I started writing this a couple of months ago after watching the Mosque attack in New Zealand, but never really had the chance to finish it. It was a rambling turd of an article, so I decided to just a make a post which was more to the point. I apologize for the brevity.
A friend of mine had recently attended a seminar about active shooters, and I want to relay some of what he learned as it played out in recent events in New Zealand. The biggest surprise of what he learned was the advice not to play dead. I had heard a lot of people saying things like "Run first, then hide, then fight". To me, playing dead would fit in with the "hide" part of that, but it turns out to be really bad advice. The presenters told my friend that shooters are always looking for the path of least resistance. To that end, they often go back to the rooms to where they've already been and shoot the survivors. They gave specific examples of the Virginia Tech shooter who went back to the same class three times.
When the New Zealand shooting happened, I decided to watch the video. I wanted to see if there were any lessons I could learn from that shooting (since it was recorded) to help me survive if I were to ever find myself in that situation. Even having been told about the phenomenon of shooters returning to the same room, I was surprised to see it play out on the screen. The NZ shooter returned to the same room at least 3 times and continued to shoot into what looked like a pile of bodies. I wonder how many survived the initial shooting. It should also be noted that he left the building and went back to his car to get twice to get other guns.
So if you ever find yourself involved in an active shooter event, please make every effort to get to safety. Don't play dead.