Run, Hide, Fight Model Surfaces Following Tragic Texas School Shooting

The number of shooting incident have risen in the past months, leading to the death of innocent civilians.

Mass shootings place people in a precarious situation, perhaps a rare instance where individuals who know a thing or two about martial arts would be futile.

According to FBI data, between 2000 and 2019, 2,851 people died in 333 U.S. active-shooter incidents, defined as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.”

Mass shootings are rare, but what can people do when they find themselves in such a situation?

According to Brian Rauchbach, the owner of Elite Training Center, people should be aware of the baseline of behavior. Baseline behavior means seeing and being more observant of how people around you walk, talk and act.

“People who are engaged in making plans to do harm to other people will stand outside of that baseline because they do different things. They dress differently, they look differently, they start to engage with people differently,” Rauchbach said. “And as soon as they start to enact their plans or start walking through their plans, they definitely stand out.”

The US Department of Homeland Security suggests the run, hide and fight model. Raubach shed more light on these in his active shooter and self-defense courses in a report by the Los Angeles Times.

“Basic citizens are the first line of defense,” Katie Toney, a manager for Elite Training Center, said. “So they kind of have to have some general idea what to do before law enforcement arrives.”

Mass shootings may be rare but people need to be aware of what they do. It is not a matter of courage but more of being logical when it comes to what to do in such cases. It may all boil down to properly reading the situation and knowing if one should run, hide or fight.