"Run Hide Fight," is an instructional video on how to survive a mass shooting spree by the Alabama Department of Homeland Security. As America waits for Washington to address the gun control debate, more states are providing tips on what to do in the horrific event of a mass shooting spree.

RUN. Hide. Fight. That’s the message from police departments across the US to average Joes who find themselves in the firing line of a mass shooting.

This year, more than 350 gun massacres have rocked neighbourhoods across the US. Since President Barack Obama moved into the Oval Office, there have been three times that many.

To help police deal with the inevitable next attack, departments have taken to educating the public on how to protect themselves. The strategy is simpler than you might think.

Dallas police last week offered tips and tricks to concerned citizens at a library. The sit-in was casual — it included snacks and drinks — but the topics were deadly serious.

“I wish I didn’t have to do this,” officer Dave Wilson told the Dallas Morning News. “But the fact of the matter is we don’t live in the same world I was born in.”

Mr Wilson told roughly 50 attendees that if they find themselves in a siege situation, they should run for the exits in a zig-zag pattern if it’s safe to do so.

If that’s not possible, they should hide. A closet, a storage room, behind a door, anywhere they can find. They should silence their phones and turn out the lights.

If they can’t hide, it’s better to play dead than to plead for their lives, Mr Wilson said. Finally, they should engage the shooter, but only as a final resort.

“Number one: They’re all crazy,” he said. “As far as I know, we get one chance in life and I got stuff I want to do. I’m going to fight.”

In a dramatic video produced by the FBI’s Department of Homeland Security and shown to those in attendance, the narrator explains that “bad people do bad things” and being prepared is a must.

“It may feel like just another day at the office,” he says at the beginning of the video. “But occasionally, life feels more like an action movie than reality. The authorities are working hard to protect you and to protect our public spaces. But sometimes, bad people do bad things ... and unfortunately you need to be prepared for the worst.”

The narrator explains how those in danger can improvise weapons and should act with “physical aggression.”

He adds: “As a last resort, if your life is at risk, whether you’re alone or working together as a group, fight! Act with aggression. Improvise weapons. Disarm him ... and commit to taking the shooter down, no matter what.”

Some people, including John Matthews, the author of Mass Shootings: Six Steps for Survival, say fighting back can be the worst thing to do. “Too many programs are telling citizens to engage the offender and there is absolutely zero research behind that,” he said.

Kaitlin Roig-Debellis didn’t fight when Adam Lanza stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, armed with a number of weapons and determined to take as many lives as possible. Instead, she did the only thing she could do: she hid her students and hoped for the best.

“It was completely unreasonable to think that by hiding in a bathroom we’d survive,” she told news.com.au.

Unreasonable or not, it worked. In her book, Choosing Hope, she describes the decision that saved the lives of a class of terrified five- and six-year-olds.

“First comes the initial blast of gunfire, then the shattering glass. The hair on my arms stands up. I know right away what I’m hearing. Columbine is happening in the place we call Pleasantville. How can it be? Someone with a weapon is shooting their way into our perfect school.

“We are in grave danger, sitting targets. I jump up, run to the door, pull it closed and switch off the lights. I can’t lock the door. My keys are across the room, on top of my desk, and there’s no time to fetch them. If we’re going to live, we have to find a hiding place. Fast.”

Acting quickly, she hid her students in a tiny toilet and waited 45 minutes to be rescued.

Like Sandy Hook, places like Charleston, Isla Vista, Chattanooga, Roseburg, Colorado Springs and San Bernardino were changed forever this year because a shooter or multiple shooters attacked without warning. Being prepared, police say, could help keep other cities from joining an unenviable list.