While no one ever wants to imagine themselves or their family members, especially their children, being in an active shooter situation, it’s better to know at least a few basic things about how to handle themselves in this situation as opposed to the opposite. So whether this is an active shooter situation where your family member works or in a public place, it’s important to know a few things beforehand to hopefully keep them safe during this chaotic and scary time.
To help you know where to focus your attention, here are three things to teach your family about being in an active shooter situation.
Teach Them About Situational Awareness
One of the best things that you can teach your family members about safety in general is how to have situational awareness.
With situational awareness, you learn how to be aware of what’s going on around you and what things could potentially be dangerous to you. Then, if and when you notice something that’s off about the situation, you either say something to someone of authority so that they can take steps to keep everyone safe or take action yourself to get out of the situation entirely. This type of situational awareness could help to prevent active shooter situations from happening or could help your family members get out of scary situations as they are ramping up.
Teach Them What Makes A Good Place To Hide
If there ever comes a time where your family member is in an active shooter situation, one of the safest things for them to do is hide until help comes to safely get them out of that situation. However, finding a good hiding place is vital to this safety measure.
When seeking a place to hide during an active shooter situation, it’s important to hide somewhere that the shooter can’t easily see. It’s also ideal if there’s something big and heavy between them and the shooter for protection. And when they are hiding, teach them how to stay quiet so as not to draw attention their way.
Teach Them How To Think Clearly Under Pressure
Any kind of scary situation, including an active shooter, can make people think and do things that they wouldn’t in other situations. These situations can make it hard for people to think clearly and keep themselves safe because they’re so scared. And while this isn’t something that you can really prepare for until you’re in the situation, you can talk about keeping a calm head while under pressure.
To best do this, try to practice some active shooter scenarios with your family. This way, if and when something like this happens, they can have some kind of experience to look back to to help them in making smart decisions and keeping safe.
To give your family the best chance of surviving an active shooter situation, consider using the tips mentioned above to help teach some basic safety skills.
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