Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Come on, punk. Make...my...day!


Yes, the massacre in Orlando was truly tragic, but the knee jerk reactions coming out of this sad affair are just getting ridiculous.

"A few good guys with guns inside that night club could have ended it really fast!"  Umm....easier said than done.  The right person, with the right training, positioned in just the right place, might have been able to stop it.  But the odds of all those stars lining up juuuust right are somewhere between slim and none.

First of all, when faced with the threat of imminent death, and with bullets flying, otherwise brilliant people will suddenly display the IQ of a gerbil.  Panic trumps clear thinking.  And despite what you see on TV and in the movies, it is extremely difficult to accurately shoot a defensive handgun past 25 yards.  

Unless you've received intensive training and have nerves of steel, and with adrenaline pumping, thinking you can pull your gun and pop a cap in a bad guy to become an instant hero is simply delusional.  And who could ever think allowing guns in bars could be a good thing?

"More gun control!"  Call me skeptical.  A dedicated jihadist/crazed person will get a gun, laws be damned.  With enough guns of all types, including millions of "assault rifles", already out there to arm every man, woman, and child in America, I'm afraid that genie can not be squeezed back into the bottle.  

Gun control might sound like a proactive, commendable thing, but I think it would be a futile effort, unlikely to stop those we want stopped.  I would rather see us concentrate our efforts on getting guns out of the hands of felons who are already prohibited from having them (but do anyway), and keeping guns out of the hands of those who have demonstrated they are too mentally troubled to have them.

"Ban Muslims from coming to America."  Too late, folks.  There are already approximately 3.3 million Muslims living in America right now, many of them born here.  They are the ones being radicalized/recruited by ISIS and others to attack us.  Thoroughly vett all new immigrants, of course, but lets not think that will be some magic fix.

"No fly, no buy!"  Yes, it does seem ironic that we can prohibit someone (on a watch list) from getting on an airliner, but we can't stop them from buying a gun.  That's because no one has a constitutional right to fly, but (to the consternation of some) most of us do have the constitutional right to buy a gun.  To get on a "no fly" watch list could require little more than an anonymous call to the FBI saying someone was up to no good.  Isn't that what the German people were urged to do by the Nazis....spy/report on their neighbors?  Yes, do watch out for things out of order, but that in itself doesn't constitute guilt.  Lets not crawl into that gutter, OK?

So what should we do to be safe?  Just stay home?  Just pull the curtains closed and cower?  Oh HELL NO!  If we do that, they win!

I say go about your business.  Go to work, to school, shopping, out for dinner, etc, but pull your head out of your arse and pay attention to what's going on around you.  

Don't walk down the street texting on your iPhone or reading email.  Bad guys don't just pull rifles out of their pants pockets.  If you see someone walking down the street trying to be discreet about the AR-15 at their side, or walking with a gun visible across a parking lot towards a mall or a business, run, call 911, yell.

When you go into a restaurant, theater, auditorium, etc, pay attention to where the exits are.  Know in advance where your escape routes are if it all hits the fan.  I don't mean you need to become all paranoid about everyday life, but be calmly aware of your options, just like you (should) be aware of where the exit doors are on your airline flight to visit grandma.

The old thinking was that in such dire circumstances you should "run, hide, fight"....run away if you can, hide if you can't, and as a last resort, fight.  Now the experts are advising us to either run or fight.  Trying to hide, especially in a place with only one way in/out, isn't likely to fool a gunman.  Most hiding places, such as public restrooms, are dead ends.  And if you are able to run, and get out in the open, run low and left.

They say if you can't run, position yourself so that when/if the door is kicked in, a mob can instantly gang tackle the bad guy.  In the time it would take you to close 8 feet, for example, a shooter is unlikely to be able to see what is happening, react, and swing his gun around.  Although it sounds counter-intuitive, running towards a gun can make sense....if you have the presence of mind to do it.

And yes, if you are licensed to legally carry a firearm, do so, but don't think this will provide some sort of impenetrable protective bubble around you.  Know its/your limitations.

If you repeatedly do these things every day, everywhere you go, you should be able to react instinctively in an emergency, without having to think about it.  Lets not make things more difficult than they need to be.  KISS*

S

*Keep It Simple, Stupid







16 comments:

  1. There is no quick fix. Banning or severely restricting assault weapons is a good start. Yes there are zillions out there, but most are and will remain in the hands of non-violent people and will stay out of circulation. It might take 5-10 years, but at some point access to these guns would start to be very difficult.

    Yes we have millions of Muslims in the country. The vast majority are peaceable and no threat, but I'm not so sure about the many trying to come in from the mid-east, most are legitimate, many may be plants looking for mayhem...lets try and sort them out very carefully. Accept that most threats today are in the Muslim community. We need to seek the communities help along with plants and increased surveillance, much like has been done in a mostly successful effort to stop organized crime.

    I'm sure much of this is currently being done, maybe it could be done better. Hey, that's all I've got, what the hell do I know.

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    1. Yes, long term some sort of gun control might yield some results, but I'd rather see us spend our time going after those who are already technically prohibited from having guns...felons for example, and building a data base of those who have demonstrated the mental instability required to have a gun. Your second paragraph, agreed. Vett carefully.

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  2. For many years I have become more of a crowd watcher. Paranoia, maybe, proactive, yes.

    Some things happen too fast for anyone to do anything such as in Christina Grimmie's murder the night before in Orlando. She opened up her arms to hug a fan and he shot her. Her brother then tackled him. Some said the gunman had acted nervous. Ifs, and what ifs haunt us all. Had I decided to go see her in Orlando instead of California as I had planned could I have done something. Had the gunman had a second of hesitation.....

    History shows that humans are violent by nature and no amount of Civilization will wipe that out. Vigilance, preparedness and luck are our best defense.

    Final note. Going back to history again. How well did changing the constitution to enact Prohibition work out....That's what I thought.

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  3. Good advice. Lately, I've been looking around more and checking for exits in case I need to get away quickly.

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  4. My god, what have we, and the world, become? I've spent a life in science, working on evidence-based data to make decisions, and life has stopped being coherent to to me; what I see in the world makes no sense.
    My advise that I've given to my children now, instead of being happy and doing good in the world, is to always have negotiable assets on hand, keep your passport current, and have a plan "A" that involves living in a different country.
    It appears that my generation, and the one before it (despite it's nickname of 'The Greatest Generation" have a lot to answer for.

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    1. Agreed, the world makes little sense sometimes today. Your advice to your kids is certainly pessimistic, but sadly realistic. Just curious...what do you consider "negotiable assets"? Precious metals? Anything else? And which other country would you consider escaping to if it all hit the fan? Canada? Australia? I'm thinking most of modern Europe is in the toilet at least as deep as we are, and Africa and South America are pretty much dysfunctional, too. Bhutan, "the happiest country on earth"?

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  5. That argument, "They'll get guns anyway, so why bother with gun control?" is so dumb. Maybe they will, but why does that mean we should make it so easy they can just go to a store and buy one easier than buying a car or house? I own a gun now and it was incredibly easy. The biggest obstacle was standing in line to wait for my number to come up. (Seriously, we sell guns like steaks.)

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    1. OMG, I agree with Pat for like the second time ever!

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    2. Joe agrees with Pat? What is that ticking sound I hear? Is the end near? Maybe we should all hold hands and sing Kumbaya. :)

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  6. The first thing that needs to be done is to reverse District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010). Both wrongly decided 5-4 decisions. The NRA and gun fanatics parse the Second Amendment, disregarding the "well regulated militia" clause. The military has a use and purpose for assault weapons, not everyone. Even the crazies that want to form a militia today clearly can be regulated. All that NRA (and Trump) crap about arming people to stop the shooter is just that - crap. An off duty police officer was in the Orlando night club and engaged the shooter. No doubt if more were armed and blasting away the result would have been the same. Any nitwit can tell the difference between a hunting or target weapon and a military style assault weapon. Assault weapons should be illegal.

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  7. A dedicated jihadist/crazed person will get a gun, laws be damned. Sure...but do we have to make it so easy on him? An expanded thorough background check should have put him on the "no" list. Sure, he could have broken into a lawful gun owner's house to steal some assault rifles, but maybe that lawful gun owner would have shot him first.

    How did Reagan manage to put through the ban on assault rifles and the politicians nowadays can't?

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    1. I agree with you on thorough background checks for all, whether they buy from a dealer or an individual. And how did Reagan do it, but they can't today? Because today we don't have pragmatic leaders like Reagan and O'Neal back then. Today we have two diametrically opposed "my way or the highway" parties.

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  8. I keep a NAA 22Mag with 5 SAAMI rounds in my ASS CRACK. If the rounds do not stop them, the smell will.

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    1. Hahahahaha! But what if the smell just reminds them of home? 😂

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    2. Duh....Did not think of that. I must move to plan 'B' now, wonder what it might be.
      I saw on news today, that guy had a Sig 223 & Glock 9mm. Where did he get that kind of money? My big gun is a Keltec 40, never a malfunction and within my budget.
      In some countries where I worked, shops would have a man in back corner with a FN 308 and body armor. That keeps shoppers honest and robbers avoid such places. It made me feel secure.

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    3. I heard it was a Sig MCX (?) AR style rifle and a Glock 9mm. He had 1 rifle and 1 handgun for sure. How did he afford it? Ever hear of a credit card? Especially if he knew he wasn't going to be around to have to pay for it.

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