You’ve Been Shot
Today’s lesson of the day: you can probably survive being shot (particularly if you do not go into shock unnecessarily) – but if you can avoid being shot, you should probably try that first.
Do this:
You’ve Been Shot
Other than a cranial vault shot, you can survive most wounds if you get focused, get aggressive and eliminate the threat, Valone said. Move to a tactical position, get help on the way, and assess and treat your wounds.
Tactical Positioning
When taking a position of cover, concealment or both, consider whether help will be able to find you, Valone said. And consider any option available — officers have survived by standing behind a pole or lying next to a curb. Valone has his trainees use a fire hydrant in simulation training.
When positioned, check your weapon and do combat breathing to get your heart rate down and clear your tunnel vision, Valone advises. His version is to inhale through your nose for four seconds, hold for four, exhale for four, and cycle through this three times.
Calling for help
Give your location, what happened, a threat description and the resources needed. “It’s basic stuff, but you have to know it inside and out because you won’t be thinking,” Valone said. Self assessment is to look for any additional holes.
Valone advised officers to repeatedly re-evaluate their position and threat, and “Don’t give up until your backup gets there.”
- Expo: Bang! You’ve Been Shot at Officer.com
2009-11-03
… not this:
Retired Army Col. Greg Schannep, an aide to Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, who was on the post to attend a graduation service, told the Fort Hood Sentinel that he heard “three or four volleys of shots, with eight to 12 shots in each volley.”
“Initially, I thought it was a training exercise,” he said. But then, “a soldier came running past me and said, ‘Sir, there is someone shooting.’
“As he ran past me, I saw blood on his back,” Schannep told the base paper. “I don’t think he even knew he had been shot.”
- Gunman kills 12, wounds 31 at Fort Hood
2009-11-05
