UPDATED: See the bottom of the post and comments.- NT
From Suarez Intl newsletter, September '07
FROM GABE SUAREZ, SUAREZ INTERNATIONAL U.S.A. Inc.
[Ed. I have removed the political element/rant from this quote, and focused on the points of advice/discussion here]
Tell your kids that if they are at school and hear gunfire or anything like what we are discussing they are to run and get out of the school. If they can't run, to go hide somewhere. Their well-meaning, but tactically-inept, teachers will only be herding them into lockdown so hadji doesn't have to hunt for them. Lockdown is a stupid answer for teachers that don't want to lose control of the classroom. Tough Crap! Tell your kids to disobey. Tell them to violate the rules. Tell them to RUN OR HIDE.
Tell them to draw you a map of the school...according to their perspective. Name the rooms and likely hiding places. Get (or steal) a map of the school at the next PTA meeting. Memorize the layout as well as where you might enter the grounds unseen. Plan your infil and exfil routes accordingly. The traditional response will probably be to contain the place and talk to the terrorists. Rubbish. While the negotiator is jabbering at them to surrender they will be cutting off ears while they pray.
Give the kids a cell phone...keep it charged. School doesn't allow it. Tough crap. Rules are meant to be broken. Teach them that as well! Tell them that if something bad happens they need to call you. Tell them that you WILL come and get them.
The call they place to you (heaven forbid) should include in this order:
1). What happened
2). Where they are hiding...or better where they went once they left the school
3). Possible number of bad guysIf your little darlings can't be taught to do that, drill them until they get it right. This is a world at war now and there is no room for weak kids. Teach strength.
Your plan. Get to the school. Infiltrate and move to the hiding place. Go through anyone that wants to stop you. Grab your kid and exfiltrate the way you came. Did I mention to Kill anyone who wants to stop you on the way out.
Your kit should include enough ammo to overwhelm the terrorist and still have enough to keep up a good fight. This ain't the time for the one magazine, liability-averse, legal eagle CCW stuff. This is aggressive attacking with gunfire. Pistols will still be in order but several high capacity magazines will be mandatory.
If your state disallows hi-caps, travel to a free state and buy them there. Things in your kit should include ammo....lots of ammo. Clothing suitable for infiltration of such a place...perhaps an FBI raid jacket or something like that, and a trauma kit....and bacon for the dead terrorists.
If I worked at a school, I would carry my gun with me. Conceal it well. It is a risk, but I'll bet there are plenty who will be doing just that now. Obeying rules will not help you when they are herding you into the gym for beheading practice.
Gabe Suarez
SUAREZ INTERNATIONAL U.S.A. Inc.
Do you disagree? Why? What's the alternative? Comments welcomed.
UPDATE: I am in NO WAY advocating going Rambo and trying to take down a school shooter yourself. It's not likely that you'd get there in time anyway, but some of the other ideas may have merit, and are worth consideration. Please take a minute and read the comments left by Dojo Rat and me. Also, you can go to the Compliance with a school shooter thread at the Convocation of Combat Arts and discuss it there.
[UPDATE 2008/05/01, 22:14 Eastern] Please check out another post, What can you do about school shootings?, and the CoCA thread - it's a VERY good discussion, including a couple of posters who are in the education field.
4 comments:
I would say US foreign policy is a worse enemy to us than the spectre of Islamic terrorists.
Not one shooting in a school or shopping mall was due to the Islamic bogeyman. Get real.
Furthermore, arming yourself and attempting to get into a school that is under attack to extricate your kid is gonna get you shot by a police SWAT team. What the hell is this guy thinking?
D.R.
There is a real danger of this occurring (not likely due to Islamist or other terror plots), but more likely via a kid with Columbine fantasies, or a parent seeking revenge for a breakup or someone who wants to commit suicide by cop. It's occurred near me several time(recently, one school away from my kids school, where a kid had several firearms and ammo, and it was stopped before being executed) with, thankfully, non-tragic results.
Politics aside, it would be stupid to try to extricate your own kid. If someone in the school followed this guy's advice and was armed, they'd probably get shot by you, or shoot you, thinking you were another bad guy. And if SWAT was on the scene, you wouldn't get into the perimeter without getting arrested or shot anyway. That was stupid. I agree with some of the other ideas. I've always thought the "lockdown" idea of corralling all the students in classrooms with a simple door lock was a way to assist the mass murderers get more kids killed. It does just help the school and police manage where everyone is located, but assuredly leads to more deaths. It's dumb. I would probably advise my kids to get out any way they can, if possible before being caught in a single location. I also agree with them carrying (but not using) a concealed cell phone. If it's confiscated, so what.
Good points.
One point Suarez brings up in passing, with which I do agree, is that there needs to be a ruthless response to these things - he mentions Beslan. Our domestic (US) occurrences have been on a lesser scale, but there's no guarantee something similar couldn't happen here.
Suarez is unhelpful on on several levels. As DR and Nathan have already mentioned it seems focused on Islamic terrorists when the real danger is from disturbed children.
Sadly, Suarez seems to be fomenting fear and hatred as a response to a potential but statistically rare problem. Fear and hatred are unlikely to result in a thoughtful, realistic plan for such an event.
Rather than putting energy into reasonable crisis training with my children (what to do in case of fire, injury, etc.) that includes danger in school and builds simple, reliable themes (like, get help), he advocates preparing for all kinds of illegal activity that would likely result in me endangering innocents. Not to mention winding up dead or in jail, neither result statistically proven to protect kids.
If the schools are the war zone he depicts them to be, justifying such a great expense of time and money in training and equipment it would be illogical, even negligent to send my kids to school at all. It would only make sense to choose to educate my kids at home. Ironically, my wife and I did make that choice (homeschooling) beginning about 6 years ago. But that was because of a different kind of war; a war of the heart.
Post Script: A peaceful, effective solution that Suarez doesn't mention is the common-sense removal of laws that prevent adult, law-abiding citizens with permits to carry weapons in schools. Crazy? It is the fact that schools are gun-free zones that makes them such easy prey and a popular choice for this brand of criminal.
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