My post was specifically in response to the section in which Violand describes Cho methodically moving through the classroom shooting people, and reloading 3 times. (Hence my choice of a French book.)
It seems from the accounts that most of the classrooms were not configured so that running was really feasible. I did list diving for cover first.
But, it struck me that the circumstance in another era would have prompted thoughts of desparate heroism in the soon-to-be victims, while with a few exceptions, in ours did not.
Throwing something and drawing attention to yourself might have been a death warrant, but being prepared to throw something, or in some other way go down fighting if he looked at your hiding place and raised a gun seems either heroic prudence or heroic desparation.
I don’t think we know for certain that some people did NOT jump at him. We have only the reports of the living, people who dove under desks and hid. They didn’t see what the other students did.
Maybe among the dead are students who decided that throwing a book was a good idea, or jumping the guy when he got close, or just running at him.
The early reports of him “lining up the students and then shooting them” appears false by this story — in none of the classes is there any indication he did anything more than step through the door and start shooting people.
I’ve been in some of those classrooms. If there was a fire you’d be lucky to get out in a minute with all the desks in the way. In some the desks are bolted down in rows that mean you either have to jump over them or walk to the end of the row to move up or down.
Reloading with his guns was an easy task. There is little indication he took his eyes off the students when he reloaded, or that both guns were empty when he reloaded. In at least one case it seems he walked out the door to reload. He seems to have been well-organized.
We’d all feel better if the story ended with a group of students pummeling him. But I don’t think there is a character flaw revealed in what actually happened.
If there is any fault other than for the gunman, it is for those who never sit in those classrooms who decided that there should be no guns for protection.