Written by Greg Ellifritz The 2022 school shooting in St. Louis has provided an excellent illustration of a fact I have been noting for years. Active killers often have weapon malfunctions during their attack. Read this witness statement: “All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” […]
I’ve written about the phenomenon of active killer attacks for more than two decades. One of the most important themes I’ve identified is the fact that active killers want a large body count and are willing to constantly alter or change their tactics in order to achieve that goal. Yesterday’s mass shooting on a […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz The US Department of Justice recently released a useful new publication titled Active Shooter Incidents: Topical One-Pagers 2000-2018. The publication is an 18-page summary of active shooter statistics for every attack that met the FBI definition between the years 2000 and 2018. It is a valuable reference for anyone who […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz While it the frequency of active killer attacks appears to be increasing, attacks like this aren’t a new phenomenon. The readers might remember Charles Whitman and the Texas Tower incident in the 1960s. People have been killing other people in public places for a very long time. Most people […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Yesterday, I wrote an article about a horrendous active killer attack in Indonesia. In that article, I advised folks not to engage. I postulated that escaping would lead to a far safer outcome. But not all active killer events are the same. Let’s contrast the Indonesian attack with the […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz On the day after Thanksgiving, a man used a rifle and improvised explosives to attack four buildings in downtown Austin, Texas. Amazingly, despite firing approximately 200 rounds in about 10 minutes, he didn’t kill or injure anyone. Because no one was injured (it was 2:30 am), the crime received […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz Last week, the FBI released its most recent research report on active shooters in the United States. The 47-page report is quite informative and worth the time to read. The study looks at a very small and well defined subset of mass shootings. According to the publication: “This is not […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz On Monday night, a resident of Ross Twp. Pennsylvania shot up a board of supervisors meeting at the township municipal building. The shooter was allegedly angry about the enforcement of some zoning regulations. Three people were killed and three more were injured. The shooting had some elements that […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz There have been remarkably few definitive references written about Active Shooter incidents. There have been numerous books that describe particular incidents, but there aren’t many that tie all the trends together and present viable guidelines for responders. Fortunately, a recently published book is filling in some of the gaps. […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Force Science Research Institute regularly sends out excellent research-based newsletters. They post the newsletters on their site, but usually are several issues behind. I highly recommend that you subscribe to their newsletter so that you can get the latest updates. Last week’s newsletter included an […]
By Greg Ellifritz I’m borrowing the “aborted” terminology from my friend Ron Borsch who has done more research on rapid mass murderers than anyone in history. What we are talking about is when a shooter plans to kill and his plan is interrupted. I don’t know if this event would match the strict definition (as […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz In yesterday’s article I wrote about terrorist plans to combine bombing with active shooter teams in order to more effectively target Western tourists in Indonesia. More specifically, I wrote about terrorist plans to detonate a bomb at the local police station to serve as a distraction before they shot up […]
Most of the Active Shooters who are physically stopped during the commission of their crimes are stopped by courageous citizens, not the police. Often those events are not well publicized in the media. The trend continued with a shooting in Louisville, Kentucky last Thursday evening. A man who was angry at his homeowner’s […]
In the past couple weeks there have been numerous media reports about “active shooter” events all around the country. Almost any time multiple victims are shot, it seems that the media is quick to report that it was an “active shooter”. We’ve certainly had a couple of legitimate active shooters in the last month, […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Because I was out of the country when this event occurred, I am a little late in providing my advice and analysis. I’ve written quite a number of articles describing how active shooters think and what potential victims should be doing. I won’t rehash all of that information here. I’ll […]
Active shooter events are not strictly an American phenomenon. They happen worldwide. The most recent was last night in a Toronto Canada shopping mall. An unknown man in the food court shot approximately 15 bullets from a handgun, killing one person and injuring seven others. There isn’t a whole lot of information available […]
Anders Breivik was the guy who killed 77 people (mostly children) in Norway last July. He is currently on trial for his murderous rampage. Although the US media coverage of the trial has been virtually non- existent, other nations are reporting new details about the shooting. Take a look at these two articles: From “Russia […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz A lot of folks write to me wanting to know what tactics and strategies will help them prevail should they be present during an active killer attack in a public place. I’ve been writing about the topic for almost two decades. Other folks have been studying the problem for […]
I spent last weekend in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio going to a couple of concerts and visiting with friends. While I was there, the local news reported a “mass shooting” late Saturday night just a few miles away from where I had been out with friends. 10 people shot in the Short North; […]
I just finished the book Be a Hero. It was a very good book, full of useful information about how to successfully survive an active killer attack. There was one section, however, with which I profoundly disagree. The authors talk about setting off fire alarms, breaking bottles full of slippery liquids in hallways, and […]
