Being educated and prepared can help you survive a gun fight.
The average gun fight lasts 2.5 seconds. It may not sound like a long time, but Berlin Carroll demonstrated with a toy gun that he could shoot 12 people in that time. He and guest speaker, Deputy Damian Tibbs, both stressed that you have a better chance of surviving a gun fight if you know what to do. "The recipe for an active shooter is a gun and an angry person and America has a lot of those. There's no safe place any more. We just have to be prepared and educate ourselves," says Tibbs.
Tibbs teaches ALICE training. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. Or, for short: run-hide-fight.
If you are involved in an active shooter situation, get out of the building if at all possible. Once you're outside, call 9-1-1. If you are trapped inside and can't escape, hide in a room, lock the door and block it with heavy furniture, then duck behind something that will protect you and stay quiet. No matter what you hear outside the door, don't open it.
If you can't run or hide, it's time to fight. Gather with others if possible and stage an ambush of the gunman with whatever weapons are at hand. Tibbs says that when police arrive, make sure you are not holding a gun since they will be looking for someone with a weapon. Put your hands up and make it clear that you are not a threat. Tibbs encouraged us to put together a plan at work, at our places of worship, and at home. "The chance it will ever happen to you is about the same as being struck by lighting. However, it does happen and we still need to have some type of plan."
Chief Joe Kitchen opened the meeting by showing a video called Stop the Bleed. He says a person can die in minutes from uncontrolled bleeding and it's important to act fast and know how to stop the bleeding. Follow the ABCs:
Alert emergency personnel by calling 911
Find the source of the Bleed.
Compress-cover the wound with a cloth and apply direct pressure.
Kitchen says that acting quickly can save lives.
On a happier note, congratulations to Dr. Timothy Rehner who received his blue badge, and to Scott Cockerell and Berlin Carroll who both were awarded Paul Harris Fellowship.