Fortunately, I’m far away from all of my co-workers, within earshot of the main entrance (through a wall) but right by an exterior door. I imagine I would run for the fucking hills and call the police if I managed to remember my phone. If not, I’d probably go for the office a few doors over and use their phone. If the shit was going down in the parking lot too, I’d probably hide in the loading dock since I’m not sure how to open that door. There’s a lot of junk back there so hiding wouldn’t be hard. Unless the door was locked, in which case, I’m boned. I’d probably hide in the vacant office which also has a lot of junk in it.
Crying, vomiting, and soiling myself would probably come in at some point. No need to plan for it.
If they came in through the door right by my office, well, I’m fucked, I’m the first person they’re going to see. But the door says “Please use other door” so I’m hoping for the best.
Um…kill the SOB. Go to my car, get my gun and put him down. Cornered without a gun? He’s got to stop to reload or change weapons at some point. I may get shot, but the shooter is losing an eye or most of his front teeth or something for his efforts. I will not go quiet into the night.
-rainy
I’m really surprised nobody else has answered in this way.
I had a vivid dream about this recently so I am pretty sure I know how I would react. My workplace is very large and only has adults around. I would simply take off in a dead sprint to the nearest emergency door which is about 200 feet away. I would then hide in the woods which shouldn’t be hard because they are pretty extensive as well. If I worked in a smaller building, especially with kids or students around, I would be more inclined to fight back.
I suspect legal issues are among the concerns involved. Among other things, I work in Cook County which has banned handguns (unless they were registered prior to 1982) and Illinois has no concealed carry provisions. I also suspect there would be issues with bringing one into a hospital, as I do not drive to work and thus have no car to store it in. So I would risk breaking the law every single day just in case someone shot somebody else in my vicinity, when we have an armed security force to take care of such things.
Not to mention that my lack of skill with guns is such that I would essentially be providing the gunman/gunmen with reason to escalate the violence, and then another weapon.
That depends. Am I addressing some specific grievance with some particular coworkers or am I just frustrated and…oh wait…you didn’t mean we were the crazy gunman?
Well, the problem with my office is that it is pretty much a large, mostly open area full of cubicles, fishbowl conference rooms and glass offices. So there aren’t exactly a whole lot of ways to block off or fortify any sections against a determined attacker.
It’s also sparesly populated, given the square footage, which can work both ways. There won’t be a large panicked crowd to get lost in, on the other hand, a potential shooter would have to spend a lot of time wandering through the maze of cubicles to find targets.
Pretty much my plan is to sneak to the nearest stairwell and let the NYPD handle it.
Working in a hospital so there is actually a shelter-in-place policy and procedure. Lock the door and wait it out. All of the doors are fire rated so they’re basically veneer covered stone slabs, good luck getting through that.
This, except my classroom is floor to ceiling windows and faces the quad. So we’d close the blinds, tip the desks into some sort of defensive wall and huddle behind them until Security calls with the “All clear” notice. Just like it says in the handbook. We ran a full-scale drill a couple of months ago, so the procedure is fairly fresh in my mind.
What bothers me the most about this concept is just how friggin’ easy it would be to pull this off in my building.
It’s a three story corporate dealie out in the 'burbs. We do have a security desk, who’s attendants are responsible for two things: giving shit to the employees who forget their security cards and letting in perfect strangers at random.
My only saving grace is that I’m on the third floor. I would hope the shooting would start before he got up here – then I could plan my hiding/crying/shitting myself spot more time-efficiently.
I work from home. No one else is here. If I were going to start shooting up the place, I think I’d have enough forewarning to be able to hide before I started shooting at me. So I’m good.
Well, I telecommute, and during my workday I’m the only one here. That means that the first one Mr. Crazed Gunman shot would be…me. Looks like I’m screwed.
Unless, of course, he starts shooing the place up while he’s still on the first floor. If that’s the case, the first thing I’d do is grab the house phone, call 911, and drop the receiver – the cops would be on their way shortly. Then I hop out my office window, book across the roof to my adjoining neighbor’s side and start making some roof-to-roof leaps. By the time I was two houses away I think I’d be safe enough to call 911 again, this time from my cell phone, to explain the situation.
Just to lend a little perspective: these kinds of tragic crimes are very, very rare, and you’re far more likely to be killed in an accident during your commute to and fro than by a crazy gunman at work. That said, it happens. I’m no fan of the NRA and our country is unfortunately awash in guns.
I work in a courthouse with lots of armed sheriff’s deputies and city police around just about all the time. Everyone passes through metal detectors to reach the floor(s) where I work. I feel pretty safe, but of course no system is foolproof. If the worst came to the worst, I guess I’d try to hide and call for help either with my cellphone or a landline.
Well it is legal to concealed carry where I live. And I’ll be damned if I’m just going to run away from some terrorist madman whilst hoping none of the people I’ve worked with, talked about our children with, gone to Christmas parties with for the past decade get killed if there is something I can do to stop it. I may be delusional about my chances to live, but I know I couldn’t live with myself after having done nothing.
Escalate the violence? From walking through the building killing randomly?!? What, is he also packing a nuke?
If two of us enter the building armed in retaliation. Well, there might be an unfortunate and ironic end to the tale, but still, I don’t think I could do nothing.
Legal issues? I’d hope any jury in their right minds would acquit even a convicted felon, who wasn’t supposed to even read gun magazines, if he managed to stop some madman from killing a group of innocent people.
Hit the back door like I was Carl Lewis on methamphetamines. Run to the car dealership next door and call the cops. Start bringing .50 Beowulfwith me to work from now on.
As much as people love to provide these examples, it’s far more likely that someone will bring in a gun to shoot an ex-lover who works at the place, or their old boss, or something similar. More of a targeted violence than a “I’m gonna shoot everyone that moves”, and when you’re ducked under a desk, you can’t tell if the gunman will want to pass you by - except that now that you have a gun, you’re going down too.
(We did have an incident at my workplace where someone fired a shot in the office exactly one floor below mine. I didn’t even know there was a problem until hours later, that’s how quickly it was taken care of.)
It’s a whole lot more likely that I’d get busted for transporting a handgun into my workplace daily, than I’d ever have a chance to use it in a fashion that was of any assistance, nevermind whether they’d say after said unlikely shooting “oh by the way, you shouldn’t have that gun in this county and in this workplace, why don’t you step over here…” For me to be able to say in response to this thread “sure, I’d whip out my gun” I’d have to be breaking both the law and my workplace’s regulations on a daily basis.
