This week, a lone gunman walked into an academic building filled with hundreds of college students and professors and, over the course of a half hour, methodically shot 30 people.  He used two hand guns, sometimes putting as many as three bullets in each body.  He calmly reloaded, presumably, dozens of times while terrified people all over the building hid where they could and wondered if the booms they heard reverberating through the halls would next come for them.

 So let me point to the elephant in this room:  How come all those people couldn't get together for a single decent bum-rush?  How the hell does one guy with a couple pistols hold an entire building full of healthy young adults at bay while murdering them at his leisure?  How did he convince one entire class to meekly line up against a wall and allow him to shoot them in the back?  Have we raised our young people to be so passive that they are unable to rise up and fight for their lives?

I listened to an interview with one of the professors who was in the building.  He said that when he understood what the noise was, he locked his door and hid into his office.  He listened to the screams and gun shots for a half hour, and then he waited a half hour longer, refusing to open his door until the police kicked it in.  His story reminded me of nothing so much as the Eloi in "the Time Machine", just waiting out the attack until enough "other people" were bagged to sate the attacker's needs. 

I suppose this is horribly insensitive of me, but I don't put the majority of blame for this incident on the nutcase who pulled the trigger.  Mad dogs have always been among us, and they always will be.  It is incumbent upon us to prepare for the inevitable rampage and deal with it appropriately.  They must be put down, immediately, with all necessary violence.

I wonder if we have become so civilized that we've somehow come to the belief that the responsibility for our well being is something we should outsource to rough specialists.  Do people now think that police are the only ones who should be allowed to raise a hand to violence, and those of us not in blue should wait patiently for the good guys to handle the problem?  Have we become like the decadent Romans, too refined to take part in their own protection at the end of the empire, watching confused as their mercenaries deserted them and the barbarians tore the walls down?

This incident filled me with a need to pull my oldest aside and explain to him that he should never submit to being anyone's victim.  I told him that when and if the monsters came, he was to grab a mop handle, a pool cue, a fire extinguisher, or a pointy stick and beat the beast down.  If he needed help, he was to pull people out of the crowd and tell them what to do.  He was to ignore those who were too weak to think and he was to put. the. mad. dog. down.

 To be honest, I don't know if he completely understood me.  That's okay.  I'll be sure to tell him again.

 cococo