So here’s the writeup of our third “Hey, here’s how to possibly not die at work!” meeting! Continued from here.

* The people putting this on apologized for not having this meeting right after the shooting, but they had to open for business. Next time they’ll have an immediate debriefing afterwards. (Duh.)
* “We didn’t see many of you because you were hiding so well!” But don’t worry, next time you’ll have plenty of opportunities to see the gunman! Oh, goodie! (I’m really not making up this stuff, this was kinda the attitude they had going on.)
* As you know, the gunman came in on time, immediately went to go find me and my people, then he tried to head over to the other office on the floor, where they had shut down the second they suspected anything going on. We were told he paced back and forth for a bit before heading upstairs, because he couldn’t find anyone on the first floor to shoot. (Go us.) Someone in the other office was all, “We probably wouldn’t have done anything, except we knew it was a drill.” They hear yelling all the time usually.
* Of course, then he hit the second floor. The cops saw very few people running around that floor, and apparently it was only our managers/people that got shot. I found out from my coworkers that the guy actually paced back and forth ranting about his finances for awhile before shooting--which I guess explains ...I don’t know what, really, but I gather at least one of them was mentally stuck in “Let me help!” mode.
* I gather we had a second room of people in a meeting room that heard the shooting and they were able to block and lock the door, and then the cops never came to let them know they could leave. They only found out it was over when one guy’s wife texted him. The ah...smug-ass coworker who told this story--for the record, this is the one that got the job I wanted in our office--took some time to gloat once again that she’s out of our area. And she also said, “Thank you to our colleagues for saving our lives because they died.” I WAS SEETHING. I didn’t think she was a particular jerk before--she’s always seemed like a major introvert/doesn’t suffer fools type but not really mean--but today, I call JERK.
* I gather there was another financial office that had people locked in a vault, and they thought it was over and started coming out... and then came the guy and not everybody made it back into the vault. Oops. You need to stay until the cops let you out--they’ll make a lot of noise, come in a pack, have radios, etc.
* One of the guys putting on the meeting said he shoudln’t have yelled out to a coworker because the shooter could have found them.
* There was discussion of whether or not to pull the fire alarm. On the one hand, a lot of people could get out, on the other hand, that could just make them easy pickins for a shooter and sometimes shooters will pull the fire alarm for that reason. It might work out in a movie theater, but not in one solo building.
* There was some discussion of warning systems, whether or not you’ll know if the phone is off/silent, will you have time to e-mail people (I assume NO).
* If you have to go through the path of the shooter to get to a door, maybe don’t do that. If you can’t tell where he is, then maybe just hide.
* Maybe you should just jump out of the third floor and worry about that broken leg later.
* Apparently someone DID break a window to get out during this thing?! They threw rocks. During the trial run, you did that? What?
* What about saving our clientele from shooters? Uh...they were basically all “you have to make a plan” about that.
* What if the shooter has an accomplice? They usually don’t, those are rare.
* Will a gunman come in quiet or loud? It depends. If it’s a domestic violence asshole he’ll probably come in quiet and head right up to her office.
* Gunfire may or may not go through the door. The cops think it’s rare for anyone to shoot through a door because the shooter WANTS to see an easy target. Lovely. It takes a special kind of round to take out a deadbolt lock, and it ricochets, so...”They really are looking for the path of least resistance.”
* Will the shooter start with the OTHER office on the first floor next time? Well, the next giant shooter event is going to be a practice event for police and fire, and we’re all going to get covered in fake blood (note: my mom has volunteered to do some kind of thing like this, but I don’t know if she’s actually done it. I WOULD NOT CHOOSE TO VOLUNTEER FOR THAT SHIT, but guess what.) and we’re just going to be actors/victims doing whatever they say. FULL BLOWN DRILL.
* How do we warn people without making noise? Use a code word? Don’t yell gun!
* Apparently there are a good chunk of panic buttons in the building and yet they tell my office we can’t ever have one. WTF.
* The glass in the doors inside might be sturdier than you think. Maybe.
* Don’t text 911. Text someone who can e-mail and call cops for you.

Memorable quotes from random people I don’t really know:
* “These are our peeps. I’m not afraid of them!” --I think this guy wasn’t afraid of being shot by the audience today.
* “Uncertainty is so powerful.”
* “You start with WTF and then go to OSM.”
* “No training event ever goes smoothly. What’s smoothly?”
* “Thanks to Will, my hide and seek buddy. He let me in so I didn’t get capped. That was nice.”

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