A few weeks ago there was an incident in a restaurant in Taunton, Massachusetts, where an assailant went on a stabbing spree, killing one person and injuring several more. The incident, has caused several of my students to question what they should do in such a situation, and even if there is anything they could do if faced with a highly emotional individual stabbing and slashing everyone they come into contact with – it is worth noting that the attacker was in a highly erratic and frenzied state, and their attacks were delivered with full force, and complete commitment; the attacker was looking to kill, not to maim or injure.

The first thing to understand about your reactions, and responses in such situations, is that being attacked as part of a group, is very different to being targeted/assaulted as an individual. Unfortunately, much self-defense training, neglects to cover this particular area, solely focusing on scenarios and situations where an assailant looks to focus all of their intent upon one individual. Most schools will train one-on-one, many-on-one (multiple assailants), but not train one-on-many. A simple drill to check how students might respond in such a scenario, would be to have one student in a class, suddenly start running around, randomly stabbing other students - with a training knife - as they practice drills, techniques, listen to instruction etc. or are otherwise engaged. Some students will stand around confused, some will stand back, others will try to engage individually with the assailant, and some may try and shout ideas and commands to others to get them to assist in controlling the “attacker”. These are the common responses of “trained” individuals, who practice self-defense and the martial arts, and they are all valid responses, however other effective and valid responses are often not considered, because the message that gets promoted in most schools, is that because students have skills and techniques they should always look to get involved. Too often, other ways in which a person can be effective in such a situation aren’t looked at or promoted.

Firstly, you have to be honest with yourself: just because you may be more skilled, than anyone else in the environment, at dealing with an armed assailant, it doesn’t mean that this should be your first thought. If you are in a group that is being attacked, you may save more lives including your own, if you organize an evacuation of the location. Many people in the group will be caught either in a freeze state, where they are paralyzed by fear, or in a state of denial, failing to recognize that they are in imminent danger. You may not be able to save the person who is currently being attacked, but you may be able to save many more, by waking them up to the threat they are facing, and directing them how and where to exit. I’m not saying this will always be the case/situation, but when you are considering your options, you may come to realize that despite having more skills than others in your group, you don’t have enough skills to successfully disable and incapacitate the attacker. You may want to instruct one of the individuals whose exit, you organize to alert the police/security, so that somebody with the necessary skills and attributes to deal with such a situation is made aware of it – don’t trust anyone’s common sense, that they will naturally do this; people in a state of shock need to be told what to do, otherwise they’ll simply assume someone else has already taken responsibility for this.

If you have medical skills, your greatest effect in such a situation may be to administer first aid to those who are wounded and have managed to get out, until the paramedics turn up. The unsung heroes of any battlefield are the medics; the guys who save lives. If you know how to treat and stabilize someone suffering from stab wounds, and reduce blood loss, till the emergency services turn up, you may well save a life. It’s a hard choice between possibly preventing lives being taken (engaging with the attacker), and saving lives – dealing with the effects of their attacks – however it may be one that you have to make at some point, and do so in an honest and realistic way; where are you going to be most effective. There are many more ways to be the “hero” than by being the guy who stopped the assailant. In an active shooter situation – even if you are carrying a firearm – your greatest service, could be dragging those who have been shot and wounded to safety, rather than trying to engage with the shooter. Going into a situation, with only one thought in your mind i.e. engaging with the threat, may see you miss opportunities where you could actually be more effective. It may be hard to “walk away”, when your entire self-defense/martial arts career has been focused on engaging, however disengaging from the assault in order to save lives may be the greatest part/role you can play.

The best way to get students to understand the different options that may be available to them in a situation, and to help them find their own answers as to what they should do in certain situations, is to set up scenario-based training. Create situations, and give people different roles to play, different motives etc. Put people in scenarios and make them think. Let them take decisions and then question them, not because their choice(s) was wrong, but so that they can think of other different ways they may have handled a situation. Let them develop a broad range of options to dealing with violent situations and foster/nurture their creativity when dealing with danger. Engagement may be one of several options available to an individual, and it should be recognized that self-defense/martial arts training by its nature naturally trains people to go down this route. This is why we need to engage in training that looks to develop other ways in which we can/may respond.