Surviving An Active Shooter

In light of recent tragic shootings across the country involving what is often referred to as an 'active shooter', a lot of people have been asking law enforcement if there's anything they can do to protect themselves if they ever come face to face with a gunman. There is and the Minnehaha County Sheriff's office wants you to know about it.

Minnehaha County is promoting a six-minute video produced by Houston's Department of Homeland Security on its website and says it could save your life.

"We're getting a lot of calls from the public," Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead said.

The video offers three simple common sense survival tips: run, hide and fight.  Milstead says having a plan could increase your chances of surviving.  

"Locking yourself in a room.  Being some place where the person wouldn't know you're there.  They're looking for people to shoot," Milstead said.

Milstead encourages people, especially employers and their employees to watch the video, even if they don't think it could ever happen here.

"I think about Aurora.  I think about Columbine.  I think about Sandy Hook and I think there are a lot of places people never thought something would happen," Milstead said.

Milstead says such violent acts can happen almost any place where people gather.

"Nobody can tell you where the next one will be.  I think the day we are living in, there will be another," Milstead said.

And that's why he wants people to take a hard look at the video, so they can arm themselves with information against a person who has armed themselves with weapons.

"I would rather had not had to put something like this on our website, but I think it's responsible to do because people were asking," Milstead said.

Watch the video in its entirety online: Surviving An Active Shooter.