D.C. Police Chief: Best Option for Surviving Terrorist Attack Is Being Armed

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: 
COOPER: “According to the FBI, 60 percent of active shooter attacks are over before police ever arrive. So now, law enforcement agencies throughout the country are trying to educate the public on how to survive on their own”
LANIER: “Your options are run, hide, or fight.”
COOPER: “That's what you tell?”
LANIER: “What we tell them is... is the facts of the matter is that most active shooters kill most of the victims in ten minutes or less, and the best police department in the country's going to be about a five- to seven-minute response. I always say if you can get out, getting out's your first option, your best option. If you're in a position to try and take the gunman down, to take the gunman out, it's the best option for saving lives before police can get there. And that's... you know, that's kind of counterintuitive to what cops always tell people, right? We always tell people, "don't... you know, don't take action. Call 9-1-1. Don’t intervene in the robbery," you know. We’ve never told people,  take action. It's a different... this is a different scenario.”
COOPER: “You're telling them that?”
LANIER: “We are. It is important to remember that, as tragic and scary as these active shooter attacks are, it's highly unlikely you'll ever be caught up in one.”
 BRATTON: “You have a very low chance of being a victim of an incident like this. But what we try to do is encourage awareness. The idea is to have an awareness without creating a fear.”
COOPER: “A person's chance of actually having some sort of encounter with an active shooter is, like, one in two million. A person's chance of being hit by lightning is one in 700,000. do you worry about an overreaction, people getting too scared, fearful of something which, in all likelihood, they will never encounter?”
 LANIER: “You can be prepared and you can have a society that is resilient and alert and conscientious and safer without scaring people.”
 COOPER: “You don't want people to be afraid?”
LANIER: “If you educate people on actions they can take to reduce their risk, then you can save some lives. And I think it's... it's irresponsible for us not to do that. I’m not worried about an overreaction. I’m more worried about a numbness to what is potentially a reality.”
 COOPER: “A numbness?”
 LANIER: “Yes.”
COOPER: “How do you mean?”
 LANIER: “Just ignoring it and not preparing yourself.”