Written by Greg Ellifritz We know that active killers frequently have to reload or clear gun malfunctions. When the killer is preoccupied with the task of making his gun work again, it provides an opportunity for victims to either escape or to attack. A friend of mine with limited gun knowledge asked me […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I’ve been thinking a lot lately about active killer events. I’m convinced that it is getting incrementally more and more dangerous to intervene in such an attack. A study came out last week stating that 8% of Americans have a CCW permit/license. Unlicensed carry is also completely legal in 24 states. […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz I’ve taught a lot of active killer response classes over the years. One of the key learning points I regularly discuss is how to avoid being mistaken for the killer if you choose to draw your pistol and respond during an active killer event. Last year’s police shooting of Johnny […]
* This is a guest post from my friend Ed Monk. Ed has done the math on this problem and is one of the world’s leading authorities on active killers. The faster we can stop the killer, the fewer bodies we will have. Read his post below for the exact mathematical details. Having armed security […]
Just a short post today to share a few of my most recent thoughts on how best to respond if you are caught up in an active killer attack. The Washington DC sniper attack last week got me thinking quite a bit about things. If you haven’t seen news about the attack, read the […]
I haven’t written a new Tactical Training Scenario post in quite a while. I missed providing quality analysis of real-life criminal attacks and giving you folks good advice about how best to avoid or survive those attacks. The idea of this series of posts (see Tactical Training Scenarios links to other similar articles) is to […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I’ve known for a long time that the words we use when coaching a shooting student can affect how quickly that student grasps a certain concept. One important concept I’ve used over the years is to express all of my coaching cues as positive statements. If you […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz In Colorado last week, an active killer shot a police officer and then began to fire his shotgun at other targets in the crowded downtown area. After running out of ammo, the killer then went to his vehicle and swapped his shotgun out for an AR-15 rifle and continued firing. […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz As the nation continues to cry out for police reform and the creation of a kinder/gentler law enforcement presence, school safety drills are being increasingly criticized and abandoned. After Columbine and several other high visibility school shootings, the public clamored for more cops in schools. They demanded emergency preparation drills. Now […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz You are probably watching the news about the frequent protests about policing in the United States. Police stations across the country are being attacked and looted. Officers are being injured and killed. Rioters took over a Minneapolis police substation. Rioters also took over the Seattle East Precinct police station after […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz A short post today containing my observations about two recent active killer attacks. The first was an attack on a police station in Vermont. In that case, a man (who had likely just murdered someone) drove up to the front door of a local police station at 5:30 am. […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz You can prevail against an active killer even if you are unarmed. One of the most famous cases where unarmed men stopped an active killer was on a train traveling between Amsterdam and Paris a few years ago. Four unarmed Americans and one unarmed Brit teamed up to take […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I found a couple articles yesterday that I would like to share and comment upon. Both articles cover some behavioral characteristics two recent active killers displayed before their attack. The first one is about the active killer in Dayton. Surveillance Video Shows Shooter Preparing to Carry Out Mass […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz An article on the Bearing Arms website caused a bit of controversy. Check out HARSH REALITY: Police Are Not Highly Trained Firearms Experts. The article essentially describes how most police officers simply aren’t very good shooters or tacticians. A lot of folks who have never been shooting with cops would […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz On Tuesday, a man shot up a restaurant in San Diego. He fired through the windows from outside the restaurant. Although he fired approximately 20 rounds out of an AR-15 rifle, miraculously none of the nine restaurant patrons were hit. The gun was recovered and the suspect was arrested a […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Cops have dramatically changed the way they handle active killer attacks in the last two decades. It may be time for yet another fundamental change in police response tactics. I was reviewing some of the recent articles about the Borderland Bar shooting in California. During that shooting, the killer […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz Last week I was reading a forum post about the utility of the flanking maneuver in a battlefield context. Flanking is a critical battle strategy and even the greenest of soldiers understands its importance. Yet the idea is generally not taught in a law enforcement context. Ask a cop […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Last week, the FBI posted their study of the Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters in the United States from 2000-2013. The study is 30 pages long and well worth the time to read if you are interested in the subject matter. This study is different from others because the FBI […]
This is a guest post by my friend Ron Borsch, a retired police officer and trainer. Ron is one of the most notable researchers in the “active killer” field and shares his thoughts on the issue. In this piece, he discusses the multitude of motivations an active killer might have and shares his research […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Everyone is talking about the latest school shooting and looking for solutions. I’ve been writing about how to solve this problem for more than a decade. It isn’t easy. While the ultimate solution will be found in prevention efforts, those efforts are both difficult to institute and costly. While […]
