The statement is false : in an active shooter incident, you should not automatically lie on the ground; the recommended approach is usually “Run, Hide, Fight,” and dropping to the floor is only right in some situations, especially outdoors or when you are already very close to solid cover.

Core guidance: Run, Hide, Fight

Most modern safety trainings in the U.S. and elsewhere teach a three-step priority order:

  • Run : If you can safely escape, your first choice is to get away from the shooter as quickly as possible, using any exits and creating distance.
  • Hide: If escape is not safe, barricade and conceal yourself behind solid cover (thick walls, heavy furniture) and stay quiet with lights off and phones silenced.
  • Fight (last resort): If discovered and in imminent danger, use aggressive force with improvised weapons to disable the attacker and survive.

Dropping flat on the ground immediately can make you a stationary target and may keep you in the shooter’s line of fire instead of moving you to safety.

When lying down can be appropriate

Guidelines do describe dropping to the ground in some specific scenarios, especially if you are caught outside with no immediate escape route.

  • Several university and campus safety guides say that if you are outdoors, you may need to “drop to the ground immediately and lie flat,” then crawl away using walls, vehicles, trees, or other obstacles as cover, and stay down once you reach relative safety.
  • This is meant to lower your profile, reduce the chance of being hit, and let you move from cover to cover if running upright would expose you directly to gunfire.

Even then, the instruction is usually “drop, then move or crawl to cover,” not “drop and stay where you are no matter what.”

Why “immediately lie on the ground” is bad as a blanket rule

Safety experts caution against oversimplified, one-size-fits-all rules like “always lie down” because active shooter situations are highly dynamic.

  • Indoors, lying in the open in a hallway or large room can leave you highly exposed; running to an exit or barricading in a lockable room is usually safer if you can do so without crossing the shooter’s path.
  • Some training materials and analyses explicitly note that “immediately lying on the ground” is not the best universal response and can conflict with the Run–Hide–Fight model, which prioritizes escape and effective cover over simply dropping where you stand.

So the correct way to think about it is: move first toward safety (run or hide behind solid cover); only get low or lie down when it helps protect you in that specific environment.

Practical steps if you’re caught in such an incident

If you ever face such a situation, official guidance from emergency management and campus safety programs generally suggests:

  1. Run if you can:
    • Know your exits ahead of time in crowded places.
    • Leave belongings; keep hands visible to law enforcement as you escape.
  1. If you cannot safely run:
    • Lock and barricade doors, turn off lights, silence phones, spread out, and hide behind substantial cover, staying out of sight from doors and windows.
  1. If outdoors and under immediate fire:
    • Drop low, lie flat, then crawl or move using walls, cars, or other barriers for cover until you reach a safer position, then stay down and wait for instructions.
  1. As a last resort:
    • Work with others to overpower the attacker using speed, surprise, and aggression, and commit fully to stopping the threat.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.