Easy to do when the instructor has a red rubber gun like the pic in the article. Get someone in there with a real AR, loaded with blanks, who's determined not to let anyone grab the barrel, and see how many shots he can get off before all of the victims are cowering under the desks waiting for the coup de grace.

This sort of thing is very sad. My employer, regrettably, has a Victim Disarmament Policy prominently displayed on the building entrance in accordance with MN law - my weapon isn't welcome, permit or not, and carrying would likewise get me fired.

My employer likewise disarms me, and would probably not want to know that I carry a smallish lock-back knife (rule #9). It's small enough to not be considered a concealed weapon.

While I would be forced to become creative with my defense, I would not be defenseless. I'm thinking a fire extinguisher might be useful. And I do have a steel pipe in my office, so there is that.

Perhaps the steel pipe + extinguisher + knitting needle = 1 shot firearm? yeah, that'd probably get me fired...

I think I saw this video linked here in the past, but it may have come from FARK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2tIeRUbRHw

Last Resort ACTIVE SHOOTER SURVIVAL Measures by Alon Stivi

"BIO OF INSTRUCTOR: https://www.actcert.com/about.aspx
Training is by ACT Cert Founder, Mr. Alon Stivi, an internationally recognized expert in counterterrorism, corporate and school security and a combat veteran of the Israeli Special Forces. Mr. Stivi serves as a Terrorism Liaison Officer (TLO) with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Emergency Operations Bureau (EOB) and is a Department of Homeland Security trainer. "

From reading other Internet forums, these techniques seem to be based on Israeli experience and involve having the class/workplace trained and prepared to work together to swarm an active shooter.

involve having the class/workplace trained and prepared to work together to swarm an active shooter

Yes. You always fight the way you train.

Now, which US school (elementary, middle, high school or higher ed) will be willing to train their students in these techniques? I'm going to guess the answer is "few", and those will be private schools. And almost certainly none in the higher ed category.

Head. Sand. Some assembly required.

Have a steak knife. Or two. To eat lunch with.

As Dennis Tueller demonstrated, a thug can succeed in a knife attack if she has a window just 1.5 seconds long.

A knife does not run out of ammunition, and it makes a very large hole.

Steak knives live in the ridiculous hole in reason found in Federal facilities, which ban pocketknives with more than a 3" blade, but have no problem with a foot-long Henckel with a razor edge. It's for steak, you see.

Maybe your employer has such a hole in her policies.

"From reading other Internet forums, these techniques seem to be based on Israeli experience and involve having the class/workplace trained and prepared to work together to swarm an active shooter"

Um, Israel is one of those countries where (long story short) citizens don't generally all have a right to obtain firearms and carry them for self-defense. So if what you say is true, I'd say they're not teaching these methods because they're somehow good methods, but because they're last-resort measures of desperation of a disarmed target audience (and excuse the pun on 'target audience).

I wouldn't work for an employer that didn't let me carry concealed. No job is worth your life.

Hubby carries while working. He works nights, at medical sites where he's often the only one there, setting up MRIs and CT's after hours. Medical sites. That have drugs, and get broken into. Of course he's going to be able to defend himself. He also drives extensively daily, so that's 2 good reasons. Whether his employer or the locations are okay with it...well, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. And if they find out, it's because it saved his life. The job would be secondary then, anyway.

I've never carried at work, don't carry anywhere now that I have little kids-the risk is too great compared to the possible benefit. But I for SURE know how I will get out of any room/building/location, preferably multiple routes. It's just become ingrained in me, it takes no time to do.

Most all public schools (in fact all I know of) are gun free zones usually by law. Bring a firearm on campus can land you in jail.

All my employers have had a no weapons policy.

At my last workplace, we had to cut the birthday cakes with dental floss.
That said, I've operated under the "If ya got it, don't flaunt it" rule of pistol packin' for most of my life. Why fret the gunshy? Why field annoying questions and opinions? It's in my bag with a biometric lock and it's nobody's business.

I've never carried at work, don't carry anywhere now that I have little kids-the risk is too great compared to the possible benefit. -- momof4 at July 15, 2013 5:27 PM

That sounds like the argument against arming teachers. Hell, that sounds like an argument against arming cops that have kids.

Talk to you kids like this. If they're too young use lock boxes. Maybe carry loaded but not locked.

But not exposing them early can lead to hoplophobia, especially when the left, including schools, are banning even images of guns let alone toys and the real thing.

"Um, Israel is one of those countries where (long story short) citizens don't generally all have a right to obtain firearms and carry them for self-defense."

Interesting. This implies you think that a right is granted by government. What do you think our Constitution does?

Israelis don't have a right protected by a Constitution... but look here:

"In 2007, there were estimated to be 500,000 civilian licensed guns in Israel, in addition to 1,757,500 in the military, and 26,040 in the police."

This is out of 7.18 million people that same year - about 32% of the population.

So don't think they are not armed. If that was the case in the USA on that date, that would be about 96 million people armed. Of course, the numbers don't match...

...and of course, since Americans possess perhaps 3/4 of the world's privately-held guns, we are not killing each other willy-nilly. We have a crime problem due to a lack of willpower, not a "gun problem".

I work on an Army base. There is a no-weapons policy for civilians. Except that hunting weapons are OK. But steak knives aren't. All of the tableware in the cafeteria is plastic. But many of the buildings are chock-loaded with explosives and rocket fuels. It's schizo.

Another thing you can do: get wasp killer. Some shoot 15 feet, and a strike to the face will put a person in huge discomfort right away.
Spray aluminum wheel cleaner works, too, but you might have to pump it a few times to prime it. That stuff will put the thug in the hospital.
THINK about this. Defending yourself is MUCH more than buying something and assuming that's enough.

I work on a University Campus. Our governor recently signed a law that said people with CCW permits COULD carry guns on school campuses in our state. The DAY that law went into effect all the staff got an e-mail. Allow me to paraphrase:

"Ok, so we can't prosecute you for bringing reasonable means of self defense (a gun) to work. But we can still FIRE your ass, and we will. Immediately."

People pirate to wet work in telephone poles with cars.

My employer, regrettably, has a Victim Disarmament Policy prominently displayed on the building entrance in accordance with MN law - my weapon isn't welcome, permit or not, and carrying would likewise get me fired

It's cheaper.

If you get killed, well, drat, we gotta advertise for a new position.

But if you were to in any way cause a threat, a negative "work environment" or heavens-to-betsy, in a real life crisis, shoot/wound someone accidentally, the employer is going to be Zimmerman'ed to death in the courts.

They'd rather just deal with 1 minor lawsuit from your estate and tell 'em to eff off.

Any employer that disarms their employees at the door, better have both a metal detector, and an armed guard at the door, if they are serious about a no weapons policy.

They know the chances of a workplace mass shooting are quite small, and this is something their insurance company probably demands.

If I worked in such a place, I would probably carry anyway if I thought there was a real threat. I would at least have a gun in my car, and an escape route pre planned.