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Article on Va Tech and fighting back
Billie Louden has it in the Denver Post.
"When I later learned he was armed with only two handguns, disbelief washed over me. It was later revealed he fired 190 rounds in about seven minutes. Being in law enforcement as well as having been in the military, I know for a fact the shooter had to have spent a great deal of time reloading and exchanging magazines. I can only wonder what was going on during these necessary pauses.
I don't blame the victims for their own demise. I blame the non-confrontational attitude in America that may have stopped someone from fighting back. The basic human instinct of survival has been tamped down by the reemergence of the "Make love, not war" peacenik movement of the '60s, especially on our college campuses.
Our kids are being taught to avoid conflict and try to reason with the unreasonable. A non-aggression mentality has been ingrained in them since gradeschool, where childhood games like dodge ball are deemed to harsh. In Littleton, some protested a statue of a heroic American soldier because he carried a gun. The thinking must be that if we deny to our children that guns exist, then guns will never hurt them.
I found it ironic that the one person who did try to block the Virginia Tech gunman's way was a professor who had survived the Holocaust, a man who, I am quite sure, had looked insanity in the eye before and survived. He understood that inaction meant death. This is also what must have finally occurred to the passengers on United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, when they chose to fight back. Even though they died, they died fighting and on their terms."
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A good friend of mine, a Jew by the way, told me that nearly all of the pacifist Jews died during the Holocast. The ones who survived were the badasses, the ones who wouldn't take any crap, the ones who spent the next couple of decades kicking the hell out of pretty much the entire Arab world. Compare those men and women to the ones in charge of Israel, and a lot of other places, today.
In my opinion, the big problem with so many world leaders today is that they have never had anything really significant go wrong in their lives. They haven't stared evil (or if you prefer, insanity) in the eyes. And when the shit really does hit the fan, they don't know who to react.
Say what you will about FDR, Churchill, Truman, etc., they had all had their failures. They had stared death in the face. And when their time came, they knew, and did, what had to be done. To survive.
SUCH PERILS ON LAND ALSO EXIST AT SEA IN THE MERCHANT MARINE! (CIVILIAN SAILORS!)
AMERICAN MERCHANT SEAMEN IN HARM’S WAY
By Don Hamrick
© 2004 Don Hamrick
Pirates by sea, terrorists by land.
Through hostile waters we sailors dare steam,
Defensive weapons denied our hand.
Not the law of land or sea it would seem.
Without rhyme or reason,
September 11, a day of slaughter.
Security now a perpetual season.
Arm ourselves now! Sailors oughta!
Pirates and terrorists armed to the teeth,
With every blade and firepower within reach,
Against sailors defenseless as sheep.
For to arm sailors liberals would screech,
Would cause the Bill of Rights
To become our steering light.
I've been hunting for more information on the massacre.
I want to know how many people were in the building? He had to walk into rooms full of people.
The Jews of Europe of WWII died because there was no escape and no way to fight back. Like all good Europeans they had been taught to trust the state. I attended the first gathering of Child Holocaust Survivors in New York in the late 1980's and can tell you these people did the best they could. The French army collapsed in three weeks. How were unarmed civilians going to fight off the entire German army?
When General Patton was in France he asked a top French General what happened. The French General replied , "We have always been taught and practiced defense, never offense." The Maginot line was an imaginary savior that proved to be the downfall of the French. The belief that the State will save you and is only administered by good people produces the same effect as the Maginot line. Allegiance and Protection are reciprocal duties. A Well Regulated militia composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state.
Elsewhere, I've read this is called a failure of doctrine.
Still, the number of rounds fired in the time period nags at me. I'm a shooter. This is an awful lot of rounds fired in a very short period of time. I find it curious that the shooter could buy all the right equipment in such a short period of time. Everything worked with minimal testing and maintenance. Then, he walked into the school seemingly proficient in a style of shooting that corresponds to nothing taught in police or CCW classes. I'd like to know where he got his information? Is there some movie somewhere that he emulated or did someone help with preparations?
"The French army collapsed in three weeks. How were unarmed civilians going to fight off the entire German army?"
You'd be surprised at what people can do, if they have the will to fight back.
Here in Cincinnati the weekend after the shooting....had about 300 people attend Courage and Weapon Survival Seminar on Sunday at Xavier University's Cintas Center.
Here is a link to the retired Cincinnati police officers who are teaching our kids that to fight back when you have no other options is the right thing to do:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/NEWS01/704300405/1077/COL02
As a retired cop she teaches that if you are to survive it is up to you not the police:
"One important concept they teach: The role of police and security officers "is not to be there, but to get there."
It is about time someone teaches non-compliance with attackers demands or actions.
MY POLITICAL POEM ON THIS VERY TOPIC:
A NIHILISTIC FORM OF GOVERNMENT, THIS UNITED STATES
By Don Hamrick
© 2004 Don Hamrick
Give us this day our daily servilism,
So that actual freedom may never taunt,
The spirit in us, into a future pugilism.
Lest the government forever haunt.
............How long?
Henry Hyde confessed that fateful day,
The Constitution, no longer relevant.
’Tis our fault we are slaves today,
We refused to be freedom’s adjuvant.
............How long?
Our Republican government, overthrown,
By the Department of Homeland Insecurity.
Terrorism, its propaganda, overblown,
Freedom guaranteed by enslavement to security.
............How long?
A new mythos proclaimed from this nihilism,
Only deadens our sense of discernment.
From this ethos of paranoia comes this falabilism,
You can’t be trusted. But trust the government.
............How long?
Deceiving us in a blanket of security,
That we are safe from a world of dangers.
Forever oppressed our sense of responsibility,
To protect ourselves from such harbingers.
............How long?
In vain we plead our Second Amendment right
To contest government edicts from on high
The courts rule our arguments as so much tripe
They say it does not apply on the thigh
............How long?
Three doors of government slammed shut
Leaving us to agitate for want of freedom
The rule of law now is anything but
As we live in this wretched thraldom
............How long?
How long will we sit and cower
Resenting those who act above the law
Before we stand up for balance of power
To stop the advancing rape of law
............How long?
Lost to us now our Bill of Rights
This Nihilistic government frights.
............Will it be much longer?