
‘Run, Hide, Fight’ Is Not How Our Brains Work - aaronbrethorst
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/opinion/sunday/run-hide-fight-is-not-how-our-brains-work.html
======
aftbit
I'm tired of the media (NYT in particular) acting like mass shootings are
actually a significant danger in the USA today.

Going back to 2010, there have been 182 fatalities[1] in the United States due
to mass shootings.

In the same amount of time, there have been about 158 fatalities due to being
struck by lightning.[2]

In 2013 alone, there were 611,105 fatalities due to heart disease and 56,979
due to influenza and pneumonia.[3] The stats are a bit out of date, but from
2005-2009, ~3,500 people drowned (in "non-boating accidents") each year.[4]

If you're worried about yourself or a loved one dying, don't worry about dying
in a mass shooting. It's about as likely as being struck by lightning.

[1]: [http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-
shootings-m...](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-
mother-jones-full-data)

[2]:
[http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/fatalities.shtml](http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/fatalities.shtml)

[3]: [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-
death.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm)

[4]: [http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Water-
Safety/wa...](http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Water-
Safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html)

~~~
pacala
You are technically correct. However:

* Fatalities due to being struck by lightning are largely avoidable by educating oneself on how to behave around a lightning storm. [http://hikingdude.com/hiking-lightning.php](http://hikingdude.com/hiking-lightning.php)

* Fatalities due to illnesses occur mostly in old people, after the child bearing years. It's much easier to cope with the death of a parent than it is with the death of a child.

For young people that don't engage in reckless behavior, you have not refuted
that mass shooting are unfortunately a comparatively large risk.

~~~
aftbit
I didn't do quite as much research for this one, but here's CDC's "leading
causes of death" table for 2013.[1]

#1 for 25-34: unintentional injury with 16,209 deaths.

#2 for 25-34: suicide, 6,348 deaths (but if you don't engage in risky
behavior, you wouldn't commit suicide, right?)

#3 for 25-34, homicide, 4,236 deaths - the vast majority of these are _not_ in
mass-shooting incidents, of course.

#4 is cancer (3,673 deaths) and #5 is heart disease (3,258 deaths).

By the way, for felony homicides, the majority (69.1%) are perpetrated against
a single victim[2].

[1] (PDF warning):
[http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/leading_causes_of_deat...](http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/leading_causes_of_death_by_age_group_2013-a.pdf)

[2]: [https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-
the-u.s/2011/...](https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-
the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-4)

------
jdietrich
We don't instruct people on how to leave a burning building, we conduct fire
drills. Skills can only be applied under stress if they are ingrained through
repetitive practice, like a martial artist performing kata.

If we want people to react well in extreme situations, it's not enough to
simply tell them what to do; we must give them practical experience to replace
their instincts with better instincts.

Israel provides this sort of training for their citizens. The question we have
to ask is whether such training would be appropriate for our societies.

~~~
HarryHirsch
You and the NY Times article are offering up the same thing to defend against
active shooters: take personal responsibility for your safety.

But why is it that of all the nations in the civilized world only in the US do
the nutjobs go on armed rampages? Why is the origin of nutcases shooting with
firearms taken as a given? In the article their existence is taken as an
accepted fact; it just talks about how to protect oneself from them.

How about reducing the incidence of people running amok with guns, either by
restricting guns or reducing whatever precipitates the killing spree? I'm
frankly sick of "personal responsibility", it's usually a sign of someone else
failing to do their job.

~~~
cgriswald
> But why is it that of all the nations in the civilized world only in the US
> do the nutjobs go on armed rampages?

I was not aware that Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany,
and company were part of the United States.

> Why is the origin of nutcases shooting with firearms taken as a given? In
> the article their existence is taken as an accepted fact; it just talks
> about how to protect oneself from them.

You've reached a strange conclusion here. Mass shootings (and other types of
mass killings) happpen. Taking responsibility for your personal safety is
simply prudent. You, individually, can probably not prevent all or even one
mass shooting from occuring (perhaps, if you are very lucky, you could stop
ONE mass shooting in your lifetime). You can, however, make sure you are
prepared to keep yourself safe from mass shootings and other dangerous
situations.

The fact is, we haven't taken a serious look at the causes of mass shootings.
It's a difficult problem with no clear solutions.

Gun control advocates muddy the waters further by blaming the attacks on the
availability of guns, even though there is ample evidence that guns only turn
the phrase "mass killing" into the phrase "mass shooting". The term "mass
shooting" itself is largely political. We don't talk about "mass burnings"
when people are killed with arson or "mass poisonings" when people are attack
with poison gas.

~~~
foldr
> there is ample evidence that guns only turn the phrase "mass killing" into
> the phrase "mass shooting".

Not so sure about that. Did you hear about the following? A crazy guy with a
knife might kill or seriously would a handful of people at most. With a gun
the number of deaths is likely to be much higher.

[http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/05/suspect-
custo...](http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/05/suspect-custody-
after-stabbing-leytonstone-london-underground-station)

>We don't talk about "mass burnings" when people are killed with arson or
"mass poisonings" when people are attack with poison gas.

The phrase "mass poisoning" is in fact used, but in accord with the usual
meaning of "poisoning" tends to be restricted to cases where poison was
introduced into food or water. "Mass burning" is not used simply because
English does not typically use the noun "burning" to refer to deaths by
burning.

------
maniacalrobot
In the uk, the police have been using a similar message but with a very
different outcome. Run, hide, tell is the procedure that the police want the
public react in. The idea being is that a coordinated response from the police
is much better than having members of the public attempting to deal with the
situation themselves. Obviously the circumstances are different to the USA as
the vast majority of the public don't have access to weapons, and would not
have the means to fight back. But I do believe this approach is far less
terrorising than asking members of the public to always be prepared to fight

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35140754](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35140754)

------
kev009
Autonomic conditioning. Have a simple playbook in your mind of simple movement
responses.. perhaps side steps, while to decide what to do next and which
direction to go. The goal being to get moving automatically without
"thinking", and then restart the higher order thinking as fast as possible.

------
Radle
Run, Hide, Fight, is true in stress situations.

In normal situations the human mind is a lot more complex. But in stress
situations, it's actually a good description of a humans capabilities.

~~~
an_account
Did you read the article?

