This week’s shooting in New York City brought back images we’ve all seen far too often: office workers stacking furniture in front of doors, teachers barricading classrooms, and terrified people huddled together, hoping the gunman wouldn’t find them.

But here’s the truth that nobody wants to hear:
If you had enough time to barricade the door, you had enough time to get out.

Bullets travel through doors. They travel through drywall. They’ll shred through a couch. And hiding in a corner, hoping the danger passes you by, will only make you easier to find—and easier to hit.

An active shooter is just as dangerous as a building fire.

Would you crawl under your desk and hope the fire doesn’t find you? Or would you run for your life?

Run → Hide → Fight: What It Really Means

Military and survival training has always been clear:

• RUN: Put as much time and distance between you and the threat as possible.

• HIDE: If too exhausted or injured to keep running, find temporary concealment to evade detection, while you muster back your strength to keep going.

• FIGHT: If you’re cornered and can’t run or hide, you fight back with everything you have.

But over the years, corporate policies and “preparedness trainings” watered it down to “run to your hiding spot and wait.” That mindset has gotten people killed.

Evacuate vs Shelter in Place

1. If the threat is outside your building: Get inside and lock down.

   • Create as many barriers as possible between you and the danger.

   • Secure the entry points. Stay out of sight.

2. If the threat is inside your building: Get out.

   • Find the closest exit.

   • Break a window if you need to.

   • Put time and distance between you and the threat.

3. If you can’t get out: Hide to evade detection.

   • Choose a spot that’s out of the attacker’s line of sight and provides actual cover (something bullets can’t penetrate).

4. If you’re found: Fight with everything you have.

   • Throw objects, use improvised weapons, disrupt their ability to focus on you.

   • Your goal is to create a window to run.

Accountability vs. Survivability

Most emergency response plans prioritize accountability over survivability. They’re designed to make it easier for police and administrators to manage the situation—not to keep you alive.

Hiding and waiting to be “counted” may check a box for corporate (or school) policies, but it does little for your personal safety. Law enforcement’s first priority is protecting the general public, not individuals, and administrators often follow plans that disrupt police operations as little as possible.

So when you’re told to “shelter in place,” ask yourself: Is this instruction truly for my benefit—or for their convenience?

When your life is on the line, you can’t wait for permission. You have to make the choice that gives you the best chance to live—and that often means running, not waiting.