Produced by the City of Houston with funds from the DHS, a video entitled “Run, Hide, Fight”. The purpose of this video is to help the public learn how to deal with an active shooter situation.

Watch it now. It’s not long, and it’s a good video.

The main failing most people have is they do not have a plan. Something bad happens, they don’t know what to do, they freeze, they panic, they risk being harmed. This video gives you a plan: run, hide, fight. It’s a simple plan, easy to remember. Run. Hide. Fight. It doesn’t put too many specific details in place because every situation will be different, but this is a solid general plan. Run. Hide. Fight.

It is a proper ordering of what to do. Your first priority should be to get out of there. If you cannot, hiding is the best option; may seem obvious, but if you lack a plan and freeze from fear, you will sit out in the open. And I appreciate they promote the option of fighting. For far too long in this country the notion of fighting was looked down upon, and all that leads to is victims. I think this is proper ordering because the goal is to survive the event, and these give you your best chance of survival. Run. Hide. Fight.

I thought the production quality was good. They avoided politics. They focused on the message, providing elaboration but focusing on the mantra. The visuals reinforced the message. There’s no emotion or fear involved in the presentation, just a straight presentation. While a subject matter most wouldn’t want to deal with, it’s a video able to be shown to all. In fact, it’s the sort of video the HR department would want to show to everyone.

A few specific observations:

• When the people were running up stairs, that confused me. “Why are they running up to the roof, instead of down to the street?!?” It appeared they were just trapping themselves. It appears that’s just how that building was, maybe these people were in the basement, because it did show them exiting the building on the street. But it was a little confusing and I know I’m not the only one that observed this and thought as such. Going “down” is just more your (stereo)typical “exiting the building” direction.
• Running wound up next to the building, huddled by the dumpster. Why? Why are you not trying to get further away from the building? Maybe a production artifact, but I sure wouldn’t stick around… I’d get far far away.

Did you notice the subtle thing they did around 0:56 to 1:00 in the video? Go back and watch that portion.

What you see is the man walking in the door. Written on the door is something called a “30.06 sign”, named after the section of the Texas Penal Code, “TRESPASS BY HOLDER OF LICENSE TO CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUN“. Basically, posting that sign gives legal force to prohibit law-abiding citizens carrying concealed handguns from entering that premesis.

Did you notice the person bent on inflicting harm and evil was not stopped by this sign? Granted, the sign only applies to folks legally carrying a concealed handgun, and obviously this man was neither legally carrying nor carrying a handgun. But regardless, laws and signs did not stop him from inflicting his evil upon the innocent. One could also say this is what prevented the innocents from fighting back with little more than a fire extinguisher and a chair. I’m not sure why the producers of the video opted to include this subtle tidbit, because they certainly did not have to use a building with a 30.06 sign, they didn’t have to include a shot of the door in the video… but they did.

Overall I find this video to be a quality product with a worthwhile message. Run. Hide. Fight.