Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

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If you want to increase your chances of survival in a mass murder incident, you need to read this book!

You will learn how to respond if you are caught up in a situation where a disgruntled citizen or a terrorist is trying to kill as many as possible before law enforcement arrives. The advice in this book may save your life. While many of the suggestions are directed at the armed citizen, the book also provides steps you can take if you are unarmed to increase your chances of survival.

The single most important factor in a rapid mass murder incident is time. The average active killer will kill or wound between four and five people a minute. Police reaction time varies from a couple of minutes to maybe half an hour in rural areas. This is why police almost always arrive too late to stop the carnage. The best way to stop these murders is to have someone close to the scene with a gun and the training to use it.

There are more than 12 million citizens in the U.S. who have concealed carry licenses. After the San Bernardino shooting in December 2015, several sheriffs around the country encouraged their residents to arm themselves. They realized their officers are likely to arrive too late. After the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 a movement developed to arm teachers. Two chapters deal with the training that teachers and other school staff have to go through in Ohio. So the book may be useful to educators.

The book also advocates eliminating the so-called "Gun-free" zones because this is where almost all of these killings take place. The book may also be useful to law enforcement because it details the major mass killings that changed police response from "wait for the SWAT team" at Columbine to the first officer on the scene does not wait for backup but goes in immediately. The book describes in detail, many of the major incidents and what we can learn from them. The book has two chapters dealing with the sort of lone wolf attacks we have seen in the U.S. and the sort of strategic attacks we are likely to see in the future.

Chapter Contents

Foreword: Massad Ayoob
Prologue
1. The Texas Tower: The Rise of SWAT
2. Three Shootings: Victims Fight Back
3. Columbine: SWAT is Not the Answer
4. Virginia Tech: Forty-seven Casualties in Eleven Minutes
5. Sandy Hook: The Rise of the Armed Teacher
6. Training the Teachers: The Ohio Experience
7. Advanced Training for Teachers: FASTER II & III
8. ALICE Training: The Unarmed Response
9. Luby's Cafeteria: The Surge of Concealed Carry
10. Churches: Sanctuaries or Killing Zones?
11. Mass Murders Elsewhere: Hospitals, Malls, Theaters, and Offices
12. Rapid Mass Murders: Training to Respond
13. Radical Islamic Jihad: The Threats
14. Radical Islamic Jihad: The Solutions
15. Accepting Reality: The Irregular First Responders

Title: Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage
Subtitle: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away
Author: Chris Bird
ISBN: 978-0-9835901-9-4
Pages: 432
Photographs: 61
Binding: trade paperback, perfect bound, 5½ X 8½
Retail Price: $22.95

Advance Praise for Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage

“In this book, Chris Bird has artfully challenged citizens to prepare themselves to survive a mass killer incident. It’s a challenge that may save your life! Chris effectively recounts real life incidents to show the power that citizens have to react and respond to criminal incidents before law enforcement can arrive. Citizens have a right to not become a victim or crime statistic. Fifty-five years ago my father-in-law, Bud Zielny, protected his family by shooting an intruder. Rather than discourage, law enforcement should encourage citizens to own and be trained in the use of firearms with which they can respond when required to save their life or the life of another. Having been in law enforcement for almost fifty years now, it seems that the nature of crime is more violent while criminals are more aggressive and care less about their victims or life. Chris tells the story of Oklahoma County Reserve Deputy Mark Vaughan who responded with a carbine to an active attacker using a knife to behead one employee and attempting to behead a second employee. Mark Vaughan responded as a trained citizen armed with a gun, neutralized the threat and saved many lives. I believe in our Second Amendment and believe that with the right to keep and bear arms comes the responsibility to educate yourself on the legal use of firearms and regularly train on the firing range to instinctively know how to use a weapon when required to save a life. - Sheriff John Whetsel, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma; Past President, International Association of Chiefs of Police; Past President, Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association

“Every few years a true expert comes along and delivers to America a seminal work on the insidious problem of mass-murder in our schools. With this book, Chris Bird has revealed the problem - and the answer. The threats to our children come in many shapes and sizes: from single and multiple student shooters, to adults and even terrorists. Yet the solution is, in most cases, the same. It is a simple and common sense approach that unfortunately takes the painstakingly expansive research and analysis that Mr. Bird has offered. This book is not only critically important and compelling reading for anyone with children in school or who works in our schools, but for anyone who cares about keeping our most innocent safe from the most vile harm imaginable.” - John Giduck, J.D., M.S.S., PH.D., CHS-V; Author of Terror at Beslan, When Terror Returns, and Shooter Down! The Dramatic Untold Story of the Police Response to the Virginia Tech Massacre.

“For over twenty years, the unthinkable has occurred over and over; the killings of innocent victims to simply achieve a high body count. Sick, deranged and inexcusable are but a few identifiers. Surviving a Mass Murder Rampage, by noted author Chris Bird, provides historical analysis of this phenomena as well as pragmatic approaches. This book is a “must read” if you are at all interested in a factual, well documented understanding of mass shootings.” - Dr. Richard Caster, former Executive Director; National Association of School Resource Officers

“The stories in Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage are well written and factual. Over all it is a good book for the general public to read and heed. We still have no solution to the problem of mass killers other than trained firearms carriers on the scene as well as informed and vigilant members of society who are willing and able to fight back. In this book Chris shows his knowledge gained in three countries and several occupations –soldier, police reporter, sailor, and firearms instructor. He has the knowledge and expertise, now let us hope people have the knowledge to pay attention.” – Jack Dean, retired Texas Ranger Captain and former U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas.

“This is a fantastic piece of work! The time you spent interviewing those involved in each incident has produced a very clear picture of both the killers and their victims’ actions throughout the ordeal. Other than training I have attended wherein the investigating agency presented the incident from start to finish, never before have I been privy to such detail. Ultimately, an intelligent person can only come to one conclusion upon reading this book: Until we return to a nation of God fearing, law abiding citizenry, the potential of being involved in one of these incidents continues to increase, and it is up to each individual to be prepared or to place themselves ignorantly and without defense into harm’s way.” - Sheriff Wayne Rausch, Latah County, home of the University of Idaho.

“This is a very important must read work. It is extremely well researched and will prove invaluable to those charged with determining how to deal with the active-killer issue in their school or place of business. For what it's worth, I think the new training model should involve the Benner style training as well as the ALICE program. Then the people responsible for the security training would be able to develop a combined plan for the armed as well as the unarmed participants. It is also timely as I am hopeful that we might get a new administration that can address this critical issue as adults and not bring their personal views, which are obviously not based on reality or an honest attempt to understand the problem, into the decision-making process.” – Ed Lovette, retired CIA officer and firearms instructor for the New Mexico State Police.

“Having read both of his previous books, it is quite evident that Chris Bird is an excellent in-depth researcher. Surviving A Mass Killer Rampage confirms this. It was my honor to contribute some of my work to the book. In Surviving A Mass Killer Rampage, readers should enjoy interesting factual information, conclusions and valid advice woven into stories in a way that only Chris Bird can do. Readers may easily visualize actually being present at these scenes as Chris unweaves each incident. Speaking of being there, in today’s perilous world, armed or unarmed, readers could very well become what Chris Bird terms as “Irregular First Responders” in many of the locations and predicaments that he shares. Chris Bird makes a perfect case for the freedom envisioned by our forefathers when they gave us “Liberties Teeth”, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. His Surviving A Mass Killer Rampage not only supports your gun rights, he also shares numerous tips, concepts and principles that will give readers reality based practical ideas how to survive a mass killer rampage.” - Ron Borsch, PACT Consultant Group and retired police trainer

“Bird compiles data from many killings and collates them with comments from topic experts. He outlines the training in Texas, Utah and Ohio where armed staff have been part of school response plans for years. The reader is presented with details to really understand what happens and knowledge to formulate a plan that will make those around them safer.” - Alan Gottlieb, author and founder of the Second Amendment Foundation

“Chris Bird is a journalist's journalist! His ability to make sense of today's rampant violence is amazing indeed! This book should be studied by all who are concerned about current trends in world history!” - John S. Farnam, author of The Farnam Method of Defensive Handgunning and president of Defense Training International

“Chris Bird offers many examples of how murderers and terrorists work. They all like unarmed victims. ‘Don't be one’ is an inescapable lesson of Bird's research.” - Larry Pratt, Gun Owners of America

“A book about mass violence, written for the general public. Bird brings the victims stories to life allowing the reader to grasp the personal cost to mass killings. It is an informative book for anyone and a compelling study for school board, school administrators, church leaders, employers and managers who care about their employees.” - Jim Irvine, president of Buckeye Firearms Association

Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

If you want to increase your chances of survival in a mass murder incident, you need to read this book!

Chapter Contents

Advance Praise for Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage

Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage:
When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away