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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cignus_pfaccari" data-source="post: 5707760" data-attributes="member: 14557">Most people don't fight.It's rather heavily discouraged in public circumstances, so people don't get used to engaging in any sort of personal combat, so they (a) don't know what to do and (b) aren't mentally prepared to engage in a fight.  (b) is actually more important than (a), I think.  Eventually, you might work yourself up to charge the guy and try and do something, but surprise is a condition that takes a significant amount of time for the untrained to break themselves out of, and by that point you might already have your skull bashed in.  It'll certainly help if you have an idea on what to do beforehand.For example, at my place of employment (call center), we had instructions on what to do in case of an armed intruder, which were to try to flee to a room with a locking door and lock it behind us (...man, that would really suck to have the door closed on you...).  I'd already identified the room that was nearby in our IT department that I'd try and herd my teammates to, which helpfully had a cabinet that several of us could move in front of the door to barricade ourselves in.  Of course, if my colleagues happened to be on the phone at the time, they might not realize the need to flee, so I'd have to take time to let them know what's going on, and that might be enough time for the armed intruder to get near enough to render my plans moot.  Unfortunately, due to a reorganization, instead of the nice set of cube farms, we now are crowded into one cube plantation, with almost no lockable offices available in which to flee.  SFAICT, my best chance is to run for the stairs.  (Note to self:  Pester the office manager for new instructions)And let's say you do work yourself up to charge the armed intruder.  Is anyone else going to?  If you can coordinate these things with a co-worker, you have a much better chance.  However, you may not have an opportunity to coordinate; just because you've broken out of your shock doesn't mean they have, or they may have come to the conclusion that it's best to run and hide rather than fight back.  If you charge the better-equipped and -motivated intruder expecting help and it doesn't show up, you're probably screwed.Another problem is that you don't necessarily have complete information on what's going on.  "Why didn't they charge the person while he was reloading?" gets asked in these situations quite often.  It's entirely possible that nobody's in a place where they can see that in time to make the decision to charge.  Even cube farms can block line of sight and hearing, so you won't be able to have full intelligence about what's going on.  So, you may not even know there's a Disgruntled Armed Intruder until he bashes you in the back of the head with a hammer.Brad</blockquote>

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