Steve,srothstein wrote:Excaliber,
You, as usual, make some very good points. You are obviously correct that all of the risks I mention can be mitigated with a little prior planning and correct action at the time. You are also correct about the odds of police being there in the first two to three minutes. I think most agencies still consider three minutes as a good response time for an emergency call, and that is from the time the officer in the car gets the call. There is always a delay between the call coming in and the police officer being dispatched and that does not include the delay of getting someone to actually call it in.
Most important, the decision is a personal one and no one should fault a CHL from making either decision in this situation. I would not fault a CHL for trying to help and I would not fault them for staying put or leaving the area instead of going and looking for the bad guy.
I guess the only real difference between us on this is that I do counsel people to not go looking for the bad guy. I generally think the risks are greater than the benefits. In the interests of full disclosure and having posted my advice earlier, I should admit that my training and experience, both military and law enforcement, has been to move towards the sounds of the guns. I would probably not take my own advice if I were in that kind of situation myself.
I think you and I are very much in agreement. I wouldn't encourage a CHL to go looking for the gunman either, but if he pretty much knows where he is and believes he can make a reasonably safe unobserved approach, doesn't have a hero complex, and wants to try, there's a decision to be made based on the circumstances and the level of skill, judgment, and preparation that person believes he has.
At one end of that scale we have the person who shoots at least once a month, is in reasonably good shape, takes dynamic handgun training classes on his own, and is carrying a G19 chamber loaded with two spare mags. At the other end is the person whose last trip to the range was for CHL qualification, is 80 pounds overweight, has taken no training for making judgments and shooting in dynamic situations, and is carrying a Ruger LCP in .380 with chamber empty and no spare ammo. The gentleman with the G17 has a reasonable chance of success in stopping the shooter. The gentleman with the LCP would likely end up as part of the body count.
There is an alternate protective tactic that can reduce casualties with less risk than a seek and engage attempt, and it can be successful with a more limited skillset and less than ideal weapons: area denial or containment. Depending on the layout of the site, an armed person who takes up a position of cover with a clear field of fire toward the approach to that area (e.g., inside a hall doorway near the intersection with a lobby or another hall) can keep a shooter from storming into that area and protect everyone beyond that point. In similar fashion, if the shooter is in a room off a hallway, a defensive position in another doorway 30 feet away can dominate the funnel point from the shooter's location into the hall and keep him from searching out additional victims.
This option requires no tactical movement skills, maintains distance for both safety and time to assess approaching persons, and can be successful even with a smaller firearm because a shooter attempting to enter the controlled area under fire would run a very high risk of taking rounds while the good guy would be difficult to engage successfully if he uses his cover properly. A police officer used this tactic in the Trolley Mall shooting where he used his subcompact off duty pistol (a 3" Kimber .45) with only 6 rounds and no spare ammunition to keep a shotgun armed active shooter contained until arriving units could engage him.
To maintain safety in that situation it would be critical to make sure either the defender or someone else calls 911 and gives the location and description of the good guy so officers know not to fire at the first sight of a gun, and to communicate that to everyone in the area so they do not attempt to attack him . The good guy would also need to immediately holster up and let dispatch know he's done so as soon as police are in position to approach his location. Done right, this option can save a lot of lives with a more palatable level of risk for the good guy.