thedrifter
05-12-07, 09:43 AM
We've forgotten how to fight back
By Billie Louden
Colorado Voices
Article Last Updated: 05/12/2007 12:15:09 AM MDT
I realize hindsight is 20/20, and I hate Monday morning quarterbacks, but sometimes an event is so horrific in nature that analysis of why it unfolded and ended the way it did should be explored from every possible angle. If you can suffer another article about Virginia Tech, please allow me to offer my take on the latest bloody massacre that has sent America reeling.
Every group with an agenda is still using the aftermath of this tragedy to tout their causes. While the pro-gun folks and the no-guns bunch hurl blame at each other, forums are held and committees are formed as everyone wrings their hands and tries to come up with a solution to assure it never happens again.
I am not a psychic nor a doomsayer; I am a realist. From Charles Whitman blasting away in a Texas tower, to Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech and every senseless slaughter in between, America has fervently prayed it was the last time. But I am here to tell you it never has been and sadly never will be the last time.
No matter how many red flags we notice, there is simply no way to determine who will one day slip over the edge into madness and open fire on innocents. If police investigated every person who acted strangely, ranted and raved against society, or even made veiled threats, there would be no time for anything else.
When a twisted soul decides to carry out a heinous act, there is precious little we can do to stop it. Where there is a will, there is always a way. All we can do, if caught in their crosshairs, is try to survive.
Upon hearing the number of victims in Virginia, I assumed the shooter had used an automatic rifle capable of firing many rounds per second. 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.
We have got to stop sticking our heads and our children's heads in the sand, pretending evil does not exist. Unless we recover the fight-back spirit buried inside ourselves and pass it own to our kids, we are doomed. No one can predict or stop the next horrendous act that will surely come to be. What we can do is assure that our survival instincts will lower the number of victims.
What other choice do we have?
Billie Louden (loudenview@aol.com) is a deputy sheriff in Denver and an Army veteran.
Ellie
By Billie Louden
Colorado Voices
Article Last Updated: 05/12/2007 12:15:09 AM MDT
I realize hindsight is 20/20, and I hate Monday morning quarterbacks, but sometimes an event is so horrific in nature that analysis of why it unfolded and ended the way it did should be explored from every possible angle. If you can suffer another article about Virginia Tech, please allow me to offer my take on the latest bloody massacre that has sent America reeling.
Every group with an agenda is still using the aftermath of this tragedy to tout their causes. While the pro-gun folks and the no-guns bunch hurl blame at each other, forums are held and committees are formed as everyone wrings their hands and tries to come up with a solution to assure it never happens again.
I am not a psychic nor a doomsayer; I am a realist. From Charles Whitman blasting away in a Texas tower, to Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech and every senseless slaughter in between, America has fervently prayed it was the last time. But I am here to tell you it never has been and sadly never will be the last time.
No matter how many red flags we notice, there is simply no way to determine who will one day slip over the edge into madness and open fire on innocents. If police investigated every person who acted strangely, ranted and raved against society, or even made veiled threats, there would be no time for anything else.
When a twisted soul decides to carry out a heinous act, there is precious little we can do to stop it. Where there is a will, there is always a way. All we can do, if caught in their crosshairs, is try to survive.
Upon hearing the number of victims in Virginia, I assumed the shooter had used an automatic rifle capable of firing many rounds per second. 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.
We have got to stop sticking our heads and our children's heads in the sand, pretending evil does not exist. Unless we recover the fight-back spirit buried inside ourselves and pass it own to our kids, we are doomed. No one can predict or stop the next horrendous act that will surely come to be. What we can do is assure that our survival instincts will lower the number of victims.
What other choice do we have?
Billie Louden (loudenview@aol.com) is a deputy sheriff in Denver and an Army veteran.
Ellie