Well said, LawDog. A real man dies on his feet, like the Italian hostage in Iraq over 20 years ago, who refused to kneel while his captors cut his throat. 🫡
Anyway, almost ten years after that event, I was teaching elementary school in Korea, where we would have frequent active shooter exercises. We would cover the hallway wonders, hunker down away from the windows and doorway, and wait for the base security to walk down the hallway, testing to see if the classroom doors were unlocked.
I had one student ask me what I thought would happen if it was real. I told those 5th graders the cold, hard truth. I would probably die because I was old and slow, but if I could get close to the "bad guy," I might be able to save other peoples' lives. I explained what "in loco parentis" meant to me, protecting the lives and health of my students before returning them safely to their parents' care. A lot of sober faces greeted my speech. And I didn't get any complaints from the students' parents.
On another base at another school, we had an active shooter exercise, but this time with blanks and a video camera mounted on the shooter's glasses. Fortunately, the students weren't on campus. The active shooter entered my classroom about seven paces from me, and my initial instinct was the exact opposite of the garbage advice base security had given us: 1. Hide. 2. Run. 3. Fight. In that order.
So, I turned toward the shooter, took two paces, then their trash mental programming kicked in. I jogged out the classroom door into the perfect funnel between two long blocks of cinder block classrooms while the active shooter emptied most of a magazine of blanks. I kept running until told to stop by a young base security officer, thinking what a waste. We never did see that video, which I suspect was due to several factors, one of which was I didn't initially run like a chicken with its head cut off.
TL; DR: Beware of fools giving useless advice. If someone comes at you with intent to kill, fight like the 3rd monkey on the ramp into Noah's Ark. Because you aren't just fighting for yourself. A "bad guy" will harm anyone and anything that catches his attention. Better to die than live with the knowledge that someone died because I wouldn't act.
I made the decision long ago, that if SHTF happens - mass shooter, stabber, arsonist, whatever - and I have the ability to end it, then my life's purpose in that moment is to try and end it as decisively as I can.
Before I carried a firearm on the regular, that might mean tackling them and going "ground and pound" or making sure they hit the concrete head-first, or it might mean pulling out my folding knife and providing a few extra holes. (After I started carrying on the regular, my options became decidedly faster-acting.)
I figure, if it's not my time, my actions will stop the attack. If it is my time, my actions will provide some crucial few moments for others to flee.
I spent 17 years on the street in EMS doing my damnedest to see that people who died - and accepting that they were going to no matter what I did, sometimes - did so in the best condition I could make them, and that nobody did so because they didn't get the help they needed.
Ian, I agree with both you and the current commenters. I doubt that a group or single hijacker, no matter how armed will ever commandeer a US airplane again.
Well said, LawDog. A real man dies on his feet, like the Italian hostage in Iraq over 20 years ago, who refused to kneel while his captors cut his throat. 🫡
Anyway, almost ten years after that event, I was teaching elementary school in Korea, where we would have frequent active shooter exercises. We would cover the hallway wonders, hunker down away from the windows and doorway, and wait for the base security to walk down the hallway, testing to see if the classroom doors were unlocked.
I had one student ask me what I thought would happen if it was real. I told those 5th graders the cold, hard truth. I would probably die because I was old and slow, but if I could get close to the "bad guy," I might be able to save other peoples' lives. I explained what "in loco parentis" meant to me, protecting the lives and health of my students before returning them safely to their parents' care. A lot of sober faces greeted my speech. And I didn't get any complaints from the students' parents.
On another base at another school, we had an active shooter exercise, but this time with blanks and a video camera mounted on the shooter's glasses. Fortunately, the students weren't on campus. The active shooter entered my classroom about seven paces from me, and my initial instinct was the exact opposite of the garbage advice base security had given us: 1. Hide. 2. Run. 3. Fight. In that order.
So, I turned toward the shooter, took two paces, then their trash mental programming kicked in. I jogged out the classroom door into the perfect funnel between two long blocks of cinder block classrooms while the active shooter emptied most of a magazine of blanks. I kept running until told to stop by a young base security officer, thinking what a waste. We never did see that video, which I suspect was due to several factors, one of which was I didn't initially run like a chicken with its head cut off.
TL; DR: Beware of fools giving useless advice. If someone comes at you with intent to kill, fight like the 3rd monkey on the ramp into Noah's Ark. Because you aren't just fighting for yourself. A "bad guy" will harm anyone and anything that catches his attention. Better to die than live with the knowledge that someone died because I wouldn't act.
I made the decision long ago, that if SHTF happens - mass shooter, stabber, arsonist, whatever - and I have the ability to end it, then my life's purpose in that moment is to try and end it as decisively as I can.
Before I carried a firearm on the regular, that might mean tackling them and going "ground and pound" or making sure they hit the concrete head-first, or it might mean pulling out my folding knife and providing a few extra holes. (After I started carrying on the regular, my options became decidedly faster-acting.)
I figure, if it's not my time, my actions will stop the attack. If it is my time, my actions will provide some crucial few moments for others to flee.
I could be satisfied with either outcome.
I spent 17 years on the street in EMS doing my damnedest to see that people who died - and accepting that they were going to no matter what I did, sometimes - did so in the best condition I could make them, and that nobody did so because they didn't get the help they needed.
The coward dies a thousand deaths, the hero dies but once.
L'audace, l'audace, tojours l'audace.
Do you want to live forever?
Ian, I agree with both you and the current commenters. I doubt that a group or single hijacker, no matter how armed will ever commandeer a US airplane again.