Posted on 04/17/2007 7:39:36 AM PDT by freeplancer
First there was Salt Lake City, and now Virgian Tech. Trey Perkins, a 19 year old student who is now on fox News spewed his story about being in the same room as the gunman while he reloaded his weapons at least once. Did he get up and charge the gunman with reckless abandon to save his fellow students? NO
When the SLC shooting took place, the local news broadcast a cell video of the shooter discharging his weapons. While the owner of the cell phone stood there and filmed the shooter, who coincidently had his back to the camera, he did nothing. Cowards, bystanders, and wimps. I am ashamed and disgusted. Maybe it is my military training or having being in a war zone that makes me know I would take action or die trying.
I would not be jumping out of windows or filming a murderer in action, and I hope to God that whoever reads this would not either. Where are all the men?
LOL! Always told my kids not to start a fight but if they were attacked to end it. I feel the same-I won’t start one but I don’t give much either! Kudos to you and your kids.
I’ve always said learning about history/english/math is important, but if the kids can’t defend themselves, balance their checkbooks, be kind to animals, etc. what good is learning?
Law abiding people were killed yesterday because someone with no respect for the law abused the privlege of living in a free society. Passing more laws will not help one little bit-it’s like having locks on your doors-honest people don’t need them and dishonest people won’t heed them.
Kudos to you and the Marines! I live in Newport, NC right next door to Cherry Point. We love our Marines!
I have been under fire numerous times. Not that that in and of itself qualifies me for anything. I have witnessed folks freezing, panicing, and taking appropriate action. I personally have done all of the above. The biggest factor was training, followed by acculturation/experience.
It is a very sad day for many reasons. Our young are being taught to call 911, and not take individual responsibility. LEO managers and politicians enforce this self defeating behavior. Folks are being taught to abdicate their personal responsibility for their own safety.
I take a number of heavy duty drugs to counteract my PTSD symptoms. They work to some extent, but really slow your reaction time down. To counter this, I have gotten back into combat training, via Krav Maga. At 56 that is no small task, btw. The 20 somethings bounce right back, I sorta crawl back up.
My goal is to counter my increased reflex time with enough training time to pattern the reactionary behavior necessary to survive and protect others. As many others here know, your response to immediate threats needs to be on almost an instinctual level. That does not happen by watching others do it.
I fight dirty, I fight fast, I fight to win. You can always have someone else call 911, or do so once the immediate danger has passed.
I’d rather be called a vigilante, a war-crazed Nam Vet, rather than “he WAS such a nice guy”.
Roger that ~ I heard Rivera this morning on FNC talking about his act of bravery and he got all choked up, when he described him as being Holocaust survivor.
He was a man!!
Thanks for your service! Sorry about the PTSD/drugs.
I’ve never been under fire-hope I would act honorably. Having watched in-laws and friends freeze while I acted-dog being run over,injuries, etc-you are right. Reaction time is critical.
My family seems to be blessed with quick reaction times-if we knock a glass over, we can usually catch it before it spills, etc. We call it klutz skills-LOL!
I know I have an active imagination at times. When I was young, I would go with my dad to deliver stuff he made, pick up steel etc. He would leave me in the truck while it was being loaded/unloaded and be gone for 20 minutes more or less. I would actually imagine that he was being held somewhere and I had to save him. I would think of ways to get to him. I have also thought of what I would do if something crazy happens when I am pumping gas with my kids in the car and it catches fire. Though I can honestly say that yesterday’s scenario has never crossed my mind. The only situations I have ever been in were medical (with my kids and a motorcycle crash, one of the first on scene) and I am glad to say that I seem to be a take charge yet calm person in those situations. The guy on the motorcycle should be thankful too. Some dumb broad was trying to remove his helmet until I started yelling at her. It was heavily damaged, we were literally one minute from two different hospitals, so the paramedics would be there soon.
I only go through scenarios of burglars when my hubby is out of town on overnight trips. On those nights, I plan how to get the kids in a closet, get the gun from the safe and call 911. :) Of course on those nights, it doesn’t help that the dog decides to hear “things” and start growling with hackles raised while cautiously walking over to the stairs at least once during the night! LOL!
After they washed them of course! ; ) Good story.
Reminds me of a joke...(it is okay to tell a joke in this serious thread...right?)
There was a Marine Corporal and a Harvard Business School Graduate in the men’s room using the urinals, standing side by side. They both finished at the same time, and as the Harvard Grad stopped to wash his hands, the Marine headed straight for the door to leave.
The Harvard Grad muttered to half to himself, but loud enough for the Marine to hear: “At Harvard, they taught us to wash our hands after going to the bathroom...”
The Marine stopped in his tracks, turned around and said: “In the Marine Corps...they taught us not to piss on our hands.”
LOL!
I seriously doubt it.
No scratch that.
I totally disagree.....
Liviu Librescu
Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer, was known for his research, but his son said he will be remembered as a hero for protecting students as the gunman tried to enter his classroom.
Librescu taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years and had an international reputation for his work in aeronautical engineering.
"His research has enabled better aircraft, superior composite materials, and more robust aerospace structures," said Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department.
Librescu's son, Joe, said his father's students sent e-mails detailing how the professor saved their lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
(The Yahoo headline calls him a Holocaust survivor as well, but I cannot find any reference to back it up.)
Amen, brother.......
I, too, am blessed with an overactive imagination! It comes in very handy.
I played the same kind of mind games when I was little, still do. What if...? How would I react and what would I do? I still look for exits first thing when I enter somewhere! The point is, imagining things like this and playing games teaches us how to deal in the real world.
We’d be locked up for it now, but when my siblings and I were little, we used to practice tying each other up and seeing how long it took us to get loose! Forewarned is forearmed! LOL
As am I.
I’ll never forget when my dad taught me how to make a fist and box because the class bully started with me one day in third grade. He always said “never throw the first punch, but you darned well better throw the last one.” LOL!
I only punched one girl in school. It was after swim practice, she was a junior and I was a freshman. There was one punch and two hits. Me hitting her and her hitting the floor. :)
I check for exits too! Too funny. You should see me on a plane counting rows forward and backwards to the exits. We took the whole family to the movies the other night, and I made sure I knew where we would go. We probably sound a little nuts to others, but I would rather be known as the nutty mom than remembered as the nice one.
Thank you, gardengirl. No sweat on the drugs. They have been a godsend. I can sleep most nights now and I don’t over-react so much anymore. I am better able to discern real threats from discerned ones.
The hands-on training is so crucial. You get used to the idea of forcing people around through practice, so that when you are running on adrenaline, you put your energy to good use. You also get a good workout in the process.
When you are in a life-or-death situation, you need to be able to react...fast. You don’t really get much chance to think about it. You almost imprint your body to react a certain way when under threat. It takes out much of the guess work. That is the advantage you will have wrt the average nutjob on the street, or in your home.
Something that is drilled into you, is that much like combat training, when attacked, you become the aggressor. That is how battles and wars are won.
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