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More sparta, less athens

I say this with total respect towards the students, faculity and family of Virginia Tech and I shre in their loss. This is not a judgement of their actions in the massacre, they are victims and not to be judged one way or the other.

This particular post is more towards the rest of you who might someday be in this situation. I fear that unless we change some basic things about our culture, we will see more of these.

It seems to me that 'self defence' is not considered an option in polite society. It is time we learned (or relearned) the need to sometimes be a little more "sparta" and a little less "athens".

Here are a few guidlines to consider:

1. Do not wait for the police or the authorities to tell you what is going on. If you hear gunshots, assume that it is time for you to take action. Every moment you delay stopping the madman ensures that more innocent people will die.

2. Do not assume that if you just lay there and do nothing that you will live. Assume that if you just lay there, that you or someone else will surely die.

3. Do not assume that you can reason with the madman, if you must assume anything at all, assume that you must do everything possible to ensure your survival, even if it means engaging in violence.

4. If you can run away from the problem, then do so. If you cannot run away, prepare to defend yourself. If you can defend yourself, find someone else who can't and help defend them. The concept of 'safety in numbers' applies to humans as well.

5. If you find protecting your own safety while leaving others to be killed to be a reprehensible idea then prepare to defend them from the madman.

So, how can you defend yourself from a madman armed with a gun?

- throw chairs.

- Throw books, bookbags, paper, pens, paint.

- Find the fire extinguisher, aim towards the attacker and fire, the throw the empty device at the madman.

- Find the fire hose and hydrant. aim the stream towards the attacker.

- Run towards attacker en masse, armed with pens and pencils, sticks, stones whatever is at hand. Some of you will surely die in the process, but one of you is likely to maim the madman and save lives.

- If the attacker tells you to line up against the wall, refuse. Do not cooperate with madmen. The more he deals with you and your refusal to cooperate, the more likely that others are to escape. Dont worry about possibly making him angry, he is already irrational and beyond reasoning.

- If you have a camera with a flash, use it. blind the attacker with whatever means you have at hand.

- Improvise.

- Throw hot coffee or any other burning substance on the individual. feel free to throw the coffee pot as well, throw glasses, knives, forks, baseball bats, helmets, pottery, car parts, loose laying lumber plumbing fixtures at the madman.

- Got any pepper spray handy? Now would be a good time to find out if it works or not.

- Make noise. distract. block pathways and doors. turn out the lights, impede their progress in any way possible.

- Do not consider the feelings of the madman in your acts, his goal is to kill you, your goal is to stop the killing by any means necessary.

If you can disrupt Ann Coulter when she comes to campus or the ROTC when they recruit on campus, you can stop or disrupt a madman when he comes to kill you and your classmates.

Posted @ April 18, 2007 02:08 PM

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