Wow. This was my exact answer - even the mom part.
Although, I’d probably call a couple of people to have them come to my office first.
Are you going to have the luxury of time to load the shotgun? I would think by the time you realize things are happening, you won’t be having time to sit and shove shells into the gun.
As I was gathering my things before heading to the car two guys walked by me talking about how they were headed over to Cole Hall in the hopes of getting on TV. Sure enough there they were on the news later, talking about what a tragedy this was, how they were worried about their friends, how they wouldn’t feel safe on campus anymore, etc. They must of given their cell number to the reporter because the next night one of them was on the news with his parents, with the parents calling for tougher gun laws, more security, etc.
Nothing beats the guy offering to sell pictures he took on his cell phone before the news folks showed up. These were pictures of the injured being taken out the hall. He was on the news later as well with his pictures.
But I digress.
I submit that not a one of us knows what we would actually do in this situation. Sure one might have a plan of flanking the perp and approaching him in a crouch with one’s eyes at a steady 45 degree angle to his adam’s apple and then targeting the cartilage between his 4th and 5th rib before stabbing in the carotid with an 18 inch acrylic ruler, but I’m pretty sure everyone’s initial reaction would be…
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
After that, I’m thinking, in the extreme case of being suprized with it – that is, you look up and a guy is staring down at you with a loaded and cocked gun, every one of us would do one of two things:
1 - Jump at him in a panic hitting him with everything and anything we could get our hands on.
or
2 - Run away from him in a panic knocking down everything and anything we could in order to get away.
Fight or flight … there’s no avoiding it.
Who knows? Maybe I won’t have the luxury of time to dial 911, or run away.
I work in the basement. If he wants to get into my house, he has to break a window, or a locked door. (Two of them if he comes thru the garage.) I think I would probably hear that.
And if he is armed, and already started shooting, and I am not home alone, then that means he is a serious threat to my wife or daughter.
That means he is going to die, one way or another. If I have to get killed doing it, that is OK. Providing he goes first.
The last, and my favorite line from the movie Sin City.
Regards,
Shodan
Note to self: when planning my workplace killing spree, find some kind of uniform. 
Ever get hosed with a dry chemical fire extinguisher?
It’s like being strangled by the air. It’s horrible. Stupid me showing off in auto shop in high school. 
McDonald’s doesn’t count.
Regards,
Shodan
Ok. Maybe I should reconsider it.
I’m on Prozac. This sorta thing doesn’t bother me.
This was in response to the ‘cornered and unarmed’ supposition asked earlier. I have no training, but if I’m fighting for my life I’ll do any sort of dirty fighting I think might knock the perp off balance for a second (gouging eyes, hitting his mouth with something hard) since I’ll be needing all the time I can get.
What more can you say? If you were trying to kill a madman shooting up your workplace and shot an innocent by mistake, it would be horrible, a tragedy, and maybe something you couldn’t live with yourself after. Maybe that seems flip, but that is a risk I would take if there were definitely people dying inside and I might be able to help. You might accidentially kill someone with your car? That doesn’t keep us from driving to work - and no lives are at stake then.
And I’m guessing you’d be pretty certain to get convicted of something (not sure what) if you re/entered the building to try and kill the gunman and accidentally shot an innocent person.
The legal issues I was alluding to were specifically regarding Ferret Herder’s comments in post 25 where he mentions that it might not be legal to carry the gun depending on where you live. What I was doing a poor job of trying to say, is that anyone who stopped one of these mass killing sprees would be a hero, regardless of what laws they might have broken by having the gun or carrying it where they were not supposed to. Sorry, I see how poorly I worded that as I re-read it.
I have been waiting for this day.
I will try to be a hero and die in the proceeding.
(bolding mine)
I think we should leave that argument out of it. The accident I might get into on my way to work will most probably not be because I really meant to run over a madman with a rifle.
Maybe that’s the answer…go out to your car, and drive it into the building!
Seriously though, I think the argument is valid. If you are hearing the shots and screams and are sure people ARE DYING, then I think very little weight should be given to the hypothetical aspect of I MIGHT KILL (accidentally) an innocent person. Of course there are no statistics to analyze about whether you are more likely to cause a traffic fatality versus causing a death whilst trying to stop a madman, so I’ll grant you the point.
If in the classroom, lock the door and try to make the students get out of the line of fire. Many of them would probably want to get out there and tackle the gunman, though (or film it all on their phones), and they’d probably be bigger and stronger than me, so I’d end up either following them, or locking them out in order to be able to lock the other students in.
That depends on me actually believing it’s a gunman. It’s so unlikely over here that I’d probably assume it was some student letting off firecrackers or somesuch in the corridor.
The best place to hide, if I were in a hallway, would be the lift, because you need a key to call it and I’m only one of two people who has one, plus you can easily make it get stuck between floors.