How to Survive a Mass Shooting

Christopher McHale
2 min readNov 9, 2023

Your Top 3 tips if you’re caught in a mass shooting.

Photo by Jay Rembert on Unsplash

A mall. A church. A bowling alley.

It feels like our politicians are paid to leave us in danger.

A schoolroom full of first graders.

In America, we are never safe. Our right to live in safety has been taken from us. What do you do to prepare? How do you respond to a shooter?

  1. Run.

A church, a service, while saying prayers, while singing hymns. It can happen any where, and if it does move fast.

At the first sign of danger run in tbe opposite direction as fast as you can. Don’t stop. Don’t look back. Run.

We live in a country where our Supreme Court needs to decide if a serial abuser has the right to be armed. Yeah, it’s as stupid as that. Run. It’s too insane to stick around.

2. No Rambo

On a sports field, playing softball on a beautiful summer day. In America, a shooter can turn up suddenly.

Do not engage the shooter. This is not an action movie. You’re not trained. And if even if you think you are, the shooter is not worth your life. They won’t get far. Chances are they won’t survive. Chances are they’ll take their own life.

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Christopher McHale

Chris is the CCO of Studio Jijiji and writes about creativity, culture, technology, music, and writing. www.christophermchale.com, www.studiojijiji.io