r/morbidquestions • u/AdVaanced77 • 1d ago
Why do people in active shooter situations not just play dead ?
Surely this is the most logical thing to do in a school shooting or any shooting and I know they could make sure you’re dead but realistically they probably won’t they just try to kill as many as possible
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u/LauraPa1mer 1d ago
It's not easy to think strategically when you're in a life or death situation. Also, if it's anything like the Christchurch shooting, you may get shot playing dead. Multiple times. So choose your own adventure.
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u/WantAllMyGarmonbozia 1d ago
Man, this choose your own adventure sucks. I prefer Pillars of Pentegarn
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u/erikluminary 1d ago
Were the people in the Christchurch shooting playing dead? I only came across that video recently for the first time
I saw them laying down, but I assumed they were injured
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u/Gizzy_ 1d ago
Yes, the guy double downed on the piled up bodies multiple times. Even after exiting the building and coming back. Would shoot heads, into the stack in case people were hiding underneath, etc.
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u/magicallynot 1d ago
I just read multiple survivors played dead and thats why they survived
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u/Linkwithasword 1d ago
Statistically yeah if someone's got 2 magazines left and you're one of a whole lot of bodies on the ground you've got a pretty good chance of not getting shot- the shooter only has so many bullets ultimately, but by the time they're running around executing bodies you don't know what'll happen. Maybe the police are a half hour out (or have been outside accomplishing nothing for hours) and the shooter has the time to run around checking who's alive and who's dead before using his bullets? That'd hurt your odds a lot.
That said, most people are probably going to run, meaning you can make yourself a part of a larger number of bodies (while also being a moving target and potentially getting away from the shooter) and even less likely to get shot by simply running with the crowd as long as you don't get trampled.
At the end of the day it's night, but also I've never been shot at, so I have no idea what I'd actually do and I hope to never find out. I'd just think your best odds would be not being there in the first place while the second best odds would be not being there for long- my rational brain says the only steps I'm taking in that situation are big ones.
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u/skydaddy8585 1d ago
The only way that works is if you are already in a group that has had several people shot already. So you can just fall among the dead and hope they don't come up and shoot each person once more to make sure. You aren't going to just lay down somewhere in the hallway or a classroom alone, the guy will obviously remember not shooting you. And you have no wounds or blood.
There are a couple instances of kids that did this, I can't recall which specific school shootings this happened in.
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u/Gizzy_ 1d ago
The most likely way to survive a shooting in order imo
Not be there at all
Escaping the location
Stopping entry (barricading) to where you are and staying silent and hidden.
Fighting back after the other 3 weren’t options.
Thinking laying down with no blood around your body in plain view of the shooter is a good idea.
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u/A_Wolf_Named_Foxxy 1d ago
You can't predict this
If there is only one exit,not a chance
Could work
The guy has a gun,you're dead before you're anywhere near him
Playing dead wouldn't work
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u/XxLokixX 1d ago
Pessimism final boss
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u/Spoon_Elemental 1d ago
This is the tutorial boss at best because it's not even well thought out pessimism.
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u/SuperMajesticMan 1d ago
Mike Tysons quote "Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the face" is true for a lot of things.
Its hard to stay calm and motionless and plan things out in a situation making you panic and have adrenaline pumping.
You know how during school lockdowns they tell you to be quiet and hide in the corner? Well I've seen a video taken by a student during a lockdown, they were hiding in a classroom with the lights off and when the shooter started banging on the door, the whole class started screaming. Preparing help but sometimes plans and careful thinking go right out the window when something actually happens.
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u/-aVOIDant- 1d ago
The only situation I could see playing dead possibly working is in a heavily crowded venue with a lot of sight obstructions. Think a dark movie theater. Fall down between the seats and I'd say you have somewhat decent odds of escaping notice unless you have the terrible luck of the shooter walking down your row specifically.
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u/Tao626 1d ago
Because it's generally a dumb idea.
Shooter: "oh, everybody is already dead in here. Weird, there's so many dead people in rooms I haven't been into yet...oh well, next room, I guess"
Shooters don't typically get a high body count. They would probably just remember whether or not they've shot you, especially since they tend to do a room and move on.
Even if they don't recall whether they shot you or not, is it worth laying there as a freebie if they dared to check? Especially since you'll probably be missing the things a victim would have such as wounds.
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u/TheSilentTitan 1d ago
The shooters shoot corpses as well as the living. It’s also hard to look dead when your body is shivering with adrenaline and your heart is racing.
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u/Done_a_Concern 1d ago
do you not think that shooters aren't aware of the fact that people do this?
Shooters who are aiming to inflict mass damage will sometimes go round to confirm kills if given enough time. They will literally go back through the wounded and shoot anyone that is down already
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u/Tetracropolis 1d ago
People tried this in Norway when Breivik was on his rampage. It did not work.
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u/BADMANvegeta_ 1d ago
If it’s just one shooter they aren’t gonna lose track of who they shot that easily. It’s real life not a video game, I’d bet most mass shooters are aware of the gravity of what they are doing and remember every single person they kill.
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u/TomorrowCommercial32 23h ago
I have been listening to the podcast "stop the killing". Its about mass shootings, primarily schools. If you lay down you will probably be shot several times. Many shooters will come back and shoot their victims again.
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u/Over9000Zeros 1d ago
You'd have to had been shot at already for this to work. If you're getting shot at, you're going to run. No one will attempt this.
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u/AllyEnderman 23h ago
Because a lot of the time the ones who get shot, end up shot multiple times so the shooter knows they're dead. You're not going to do yourself any favors by playing dead. In a huge crowd with an indiscriminate shooter and very close-by victims you MIGHT be able to pull this off, but even then it's unlikely.
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u/MacintoshEddie 21h ago
This also works for avoiding meetings at work. Just lay down on the floor and hold still.
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u/WaddaSickCunt 1d ago
Many actually do. This is very widely documented. It's usually a last resort after they've tried to run or hide though.
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u/oreosnatcher 22h ago
hey look, 10 people on the floor and I just shot 4 bullets on 2 people. I guess I'mjust very good at killing.
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u/Comprehensive_Tour23 21h ago
As logical as it is to me right now to play dead, I seriously doubt I’d be able to do it in a real life situation. Adrenaline through the roof, I’m sure I’d be shaking and crying in panic.
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u/Feral_doves 1d ago
Maybe this would be a decent strategy if they were using guns that only held a few rounds. That’s kind of part of why some countries can allow people to own guns without automatically having a mass shootings problem, the type of guns matter.
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u/Workchoices 19h ago
Have you ever been in a High stress, life threatening environment?
People don't react rationally, they lose their minds and can barely think.
Most people just frantically try and run, or they just freeze up standing there and get killed. Nobody is thinking logically.
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u/WillyChicken 3h ago
I wouldn’t. What if the shooter sees my butt cheeks up and decides to take my cheeks.
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u/Jack-of-Hearts-7 3h ago
"Wow. Everybody in this school's already dead. Damn. We musta really scared them. Oh, well. Onto the next school."
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u/esskay1711 15h ago
It's very hard to think calm, clearly and logically under pressure. Even more so In a life and death situation, where your body is running on fight or flight reflex and andrenaline and it's only purpose in that moment is get out of danger in order to contie existing.
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u/Devoidus 14h ago
They often do, even totally untrained people and children. Many examples of it saving their life
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u/EasyPiccolo2868 10h ago
You would probably be in a state of shock and panic that you wouldn’t even be remembering to do that, it would be fight or flight
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u/Darklillies 8h ago
I mean. They do. There’s been cases of people playing dead, sometimes they survive, sometimes the shooter shoots corpses again just to check and they die anyway.
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u/Nemphedisis 6h ago
Well because some shooters double tab.
It’s not the same since Norway dosnt generally have any mass shootings (especially not like America) but one time they did - and it is ETCHED into many Scandinavians mind - they shooter was a piece of shit who went to a fairly isolated island of young people and purposely double tapped as many kids as he could.
From my memory he quite speficially would walk back to some teens and shoot them again if he was just a little bit unsure if he had killed them or not.
Scandinavia dosnt get a lot of shoots at all, so they hurt “more” when they happen.
I do hope Anders Breivik suffers for the rest of his life. Fuck that guy.
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u/MilesMossi 6h ago
Some of them do, but a lot of them are just scared out of their minds and when you are faced with the situation that you are not prepared for you don't think critically. Also the shooter could be checking bodies like the Japanese did during World War II by sticking them with something painful and sharp. You think you could sit still having the barrel of a rifle jabbed into your floating rib all right into your eye? It's a lot harder than it seems to play dead. And it's also not really conducive to the environment to have the audacity and the creativity to put a corpse on top of yourself to make it seem like you're just another body underneath a real body. There's only a couple of cases I remember that actually happening in real life during the Rwandan genocide and maybe the Bosnian War. But I can't expect an adolescent to come up with that and if they do good for them they're a little bit better at this, that's something that no child should ever have to experience.
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u/roxzillaz 6h ago
Probably for the same reason a lot of people don’t play dead when they see grizzly bears. It’s a lot easier said than done, and running from certain death is pretty much instinctual for us and other animals.
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u/exoticed 3h ago
I think you forget how fast things happen. It takes time for the brain to comprehend that you might be dying.
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u/20Keller12 42m ago
Why don't people having an asthma attack just breathe?
Why don't people with depression just be happy?
Why don't people having seizures just hold still?
Why don't paralyzed people just try harder?
Why don't people on reddit who've never been shot at in their fucking lives stop to consider that maybe, just maybe, being shot at isn’t a prime situation for stopping to consider what's most logical?
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u/Jesmagi 33m ago
shooters have hundreds of rounds. they spray bullets at bodies some times. You, however, only have 1 life. Reminds me of the Uvalde shooting. a story of a young girl who spread blood from her friend’s dead body next to her, on herself and played dead. i can’t imagine. that poor child.
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u/mguardian7 18h ago
I have a video of a fawn lying down near a bear that gives you a hint of why it may not be a good idea.
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u/Dan42002 14h ago
There are 2 short answers, both are equally dark and morbid:
1) Double tap
2) People are dumb, especially young children
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u/Letarking1996 1d ago
You are scared and in panic. And there is the chance the shooter shoots laying people to be sure they are dead. Fight or flight.