? A lighter? These things might seem like a nuisance until the day you NEED them......... During almost any emergency there is going to be a time period you are on your own. How long this goes on depends on the situation. Your prior planning is all you will have to rely on during this time frame......

Prior planning also includes prior skills building. Skills building includes thinking through "what if's". You're in the situation the lady in the above photo is caught in..... What do you do? What if that was you with your child? Would you seek a position of cover? Would you try to exit the area? Would your next priority be to check yourself and child for injuries? What if this was you or your loved ones? Would they or you have prepared to have options in this case? Thinking through situations gives you starting point, a mental checklist, to start at when things go bad. You already have given yourself a framework from which to operate from and this decreases your time to reaction.

Everyone reading this needs to learn basic first aid!!!! No exceptions and no excuses!!! Everyone in your family should understand basic first aid and I challenge each of you to take a class THIS MONTH! Not next month or maybe when you have more time. Set the goal, within the next thirty days you will take a first aid class. Having this skill allows you to take care of yourself during those moments you are on your own. If you can help yourself medical responders can focus on those who are more injured. If you can tend to yourself and become mobile you can exit the area.

This fundamental knowledge of first aid also allows you to help others if the situation allows it. If the situation is; you are uninjured, there is no immediate threat to your safety, you can put this knowledge to work and help others to survive.

Multiple people with basic first aid skills can greatly increase the number of injured people who survive their injuries. Simply knowing how to secure a tourniquet or apply direct pressure to a wound could be the difference between someone dying or living to see their loved ones again. You can help others and yourself make it home with some fundamental knowledge!

Having skills and supplies could make the difference. If you carry a bag every day some simple medical supplies can be tossed in. These items and skill set could save your life during those moments you are on your own during an emergency.

Time and again during these incidents you can see people without any idea what to do. People waiting for others to do things they themselves could or should be able to do. People being overwhelmed by the situation. People who are becoming part of the problem instead of helping. People becoming victims of the situation, be it from lack of physical skills, mental skills or having never gone through 'what if's'. Bad things happen, the question is what have you done prior to and during the event to help you make it through the bad day. What can you do to help others make it through the bad day?

As Always,

Stay Safe!

Paris

This post will have nothing to do with the politics, religious or anything else which people find divisive. I absolutely hate the need I feel to write another post concerning what to do when someone starts shooting. The idea someone would attack people in this manner sickens me......

We have talked about what to do if someone starts shooting and the first thing we need to cover here is; you are on your own. You are on your own for a minute, two minutes, three minutes or more. You and your loved ones are on your own until help arrives. You can not wait for someone else to take care of you or make the problem go away. Please do not think otherwise! Watching the reports coming out of Paris, I was stunned, what is a better word than stunned? I was heart broken? When reports came out of people texting and calling police begging for help as they were being shot and beheaded one by one.............

Do not be a victim! Do not teach your family to be victims! If you able do something! Run, hide, fight! Do something!! DO NOT GIVE UP! DO SOMETHING!!

Remember when you run to think outside the box. A window is an exit! I heard an interview where people ran upstairs instead of fighting to try and run out of the ground floor exits. They ran up the stairs to the roof. On the roof they were waved over to an apartment and climbed into the attic! A roof is as good an escape route as a sidewalk! Use an axe to cut through a wall, use a sledge hammer to make a hole! Do not blindly run if you do not have to! Put things between you and the gunman. Solid things, walls, cars and distance.

If you hide and you can do it, barricade your area. Block the entry to your hiding place. Pile heavy things in front of the door. Find solid objects to hide behind and build a bunker where you are at. A gunman can simply shot through a wall if they can not get into a room and hit you. Barricade the entry and find or make a way out. Let the authorities know where you are so they can help BUT do not wait and do nothing. Improve your position if you are stuck or hiding is the best option. Build up your barricade, build a bunker and arm yourself. Arm yourself incase everything else fails!

If you are not equipped with anything to use to defend yourself when the incident begins, find something you can defend yourself with! Find something you can hit the attacker with. Find something you can throw, like hot oil if you are in a kitchen. Find something to cut or stab the attacker with. Find anything you can use to help you survive!! It is about surviving!

I know some of us do not want to think about violence or the use of violence even to defend themselves. This understandable, learn first aid! Learn advanced first aid. Everyone needs to learn how to keep someone alive until help arrives! Running, hiding or fighting is great but once you are out of danger not having the skills to save or help someone means you get to watch another person or persons die while you stand there helpless!!! Maybe you do not want to learn to use a gun or a knife or your hands to defend yourself. Maybe you do know how to do these things. In either case you become useless to those around you and yourself if you do not know the basics of how to save a life.

When you find yourself in a bad situation you must understand help is hopefully coming BUT until they arrive you are on your own! Does not matter if it is a tornado or an incident like this in Paris, you are on your own for a period of time. You must take action to improve the situation for your loved ones, you and those around you. You must learn skills which could help you, your loved ones and those around you. You must take responsibility.................



As Always,

Stay Safe!!!!

Train attack and 'ON AIR' murder - two different outcomes.

Two incidents occurred recently which got me to thinking about how much situational awareness really matters. For those of us who might not know about these incidents, one was a man on a train who was shooting people and the second was a man who shot three people while on live TV. Instead of getting tied up in the mired of items we could discuss revolving around these two incidents I want to focus on one item which seems to make a difference in these two incidents. Awareness of what is happening around you! Having awareness is very important in situations like these and in these two cases might of been the difference between living and dying.

Too many people spend the day with a very narrow focus on what is happening around them. Do not think so? OK, here is your homework for the day. Put your phone down and look around. While you look around count the people who are staring at their phone and not looking up. How many of these people could you walk up to and smack upside the head before they would even know you were there???? ONLY TRY THIS ON PEOPLE YOU KNOW!!! Or don't, might make the day more exciting to just smack random people!!!! (thats a joke!) The point is people do not simply look around or pay attention to their surroundings during their day. How can you see danger if you are staring at your phone?

I am going to try and discuss both of these situations without giving anything to the people who committed the acts. Personally I feel it is wrong to even say the names of people who do these things because I feel the motivation for some of these incidents is the notoriety the people get after the event. The first incident occurred on a train in France...........

A person was observed walking into the restroom with his baggage, one of the passengers thought this was odd and observed the man step out of the restroom with a rifle. The passenger attempted to disarm the gunman in an attempt to protect his wife who was also a passenger on the train. The passenger lost the scuffle when the gunman shot him in the neck and he fell to the floor of the train. Other passengers took over the fight and they were able to subdue the gunman. One of these passengers was wounded when the gunman pulled out a second weapon and cut him with it. The gunman was "hog tied" and held by the passengers until law enforcement could take over.

With the gunman and weapons secured the people on the train tended to the wounded aboard the train.

The second incident was during a 'ON AIR' live report from a TV reporter. There is video the killer put up on the internet. I'm not going to add a link. If you must see the video just look it up on your own............. The most striking thing to me in the video is watching the gunman walk up to the victims, point a firearm at them, step back from the victims and point the weapon back at them before opening fire on the victims.

How could this have happened? How can a person walk up to three people, point a gun at them from close range not once but twice and none of them react?!?!?!?!?!?! I wonder what the outcome would have been had any of the three not had tunnel vision at that moment. What is tunnel vision? This is when your perception has narrowed to a point you might as well be looking through a tube at the world around you.

When I watched the video of this murder I was screaming at the images because these people should have clearly seen the danger!! On more than one place in the video the victims eyes, ears or gut should have told them something was wrong!!! Having someone walk up to you when you are off to the side of a setting as they were should at the very least get a curious glance just to see who is approaching!!!! Yet this gunman walked up to them, pointed a gun, obviously did not like the view his camera was recording, changed his position and opened fire when he was satisfied with the view his camera would record..................................

Now before anyone gets all fired up, no I am not saying being shoot was the victim's fault!!! What we are attempting to discuss is the need for awareness in our everyday life!!!! You want to change this conversation that is your business! Moving on..........

When we are out and about during the day we need to remember to take a moment and see what is around us. If you are focused on something right in front of you, your area of awareness becomes very small. This can also be brought out into a bigger idea. If your input of information comes from only a few sources your knowledge or world view is very limited. The same way lifting your head out of a book while sitting at the park allows you to see the folks playing soccer, reading a different newspaper or watching a different news channel broadens your view of the world and allows you to see more. If you can see danger coming you can avoid it, always option one, or deal with it. If you can not see the danger coming you are simply a victim waiting to be victimized..............

We all need to work on our awareness and should start today! Try to put your phone down and look around. This is called "panning and scanning". Look around your area and see what is going on. (side note: you might be surprised who you see also panning and scanning) This is not being paranoid, just look around and see what you see. Who's in the area around you? What are the people around you doing? Why are they doing it? Just take moment and people watch. Doing this more often is a benefit and increases your awareness. Heck make a game out it with your kids! Ask them to remember the color clothes people wore or other such items. Give them the gift of awareness!!!

As always,

Stay Safe!!

Active shooter video (LASD)

I came across this and had to repost it!!! Outstanding information and shows ideas on what to do in these situation



You might or might not agree with what is presented if the video the idea of reposting this video is to get everyone thinking about "What would you do?" I also think this video clearly shows some of the concepts we had discussed in prior post concerning active shooters.

As Always,

Stay Safe!!!

Je Suis Charlie

Following the events in France I was contemplating how to address the situation. After thinking long about the subject I will stay out of the politics, belief systems involved or any of the other subjects which cause people to pick a side or stop thinking clearly. Those are conversations for a different forum.

In previous postings we have discussed ideas for dealing with ‘Active Shooters’ and hostage situations. For this posting I thought we needed to focus on other ideas or concepts to help us if we find ourselves in these types of situations.

First we must acknowledge there are people who want to do harm and even kill others out there. You must seriously think about this for a moment, even if you become uncomfortable thinking about this. None of us want to acknowledge there are others out there who wish for nothing more than our death. Yes they want you dead! There are people who want you and your family dead! You do not have to agree with or even understand their reason for wanting your children, spouse and you dead, you just have to realize these people are out there.

Acknowledging the idea people want you dead is the first step in not becoming a victim. The next step is to remain aware of the threat. By this I do not mean walk around all day paranoid of every person you met or going into full “Mad Max” mode when you hear a car backfire. The idea here is to do things which will increase your odds of going home to your family and almost nothing is more important than making it home to your family!

If you see something that is just ‘Not Right’, report it!!! No matter what the outcome. Do not let political correctness stop you from reporting something. If you see two guys wearing ski masks, load bearing vests (military vest) and armed, call the authorities!!! Yell, scream, run and tell as many people as you can!!!! Use your cell phone to call the authorities, not to take video!! If you make people aware of the danger odds are more lives will be saved. Give others a chance to react to the situation by making them aware of what is going on.

Awareness is one of the biggest tools we can sharpen to assist us with these situations. We need to tune our awareness to the exits from our office, awareness of what is happening around us and the awareness to take action when something happens. “Awareness to take action?”, YES! You have to be aware of when it is time to run like the four horsemen are chasing you! Inaction will get you killed!!!!

When I say ‘RUN’ I mean ‘FUCKING RUN’ like your life depends on it!!! Because your life does depend on it!! Run as if you are planning to run all the way home. “RUN FORREST RUN!” applies here.

Have the awareness to not run into a position from which you cannot get out of. There is video tape of people in Paris running to the roofs of the building being attacked. Having been in Paris I understand there was a chance they could have gone across to another building in some places. For most of us the buildings are not this close together. Be aware and do not run yourself into a position with no way out if you do not have to go to that position. Being in a dead end just makes it easier for the bad guys to hunt you down and SLAUGHTER you.

Be aware others are not prepared to respond to bad situations. You might find yourself having to lead people out of the danger area. Be aware they are going to be scared, be aware they are trying to come to grips with what is happening (something you should already have thought of) and you might have to yell, scream, push, shove and even drag others to safety!!!! Worry about hurt feelings later!

During the event or immediately after the event you might have to preform first aid on people. Learn basic first aid. Most injuries are survivable in situations like these. Not all gunshots are fatal and if basic lifesaving actions can be taken quickly people can survive. Direct pressure to a wound can make a difference. Just by placing a cloth over a wound and pressing on it as hard as you can you might make the difference for someone. Learning how to apply tourniquet is a valuable skill which could save a life. Wrapping a belt around a damaged limb and tightening it down can slow the blood flow enough to keep someone alive till help arrives. If you do not know how to perform CPR, learn. This might be the difference between a mother making it home to her children or dying in front of you!!!

Be aware you are on your own till help arrives. You and the people around you will have to deal with the situation until people can arrive to help. Take positive, proactive steps to ensure you can make it home. Waiting for help to arrive or for some authority figure to tell you what to do will simply get you killed. Do not wait for “someone else” to decide your fate; take responsibility for yourself and your own life!!

Most people are not prepared to deal with situations as have happened in Paris. Almost no one is ready to deal with armed men firing at them, the chaos of people being opened up by bullets passing through them or the thoughts of facing their own death at the hands of another human being. Being aware of what could happen and acknowledging what could happen before something happens gives you the ability to make decisions faster which could be the difference between living or dying.

I realize these are thoughts or subject matter most people do not want to discuss or even think about. We have to discuss and think about these things. The predators out there count on people not being prepared mentally to deal with their actions. They count on surprise to work in their advantage. Predators want you to freeze, do nothing and allow them to do what they want before you can react. Awareness goes a long way toward countering this advantage. If they cannot surprise you, you have already upset their plan and making the other person change their plans is always a good strategy.

As Always,

Stay Safe

Hostage Situation

A situation took place in which people found themselves suddenly being held against their will. From having coffee and enjoying their day they suddenly became hostages. This situation can happen to anyone of us at any time. I will not discuss the politics of this situation neither will I discuss why these situations happen. Let us focus on what you or a loved one can do if caught in one of these situations.

Once you are stuck, the time to run has passed and you realize what is happening, become invisible. Do not obviously look around. Do not do anything to draw attention to you. Submit, submit the way a dog would! Put your head down, tuck your tail and realize YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL ANY LONGER.

The first few minutes of these situations can be very violent. Be prepared to be struck, screamed at, have guns put into your face and probably ordered or thrown to the ground. Raise your hands, if you can cover your head and do what they tell you to. Survive for another moment in time.

After these several moments or minutes of chaos the bad guys will feel they have dominated the room, everyone knows they are in charge and the bad guys believe there is no threat to them. At this point odds are the bad guys will try to organize the scene. This might include separating people in to groups, tying people up and setting the scene until they are comfortable with what is going on. Do what they tell you to do! Become invisible do not stand out in any way!

Do not pose a threat to them, look down, do not make eye contact with them. Physically and mentally make yourself little. Slouch your shoulders, curve your back, and try to appear defeated. Cry if you have to but attempt to gain control of yourself as quickly as you can. Being the only one crying makes you stand out. Be scared, this is a scary moment in your life. Embrace your fear and project it. Let them feel it, smell it and understand you are not a threat.

Now the waiting begins. Plan on being where you are for a very long time. If you think a day is a long time, plan on being there a month. If you think a month is long, plan on being there six months. Mentally prepare for the long haul. If you can, make yourself comfortable without becoming a threat to the bad guys. Should you have anything on you which might offend or threaten the bad guys carefully get rid of it. Maybe you are a postman and you are in uniform. The bad guys are anti-government, guess who represents the government? Ditch any signs of authority, pins, hats, jackets along with anything you do not need which could give them a reason to single you out. Are they making demands or statements about the economically disadvantaged? Is that watch you got for your birthday real expensive? Maybe it would be better inside your pocket right now? Do everything you can to blend in to the wood work!!! Give them nothing to draw attention to you or focus on you in any way.

Know that while you are scared and adjusting to your new situation in life, others are coming to help you. When the authorities arrive they bring along people willing to do whatever it takes to bring you out alive. It takes time for them to figure out what is happening and what resources they need to bring. Plan on the situation changing as negotiations are established between the bad guys and the people trying to help you. As the minutes tick by remember people are working to help you. You probably will not see them because if you see them the bad guys can see them but know they are out there!!

Should you be able to escape or are freed for some reason come out of the area with your hands up, listen to the authorities and do what they tell you! Remember they are scared also! Make sure you follow their commands, even if they restrain you, search you and man handle you. Stay calm they will figure it out. As soon as they can they will put you in touch with your family. Almost every group will bring people whose only job is to make sure you speak to your family ASAP once out of the danger.

Medical personal will check you and then a very important part comes. The tactical element will want to talk to you. They need to talk to you; you know things they need to know! Do not get upset if they are gruff or scary looking. These are the good guys! Take a moment, take a deep breath and remember how scared you were when you were in the danger area. Now think of those people still in danger. Something you know might help bring them to safety. Tell the tactical guys everything you remember. Ever thing your senses told you while you were in the danger area. Every sight, smell, touch and feeling you had. Let them know everything, everything is important to them. Do not think you should only tell them what you think they want to know. Tell them everything! Did one of the bad guys smell like cigarettes? Did one of them sound like they had a cold? Everything matters and you could save a life with your information.

If you are in the danger area when the tactical team makes entry there are two ways they can do it. The team can sneak in or come in dynamically. A dynamic entry is noisy, violent and downright scary. The entry is supposed to be. Distraction devices will rock your body to the core and will shock you if you have never been around them. Drop to the ground or if on the ground curl up into a ball and wait. DO NOT STAND UP; DO NOT RUN AT THE PEOPLE COMING IN!! STAY DOWN AND DO NOT BE A THREAT. In order to take control of the area back from the bad guys the people coming to help you need to be as violent as or more violent than the bad guys.

Wait until directed to move. They need to positively identify who the bad guys and good guys are. Do what you’re directed to do. You might not be able to hear anything but ringing, there might be smoke or flashes robbed you of your vision for a moment. Tell the team, point to your ear if they are yelling at you and say “I cannot hear you”. They will understand. You will be lead out of the area and go through the same process as if you had been released earlier. Go with the flow; let them know if you are injured. Plan on giving a statement before you can go home. Why? Because they want to make sure they got every bad guy and helped everyone in the danger area. Maybe you are the only one who seen a person who locks themselves in somewhere?

To fight or not to fight? I intentionally have not addressed this. Some people will tell you to fight the bad guys if you get a chance, some will say to never fight. Each situation is different and no suggestion on when or how will be given here. Why? Because we should never judge the actions of someone else caught in this type of situation. Making a judgment is too easy from the couch!!!!!! Should you decide to fight or are forced to…………. Do not go into to the fight half way. Go into action firmly planning to kill the bad guy!!! Only going into the fight with this mind set will you be able deal with the situation. Should you not need to kill the bad guy you can dial down the force. You will not have time to dial up the level of your force if in the middle of the fight you realize you have not brought enough in the first seconds!!!!

I hope none of us every have to deal with a situation like this in our lives! If you do remember people are coming to help and never lose faith! They are working to get you out!!

As always,

Stay Safe!

"Someone is shooting!"

With events occurring in Ottawa today I thought it was a good idea to pass some of this information on to those of us who are not trained how to react when "SOMEONE IS SHOOTING!"

If you are not directly threatened by the gunman, leave. Just leave the area! Do not try to see what is going on, take pictures or otherwise put yourself or others in harm's way. Leave!! This should be your first reaction if you can. Let someone else have the story to tell about how cool or scary the situation was at the next party. You just take your butt home and be safe!!

Should you not be able to leave and you are in danger from the gunman seek "COVER"! What is cover? Cover is anything which will stop a bullet. What will stop a bullet? Not what you see on TV or in the movies!! Think more along the lines of what would stop a garbage truck from running you over. Better yet, think what you would want between your loved ones and a runaway truck!

Glass, car doors, plants, internal walls, filing cabinets, pressboard desk, computer screens and almost everything you see stop bullets on TV DOES NOT STOP BULLETS in real life. Lightly constructed buildings do not stop bullets. Bullets will go through all of these things.

Cement, bricks, thick steel, boulders, large thick trees and other dense objects stop or deflect bullets. When soldiers build sandbag walls they are at least three sandbags deep, this is about 2 -3 feet wide. Try to find something thick enough to stop a truck.

The more items between you and the gunman the better. If the gunman has to fire through a door, through a filing cabinet and a desk before you can be hit this increases your chances of survival. In this case some "cover" is better than none.

Concealment is your next option. Anything which keeps the gunman from seeing you is concealment. Remember, concealment is not cover!! Just because the gunman can not see you does not mean you can not be shot!! Bullets go through most things people will try to hide behind. Ideally you want to find a position of cover and concealment. Cover comes first!!!

If you barricade yourself somewhere let someone know you are there. Call 911, wave out a window or maybe hang something out the window. Letting the authorities know where you are will help them to help you. Remember if you barricade a door bullets can still come through the door!

Learn first aid. I can not stress this enough! Just because someone is wounded does not automatically mean they are dead. So many wounded people live after receiving basic first aid prior to the EMTs or other first responders arriving.

When you encounter law enforcement DO EXACTLY WHAT THEY SAY! Remember they are scared also and have no idea what is going on. If they think you are a threat they will shoot you. Do not run at them unless they tell you to, raise your hands in the air and follow their commands. Should you been in a room where law enforcement has to make entry. Lay on the floor with your hands on your head. Again, do not present a threat to them! Anyone standing up is considered a threat!

In the chaos of an "active shooter" (what Law Enforcement calls these situations) you have to be responsible for you. You have to do everything you can to protect yourself until Law Enforcement can gain control of the situation. When the SWAT teams arrive they will be hunting. Almost all agencies are incorporating tactics where the patrol officers go on the hunt as soon as they arrive. What are they hunting? The gunman. Do everything you can to not be mistaken for the gunman or to be in the way of the hunters!

I hope none of us are ever in this position but I fear more and more of us will be in the future. Should you be in this situation;

LEAVE!
Find COVER!
Find CONCEALMENT!
Find a position of both COVER and Concealment!
Learn First Aid.

Do Not be a Threat to Law Enforcement!
Follow directions from Law Enforcement!

For the Sheepdogs out there amongst us. Have your tools with you and remain ever vigilant!!!

As always;

Stay Safe!