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Recent School Shootings Spark Question: Should Students Try To Thwart A Shooter?
WBUR ^ | May 9, 2019 | Jack Mitchell and Peter O'Dowd

Posted on 05/11/2019 1:07:17 PM PDT by DoodleBob

When someone opens fire at a school, should students intervene?

It's a question being raised after two shootings in which students lost their lives after choosing to take action. Kendrick Castillo, 18, died in Tuesday's shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch outside Denver. He was shot and killed when he tackled one of the shooters, giving other students a chance to flee.

Last week 21-year-old University of North Carolina Charlotte student Riley Howell met the same fate when he knocked a campus shooter off his feet.

"When we're talking about school shooters, almost always, if anybody's going to get shot, it's the intervener. That's why we put police officers in Kevlar vests," says Frank Zimring, a professor of law and criminal justice studies at the University of California Berkeley.

In the Colorado and North Carolina shootings, Zimring says each intervention likely saved lives.

One of the Colorado students who charged the Highlands Ranch shooter along with Castillo said at a press conference he had "no hesitation" about jumping into action to try to thwart the attack. Zimring, who studies gun violence and mass shootings, says teenage "machismo or heroic ambition" likely played a role in that decision. And while that bravery is admirable, Zimring says intervention is always the least-preferable option.

"From an authority or risk-management standpoint, it is only when contacts with authorities who are armed and trained, or escape or hiding, is not possible, when it really becomes a situation where intervention might be necessary," he tells Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd.

(Excerpt) Read more at wbur.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; colorado; npr; shooting
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1 posted on 05/11/2019 1:07:17 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob

1. Wait for the police to rescue you.
2. Run away or hide.
3. Intervene (preferably with your firearm).

I support positive action, not fear or complacency.


2 posted on 05/11/2019 1:12:26 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: DoodleBob

I would hate to think a person would just sit in a chair and wait.


3 posted on 05/11/2019 1:13:27 PM PDT by combat_boots (God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her! Merry Christmas! In God We Trust!)
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To: DoodleBob

machismo and heroic ambition have perjerotive connotation, I really object.

How about desire to do the right thing, to be willing to risk sacrificing yourself to save others...
How about maybe they thought the shooter might just systematically kill everyone and they realized someone had to stop them.

Didn’t think to say that did they?


4 posted on 05/11/2019 1:13:39 PM PDT by Mount Athos
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To: DoodleBob

Soo...

How dare we interfere with their school shootings?!

Expletives deleted.


5 posted on 05/11/2019 1:13:56 PM PDT by EasySt (Say not this is the truth, but so it seems to me to be, as I see this thing I think I see #KAG)
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To: DoodleBob
""When we're talking about school shooters, almost always, if anybody's going to get shot, it's the intervener."

Except that if there isn't an intervener almost everyone is going to get shot.

We really are far far down the Orwellian language rabbit hole these days. By 'we' I mean 'they.'

6 posted on 05/11/2019 1:16:43 PM PDT by tinyowl (A is A)
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To: DoodleBob

By the author’s reasoning the passengers on UAL flight 93 should have stayed in their seats until the terror plot played out. Think how that would have changed the outcome.


7 posted on 05/11/2019 1:16:45 PM PDT by Spok
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To: DoodleBob
That's why we put police officers in Kevlar vests

Piss off, Frank.

Your precious officers in their Kevlar vest are minutes, if not tens of minutes away when these things happen - and all you can do is denigrate these kids with teenage "machismo or heroic ambition" likely played a role

That kind of thing takes thought but these kids were just reacting... reacting in a way that should make their families proud.

So Frank, STFU.

8 posted on 05/11/2019 1:17:21 PM PDT by grobdriver (BUILD KATE'S WALL!)
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To: Spok

It is an important analogy.

I think that is why we are about to see an end to major school shootings.

A pattern of attacking the shooter immediately is emerging similar to what happen in Flight 93.

Aspirant thrill seeking killers will shift their mode to some other form of crime such as tylenol tampering etc. It will become to risky to pull out the gun at school.


9 posted on 05/11/2019 1:22:03 PM PDT by lonestar67 (America is exceptional)
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To: DoodleBob
Well, there are alternatives.

1. Light your hair on fire.

2. Run in circles.

3. Piss your pants.

4. Tell the gunman that you're gonna report him/her/it to the principal.

What a stupid topic for conversation.

10 posted on 05/11/2019 1:22:37 PM PDT by Snake Skin Sonny
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To: grobdriver

He’s a law professor. At Berkeley. You can’t expect him to say anything smart! ;)


11 posted on 05/11/2019 1:23:14 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: DoodleBob

Liberals always have a knee-jerk rejection of any conduct that even approaches virtuous.


12 posted on 05/11/2019 1:23:16 PM PDT by Spok
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To: DoodleBob

Zimring is a pillow biter


13 posted on 05/11/2019 1:27:47 PM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: DoodleBob

Nobody knows how they themselves are going to re/act until the moment is on them.


14 posted on 05/11/2019 1:31:30 PM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: DoodleBob

Should Students Try To Thwart A Shooter?

As in all things, it depends on the relative intersectional superiority of the shooter and shootees.

Is the shooter a member of an oppressed class, such as People of color, gay questioning, or muslim? If so, they may be the real the victim, and should be afforded a clear shot.


15 posted on 05/11/2019 1:32:21 PM PDT by BeauBo
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To: DoodleBob

Children shouldn’t be expected to “give their lives” because some idiotic assholes want to rule the word.


16 posted on 05/11/2019 1:34:00 PM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: DoodleBob
Right...

From those who say that a gun in the home makes one less safe...or that concealed carry leads to Wild West type shootouts...we should be past the point where we would uncritically accept the word of 'experts' on anything.

When seconds count, and 'help' is minutes away, you're all you got.

17 posted on 05/11/2019 1:37:52 PM PDT by gogeo (Liberal politics and mental instability; coincidence, correlation, or causation?)
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To: grobdriver
"In the Colorado and North Carolina shootings, Zimring says each intervention likely saved lives. But..."

These interverners were young males who knew the reason God gave them that adrenalin and that testosterone.

To stop bad guys and save lives.

They should be praised, not sidelined for supposedly manifesting an unseemly desire to be a hero.

Everybody should thank God for boys like young Kendrick, who evidently knew how important it is to save lives, even at the cost of his own.

18 posted on 05/11/2019 1:40:02 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (What does the LORD require of you: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God)
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To: DoodleBob

NO! Fight back. There is only one reason why the shooter’s there...to kill you. Might as well kill the POS.


19 posted on 05/11/2019 1:40:03 PM PDT by max americana (Fired libtards at our company for the past 12 yrs at every election. I hope all liberals die.)
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To: DoodleBob

Stupid question.

Without no other recourse, if they want to live, they had better do something because without it there is a near 100% chance it will not turn out well anyway.

How stupid are people really to even debate this subject?


20 posted on 05/11/2019 1:41:01 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (It feels like we have exchanged our dreams for survival. We just hava few days that don't suck.)
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