First, this sounds like an undeniably horrible situation you were in, and I’m sorry you went through it.

But you seem to be claiming that the official story is somehow not true, and I’m skeptical.

It seems to me that I can either believe your story, or the official story. That makes me nervous… while officials definitely lie, there’s no obvious reason for them to do so in this case, and why would they underplay their work that way? Surely they want to exaggerate threats, get a bigger budget, etc?

Even in your story, first there is mass panic and then you heard gunshots. So what caused the initial mass panic?

It seems that the official story is, “Nothing happened,” and you’re saying, “No! Something happened!”

So what exactly did happen? Surely we’d know if someone actually fired shots, yes? No one’s claiming that they saw a shooter, certainly no one was shot.

So what, exactly, are you claiming happened?

It could certainly be that there’s more to this than meeting the eye. But generally, security officials tend to overestimate threats, not underplay them. It’s only natural — it’s their job.

Barring any hard evidence, I really think the official story is more convincing.

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I’m curious — have you ever heard people fire guns around you?

The sound of guns on TV or movies generally sounds very little like real guns fired in real location, which are much less “bang” and much more “pop”.

I’m wondering if someone played a recording of gunshots through a PA…? Thoughts?

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I ran 150 feet, did a running jump over a row of chairs and ran other 20 feet through open doors.

Seems like a bad idea. In another universe, you tripped and broke your neck here. :-(

Sorry to say this, but your response to this seems to be a bad one, and one that endangered your life.

You should never panic; it’s always a bad idea.

(Dire situations might require some depersonalization and loss of control, but “berserk” doesn’t at all mean “panic”.)

This article seems to trying to work out your quite real post-traumatic stress syndrome — and that’s good — but you’re doing it by justifying your panic — and that’s bad.

And yes, I have been in multiple situations where my life was threatened. In one case, I rationally expected I’d be dead in a few seconds, and I survived by a fluke — but I also survived because I completely kept my head, looked around, figured out the correct action, and did it.

Even had I died, I’d have been much happier dying in an empowered, rational state than in fear and panic.

And I suffered zero PTSD as a result — because I felt in control. Later I was in an abusive relationship — I experienced post-trauma symptoms for years, because I felt it was out of my control.

Perceived control is the key! It wasn’t hearing gunshots that left you traumatized — it was the panic itself, because you lost control.

Next time there’s a possible emergency, pause for one second, take a deep breath and try to get as much information as possible. You’ll be glad you did! :-)