Active Shooter Response: Run, Hide, Fight, and Stop the Bleed (2026)

If a shooting starts where you are, the order is simple: run if you can, hide and barricade if you can't, fight as a last resort. The fourth step runs on a different clock. Once the shooting stops, someone needs to stop the bleeding before help arrives. That is the entire plan, and it is the same plan federal guidance and law enforcement trainers teach civilians, because in most incidents the whole event is over in minutes, often before the first officers reach the scene. The people already there are the first responders.

Why the three-step response exists

The FBI defines an active shooter as someone actively killing or trying to kill people in a populated area. The official civilian guidance, Ready.gov's Run, Hide, Fight, and the ALERRT training that many police departments use (its version is Avoid, Deny, Defend) are the same skeleton in the same order. The order matters: escape beats hiding, hiding beats fighting, and every step buys time while officers work their way to you.

Step 1: Run

If there is any path away from the danger, take it and don't hesitate.

• Leave your belongings. Nothing in your bag is worth a second.
• Keep your hands visible and empty. Officers arriving on scene can't yet tell you from the shooter, and they will be holding guns on everyone who moves.
• Warn people as you go. Pull others along if you safely can, but don't slow down for anyone who won't move.
• Don't stop to film. Call 911 once you're moving, and keep moving once you've called.
• Outside, keep going away from the building and follow police commands. Don't gather in the parking lot. Responders need the area clear.

Step 2: Hide

If you can't get out, deny access to where you are.

• Lock the door. Barricade it with furniture, a cabinet, anything heavy and movable. A locked, blocked door is the strongest single move available to you.
• Turn off the lights. Silence your phone completely, vibration off.
• Get on the floor behind cover, away from doors and windows. A desk or a filing cabinet hides you and may stop a stray round.
• Spread out. Four people clustered in one doorway are one target; spreading across the room makes anyone entering pay for the room.
• Keep quiet. If you use your phone, text with the ringer off.
• If you're in an open area when it starts, get into the nearest room with a door you can lock. Don't settle for a hiding spot out in the open.

Step 3: Fight

Fight only when your life is in immediate danger, and only with total commitment. Half-hearted resistance gets people killed. A full attack disrupts the shooter's control in the exact moment that police need it.

• Improvise. A chair, a fire extinguisher, scissors, the heavy object on the desk.
• Aim for the face, the eyes, the throat.
• Yell. Make yourself the hardest target in the room.
• If there are several of you, move together. A swarm beats one-on-one odds.

You are not trying to win a fair fight. You are creating the second where the shooter isn't in control, and that second is when officers arrive.

When police arrive

Officers treat everyone on scene as a potential threat until proven otherwise. It's how they survive, and it's why the drill exists:

• Drop what you're carrying.
• Keep hands visible and empty, fingers spread.
• No sudden movements. No running toward officers. No reaching for anything.
• Follow shouted commands even when they seem odd.
• Don't grab, hug, or cling to an officer. They will keep moving past you toward the threat.

Step 4: Stop the bleeding

People shot in an arm or a leg don't die instantly. They bleed out while help is on the way, and severe bleeding can kill in under five minutes. A tourniquet stops that clock. The North American Rescue C-A-T Tourniquet (Gen 7) is the one the U.S. military issues: combat-proven, and it works one-handed, which matters if the wounded arm is your own. Place it 2 to 3 inches above the wound, twist the windlass until the bleeding stops, lock it in place, and write the time on the person's forehead. It hurts. That means it's working. The full application details are in our stop the bleeding guide.

For wounds that aren't arterial, flush them with sterile saline, the Saljet Wound Rinse Single-Use Sterile Saline, 12 Pack pods are single-use, so the container never becomes the contamination route, then dress them. This is where a kit earns its place: the Adventure Medical Kits Mountain Series Hiker is compact enough for a daypack and carries wound care plus a field manual, and a First Aid Only 298-Piece All-Purpose Kit is the cheap desk-drawer layer if you want one at work. The whole medical ask is one tourniquet and one kit, plus one practice session: apply the tourniquet to a rolled towel on your own thigh and time yourself. The first application should not be the real one.

If someone stops breathing while you wait, start CPR. Our CPR and choking guide has the steps.

Prepare before it matters

• Know the exits of anywhere you spend time: office, school, mall, place of worship. Two exits, plus where you'd barricade if both are cut.
• Take the training when it's offered. Workplace active-shooter drills build the same muscle memory as fire drills.
• Keep a small kit at your desk, not in your car: tourniquet, gloves, a flashlight.
• Report concerning behavior. Most documented attackers showed warning signs beforehand, and reporting those signs has stopped planned attacks. An anonymous tip that turns out to be nothing costs an hour. A concern you keep quiet can cost lives.
• An intruder at your own front door is a different scenario with a different answer. Our home defense guide covers that one.

The difference between being a witness and being part of the response is three steps and one skill. Run. Hide. Fight. When it's over, stop the bleeding.