“Crazy and dangerous trumps the second amendment…every day of the week.”
Got this story from Greg. It’s really way too long, but the top half is the most interesting. Left-wing blogger The Lower Manhattanite has a strongly right-wing, Rush-lovin’ brother in the Navy, and they haven’t agreed on a political issue in decades. But when the brother was home for leave and saw VTech news in the paper, he shocked TLM with his surprisingly not-entirely-pro-gun-ownership view:
“You know what we do on the ship if somebody bugs out with a weapon?”
I shook my head “no.”
“You secure your station and get the fuck off the boat. Get your people off the boat. That’s if you’re in port. Under weigh, there’s a different ‘protocol’. But even then, you don’t play that Jack Bauer/Die Hard shit. Unless they’re real slow, or you’re real close. Still stupid. Psychos with guns. Don’t fuck with ‘em.”
This here, I find highly interesting, in light of various blogs and pundits saying that the fact the kids didn’t fight back or try to tackle the psycho is a sign of weakness, that the US culture is being “feminized” or whathaveyou. Because I’d really like to know if that’s a written Navy policy somewhere. I’d imagine it would have to be. And if I had a forum big enough to get the attention of those who blame the victims, I’d like to know how they feel about the military essentially condoning by established procedure what the kids did (i.e.: getting the hell away, rather than going towards the psycho).
April 24th, 2007 17:34
I was wondering about this, myself…
Given certain nutjob statements:
A) handguns are inherently inaccurate
B) sane people would rush the psycho
C) someone should have been illegally carrying
Doesn’t it follow that a hero student with a Glock would end up plugging a few well-intentioned innocents, while drawing the psycho’s fire towards his immediate vicinity, exchanging bullets until one shooter manages to hit the other?
Maybe we can get the rules of engagement or a heroism flowchart for Psycho-With-A-Gun situations. (Is Psycho is being rushed by other students? Yes: Hold fire until other students are gunned down. No: Blast away.)
May 3rd, 2007 11:29
The real problem for those rules of engagement come when you add a second “hero”.
“You hear gun fire. You follow trail of bodies until you find two guys shooting at each other. Do you:
Shoot the tall guy? (turn to p. 102)
Shoot at the short guy? (turn to p. 127)
Stand there and wait for another hero who is following the trail of bodies looking for a crazy guy with a gun? (turn to p. 38)”