Fight Back: The Giffords Shooting Case
When I lived in Chapel Hill, I remember coming across a kind of public-service announcement in the yellow pages that said, roughly: If you find yourself a victim of crime, do not fight back! Give them what they want.
My reaction was: yer ass I will.
I'm now at a university fairly near to Virginia Tech. After the Tech shooting, there was lots of talk about what to do in such cases. Absolutely everything said by anyone in anything like authority was, roughly: flee and try to save yourself. No one--no one--said anything like: of course one can't be stupid about taking on an armed opponent; however, sometimes it's the best option, and sometimes if a few people will risk their own lives to fight back, many can be saved.
Now, of course there are cases in which it's best to comply with dangerous and evil people--but there are a lot of cases in which it is not. If they're likely to harm you anyway, or you are roughly evenly matched, then you have not only a right but a responsibility to fight. I have no delusions of hero-dom...but I am appalled by the pacifism and cowardice that seem to be some kind of default positions currently.
Anyway, here's a short account of the folks who fought back in the Giffords shooting case. Of course they had little choice, but that's a different topic for a different day.
When I lived in Chapel Hill, I remember coming across a kind of public-service announcement in the yellow pages that said, roughly: If you find yourself a victim of crime, do not fight back! Give them what they want.
My reaction was: yer ass I will.
I'm now at a university fairly near to Virginia Tech. After the Tech shooting, there was lots of talk about what to do in such cases. Absolutely everything said by anyone in anything like authority was, roughly: flee and try to save yourself. No one--no one--said anything like: of course one can't be stupid about taking on an armed opponent; however, sometimes it's the best option, and sometimes if a few people will risk their own lives to fight back, many can be saved.
Now, of course there are cases in which it's best to comply with dangerous and evil people--but there are a lot of cases in which it is not. If they're likely to harm you anyway, or you are roughly evenly matched, then you have not only a right but a responsibility to fight. I have no delusions of hero-dom...but I am appalled by the pacifism and cowardice that seem to be some kind of default positions currently.
Anyway, here's a short account of the folks who fought back in the Giffords shooting case. Of course they had little choice, but that's a different topic for a different day.
posted by Winston Smith at
1:06 PM
3 Comments:
The link does not seem to lead anywhere.
James
WS,
I've been low profile for the last few months (various family matters, but fortunately nothing catastrophic), but have been following -- and appreciating -- your posts. FYI, the link above appears to be broken.
Must run now, but hope to post more over the next few days.
best,
Jim
The link appears to be broken.
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