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Virginia University Shooting In 2002 Stopped By Armed Citizens
Find out more about two brave souls, and then check out the moronic, “manly” comments of two action-hero obsessed bloggers who think the current students should have done the same thing and fought the gunman…
At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. Handguns aren’t very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can’t hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than I am. And even if hit, a .22 needs to find something important to do real damage—your chances aren’t bad.Yes, yes, I know it’s easy to say these things: but didn’t the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything? As the cliche goes—and like most cliches. It’s true—none of us knows what he’d do in a dire situation like that. I hope, however, that if I thought I was going to die anyway, I’d at least take a run at the guy.
Pathetic.
8 Responses to “Virginia University Shooting In 2002 Stopped By Armed Citizens”
Derbyshire mixes his apples and oranges.
The passengers on Flight 93 had only two choices: giving themselves a chance (however slim) by fighting back (and maybe keeping the plane from being crashed into wherever it was headed), or sitting still.
The students at Tech had a third choice: running. Not only that, there was no guarantee that those who sat were going to die (as was the case for the passengers aboard Flight 93). They might have been wounded, they might have escaped being shot altogether.
Having said this, I think there is something in his post: the hope that people facing death would choose to fight back, no matter how remote their chances were, rather than sitting quietly waiting for their turn in the showers, hoping someone else comes to their rescue.
The ASSHOLE didn’t watch the video posted here yesterday. The report from the pistol firing sounded more like a 9mm instead of a .22caliber pistol. Even at close range a .22 piston is still deadly. These brave Cheetos bloggers…
Not to mention the folks on Flight 93 had some time to collect their thoughts, assess the situation, and decide on a course of action. That plus as mentioned there really was no way to get out of the situation. They were very brave, and perhaps backed into a corner and given more time to do the same I’m sure certain students would have responded likewise. But for those blogger tools to pass judgement on the fight or flight response of those actually there is a very pathetic species of cowardice.
Another point. We have no way of knowing how many of the victims actually did try to rush the guy and simply were gunned down in the process.
The first guy that got killed rushed him.
Did I mentioned he got killed?
I’m glad there are police officers with guns, both on duty and off duty, as you celebrate for bravery here. Now, how is this relevant? Those who focus on one solution to mass murder/suicide, whether it’s gun control or arming everyone or something else, are talking fantasy.
People who are ready to commit suicide and take a whole lot of others with them in their anger are going to do a great deal of damage no matter what. Most of them plan for whatever circumstances laws create to stop them. Carry laws wouldn’t have stopped Charles Whitman in 1966. He killed some heroes that day. As I understand it Whitman actually was sawing off his shotgun when his mailman walked up. Gee, did someone miss his chance to be a hero on that one?
I understand people’s needs to see both the killer and the victims as a different species, calling the former “creep”, “weirdo”, “psycho”, “lunatic”, “asshole” and looking at the victims saying, “I would have been smarter”. It’s all human nature, the urge to combine murder and suicide, the outrage of others against that, the proposals to control all this. If you’re not inclined to look at all of that, I can’t imagine any gun law being an answer to anything except for those who want a false sense of security.
When I first read the silly yet virtually very brave John Derbyshire (NRO’s own “designated chickenhawk,” his quote, not mine) about counting shots and rushing the gunman, I of course immediately thought of the classic line from the “Dirty Harry” movie:
“I know what you’re thinking: ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?.’ To tell the truth, in all the excitement, I kind of lost track myself… you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’
Well do you, Derbyshire? Or are you just… well, NRO’s designated chickenhawk.
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