Thoughts of a Wild Man Late At Night

Its about 0017 as I begin to pound this post out on my keyboard. My mind is going so there is no sense in even trying to get to sleep.

I'd like to start by offering my condolences to those who lost a friend in the recent events at Virginia Tech, a fellow Senior Military College. May you rise from the ashes stronger.

If you aren't ready for the truth, go away and come back later.

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So the 23 year old English major flipped his wig and decided that it would be a great idea to lay waste to the college that he attended. Wonderful. Other than blaming the shooter, who can we blame? Well, as usual, I'll tell you. First, you can blame the government of Virginia for allowing the students of Virginia Tech to be sacrificial lambs. As with 9/11, had the law-biding citizen students of VTech been allowed to carry firearms to defend themselves, this tragedy could have been avoided or substantially minimized. If you still can't figure out how this would work, you should probably spend the rest of your life confused while licking self adhering stamps at the post office.

Second, we can blame those who designed the most ignorant policy of "stay where you are, lock your doors & stay away from the windows." Well done. Now all the psycho has to do is break one door lock & everyone inside that classroom is a sitting duck. The other flaw with this "plan" became evident when the law enforcement officials discovered that the shooter had chained the doors closed. [Shooter chained the doors closed, popped off some rounds at people & gave the impression that he left. As they then clamored for the doors in the herd mentality, he came back & shot them like fish in a barrel.] The last thing you want to do is keep people contained within the same building as where the danger exists. That would be like telling people who are inside a burning building to go into a room where nothing is burning & just wait it out because the fire won't bother them if they keep the door closed. How do we handle fires? WE GET THE PEOPLE AWAY FROM THE DANGER! We get people out of the building.

Third, I blame every person who enforced this policy and held back others from reacting when they saw what was happening. Just because you are too fearful to defend the defenseless, you shouldn't stop others. Virginia Tech is a Senior Military College, as I stated earlier. I know what kind of person they are capable of producing. I'm sure that at least tens of students were prevented from protecting those who were murdered that day. They didn't have guns; they didn't have body armor. Would some of them have been killed? More than likely, yes. Could they have stopped this deranged English major? Of course. Would they have been able to save at least one person? Without a doubt, yes. There are photos of the students taking the initiative to evac the wounded from inside the buildings because help wasn't coming to them fast enough. I'm sure they would have done more had they been allowed. One person can only shoot so many rounds so fast & reload so quickly. I doubt he could have accurately fired on a target more than 10 meters (30 feet) away.

Fourth, and I hate to do this, but I blame out the situation was handled by the university and by law enforcement. If there is a shooting, you cordon off the area and promptly send in sweeper teams to clean the area. While you are doing this, you can gain intelligence from those attempting to flee the scene (In law enforcement, we would call the screams and direction from which people are running a CLUE). Next, you locate & subdue the threat with whatever means necessary. It should not have taken any more than one and a half hours to clear the building, which is a very liberal estimate. You shouldn't need a reason to think shootings are related to respond! Once the first shots were fired, there should have been a certain, swift & strong response. Granted, the media would have accused the police of "murdering a disgruntled student", but so what? Lives could have been saved. Also, law enforcement does not have the intestinal fortitude to handle these types of situations. If you aren't familiar with the military mindset, this will probably go right over your head, but that's okay. Stick with me. When I watch TV with some of my friends, we are amazed with how fearful "SWAT" teams react to situations. Let's put this in perspective. These guys are wearing more body armor than American soldiers who are down range, they have bullet proof shields & a greater array of weapon systems than most Army infantry platoons. They are only facing one person, in most situations, and how do they react? They don't. They wait for hours upon hours and fearfully stand behind trees and become distraught when they find out the suspect has a bow & arrow with hunting tips inside the house because "that sort of thing can tear straight through our body armor". Boo hooo! Your job to subdue the threat to prevent the further loss of innocent life. Grab some flash bangs, cowboy up, and get in that building & take him out! Maybe the guy carrying the shield won't be able to shoot the suspect with the first three shots from his pistol. I'm sure the next guy in line who has his M-4 on the shoulder of the point man will be able to make the shot. The fact that the first shooting took place at 7AM and the situation was still not contained by 1PM is ridiculous! FIVE HOURS?? The operation to take out Sadaam's sons didn't take that long to execute! This kid only had two pistols, a 9MM & a .22. Both of these calibers would have been easily stopped by 1) the shield & all of their body armor. "We didn't want to harm the suspect." BS! He's already shot, or shot at, at least one person. There is nothing stopping him from doing it again. Besides, that's why you have bean-bag shot guns. I know that dude is dying to use it. There is NO excuse for this kind of time delay.

Fifth, I blame the media. Just the other day they were criticizing the university's president & public safety supervisor for not showing emotion as these events unfolded. That was the best thing those two could have done. They had countless people under them falling apart at the seems. As leaders of that university, it was their JOB to maintain composure. Say your on a plane flying across the country when, suddenly, one of the engines burst into flames. Now, imagine that the flight attendants start balling & slinging snot like 2 year olds. How do you feel? "We're doomed" is running through your head and I'm sure its a little stronger than "doomed". Now, imagine they maintain their composure & reassure you that the pilot is qualified enough to handle this situation and all it will cost you is a delay as they unload your luggage onto another plane after you've safely landed. Fairly contrasting situations, huh? I also blame the media for how they would have reported the incident had the police acted in a strong & decisive manner. I already covered how that headline would read. But there comes a time when you need to more beyond what others are going to say or think & do what you know is right. If your job is to Protect & Serve, by God you better protect & serve to the best of your abilities.

What irks me the most about this whole thing is how much it smells of the same cowardice as the recent shooting at the CNN building in Atlanta, GA, which I wrote about earlier. "Get outta my way, pimpin'." And without a word, Charles moved.

What if someone, even just one person, had stood their ground & said, "No," in either instance? Simple. Someone would have been hugged by their family at least one more time.


Crispy



UPDATE: 18APR2007 @ 0814:
See "Hypothesis and observable evidence" by Vox Day for more information on my first point & a few things I didn't say.