West News Wire: There is outrage both domestically and overseas over a recently discovered FBI video that purports to teach Americans how to give themselves the best chance of surviving a devastating mass shooting.
Actors playing regular Americans tell to viewers how they could at least escape or, perhaps, even stop a mass shooting after the bullets start flying in the 2020 video, which was issued by the US’s top law enforcement agency.
The European technology investor Michael Jackson wrote on his LinkedIn profile, which has more than 134,000 followers, “If European countries want to deter brain drain to the US they should just play this FBI video to their soon-to-be graduates.”
Jackson, who shared a link to the video, added that the US’s well-known gun problem, where rates of mass gun violence are significantly higher than in Europe and many other regions of the world, was harming its reputation with tourists and its businesses’ chances of bringing in talented workers from abroad.
Another common response to the film was posted on Twitter by the head of an Oklahoma scholarship foundation: “America is broken. We’re talking about how to survive a slaughter like it’s a terrible tornado rather than what caused the devastation.
The video begins with a scene of a bustling bar filled with people. A fight breaks out and then the sudden eruption of gunshots sends the crowd into a panic, with people rushing to find an exit or a hiding spot.
A waitress spots a neon red exit sign and proceeds to explain to viewers techniques to avoid getting shot.
“Running makes you harder to hit and improves your chances of survival,” she says as she runs down a stairway with a group of people.
When she makes it downstairs and out the door, she is confronted by police pointing a gun at her. Still out of breath and distressed, the waitress reminds the camera to always keep “empty hands up” and “follow their instructions” when faced with law enforcement.
Another woman hiding under a table then says to find another room and barricade the door if it’s not possible to escape. She ushers every person around her into a nearby closet and reminds viewers to turn their phones off.
Then, if the gunman bursts through the door, she advises finding anything that could be used as a weapon, such as a fire extinguisher or a flower vase, and getting ready to strike.
She says, “Lock and barricade the door,” as gunfire can be heard in the distance.
It doesn’t mention what to do if the assailant is armed with a powerful rifle and can fire through the door and the room’s surrounding walls.
Later footage demonstrates someone putting pressure to a woman with a gushing gunshot wound while not using a tourniquet.
Toward the end of the video, a man is shown trapped behind the bar with all exits blocked. He tells his audience: “I gotta stay hidden. But I’m no victim. I’m ready for this.”
He lays out a complicated strategy that culminates in his taking the shooter’s gun, which happens sometimes but can result in fatalities if unsuccessfully done.
The film concludes with the words “you can survive a mass shooting if you’re prepared” from the narrator, who also links viewers to the website fbi.gov/survive.
According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, the US is on track to record the biggest number of mass killings in recent memory this year. This is why the video suddenly reappeared.
According to data from the online reference site, there will probably be 60 mass murders in which four or more people are killed in the nation in 2023.
There were 31 mass killings in 2019, 21 in 2020, 28 in 2021 and 36 in 2022.
As of Monday morning, there had been at least 224 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are injured or killed.
Congress has been unable to meaningfully restrict access to guns despite the accelerated pace of mass shootings in the US this year.
Actually stopping a mass shooter as a civilian is exceptionally rare, according to Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center. Less than 3% of more than 430 active attacks in the US ended with a civilian firing back from 2000 to 2021.
A bystander who confronted and disarmed an attacker during a mass shooting that left five people dead and 17 others wounded at a Colorado LGBTQ+ club last year was a US army veteran who had previously gone to war. Richard Fierro had served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
