SpyEscape

If you're being held hostage do this: Leave some type of trail so it's easier for the FBI to track you. So, cut your finger and leave blood in the van or in a room. Make yourself puke so you're leaving DNA evidence. Since the kidnappers are likely to move you, you want to make it as easy as possible to rescue you.

Also, do not be a pain in the butt and be submissive. You want the kidnappers to think you're a wimp so they put less security on you and don't watch you as closely, making it easier for you to escape.

Lastly, develop an "illness." Start pretending you're sick so that criminals are more likely to release you and not keep you for long.

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

If you're in a store in the mall and a madman runs in and you are near him, are you going to rush him and save your wife and kid's? Or, are you going to flee and take the chance that he kills all of you?

In an active shooter situation, it depends on where you're at in location to the shooter. But, in many instances, it is best to rush and swarm the shooter. The fact is, when someone bursts into a school and starts shooting, everyone (naturally) runs the other way and that gives the shooter a wide open place to start shooting people in the back. If we trained more people to rush the shooter, many lives would be saved.

The best way to know if you're being followed is to run an SDR (Surveillance Detection Route.) Its what spies run before they go meet someone. In short, instead of going straight from point A to point B, you might go to the gym, then Starbucks, then Walmart, and then to your final destination. If you see the same cars or people at the gym, Starbucks, etc. then you know you're being followed and you would abort your meeting.

I still run SDR's all the time, when I am leaving my office to make sure nobody ever follows me home.