If Only…
Personal preface: I don’t watch TV news or the talking heads so I don’t share Jonn’s frustrations about the coverage of the Aurora shooting. I assumed it would be crap and ignored it. And the anti-gun rhetoric was easily foreseeable and as easily dismissed.
Nope! Events like Flight 93 and “Let’s Roll!” kept intruding. Or Mr. Williams decision to take action seems extraordinarily fitting.
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So I’m thinking that guns were peripheral (NOT trivial!) elements in that theater. I’ll posit that what was missing was a Sheepdog?
Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, “Thank God I wasn’t on one of those planes.” The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, “Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference.” When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warriorhood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference. Lt. Colonel Grossman
If only there had been just one person with that mind set?
YMMV
Update: See Russ’s post above. I can’t/won’t disagree with his emphasis, but…
Category: Geezer Alert!, General Whackos, Gun Grabbing Fascists, Guns
Personal safety is everyone’s own responsibility. Some people aren’t even willing to do that. The ones that are are rare. Rarer still are the ones will accept responsibility for the safety and welfare of others. There were sheepdogs in the theater; Airmen and sailors. One of them was killed as he protected his girlfriend, who survived. I’ve been thinking about what I’d do if I was there, and I’ll be honest. I’d have pushed my wife down, and laid over her to take whatever came our way until our window opened to either get out or take the guy down or tie up his weapon. I’d like to think that if I had an opportunity I’d have taken it, but one never knows until one is there. I hope to god that I never am, and that If I ever am, I end up doing the right thing.
On deadly ground, you fight.
http://sigspace.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/on-deadly-ground-you-fight/
Good link Sig
Have you seen this link yet? Apparently a young guy described only as “military” covered his girlfriend’s body with hos own and took a bullet for her. And died.
If true, there’s a posthumous Soldier’s Medal (or the service equivalent) citation that somebody needs to start working up, I think.
Taking a bullet while unarmed to save your girlfriend… I guess it’s the best you can hope for when you’re unarmed and there’s no way out.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/he-provided-me-the-opportunity-to-survive-woman-describes-how-military-boyfriend-took-a-bullet-for-her-during-shooting/
Mike3727 #4: I was aware of that story, but, within the context of my post, wonder if it fits?
But yeah, he deserves recognition!
Would have to agree with you, Zero. Problem is that any sheepdog who wished to be legally armed would have done so without the blessing of the theater owner. So, many would either disregard the wishes of the owner (which I find to be rather indefensible position) and gone in armed anyway or have simply complied with the posted “Gun-free Zone” sign and gone elsewhere.
I just prefer not to frequent places that have such signs posted. For me that is a significant part of situational awareness.
Two deceased: Matt McQuinn (civilian) shielded his girlfriend from the shooter, as did John Larimer (USN PO3).
There were sevral others, including a mother who got between her kids and the gunman. I think she was not shot. Some were wounded, some were not.
@#4 He left the Navy in 2009. Can you still get an award if you’re out?
The two active duty military that were killed were John Larimer, Navy and Sgt. Jesse Childress, Air Force Reserve.
While I LOVE David Grossman’s work, I hold to the part that I am not only a Sheepdog, but I am definately a TACTICAL TRUNK MONKEY!
Break glass in case of crazy gunman.
@ 6 OWB after the events of the past few years years, I could give a big, stinky, hairy rat’s butt about what a theater owner considers to be PC. If I have my grandkids and some retard decides to get stupid I’m going to be able to return fire. I’ve been carrying since my ‘baby girl’ was 11 and that was 18 years ago (next month). LE can’t be everywhere, all the time and there’s always a ‘retard’ somewhere all the time, whether they act or not is a different story.
[…] Salute to Jonathan Blunt August 5th, 2012 Note two things please: I was apparently wrong about the Sheepdog. And thanks to Hondo for catching […]