Global
American Series
22
July 2012
Denver Shooter: Time for Flight 93 Defense?
On
9/11, passengers on three airliners sat still, intimidated by the hijackers who
then crashed their aircraft into buildings, killing everyone on board and over
3,000 people working in their offices. But the passengers of Flight 93 did
something different, and bold.
They fought
the hijackers before their plane could reach its target, saving either Congress
or the White House from a direct hit that brought down the World Trade towers
and damaged the Pentagon. They paid with their lives -- which were doomed
anyway-- but their bravery saved countless others from the same horrible fate.
It
may be dawning on some Americans that they may need to follow the Flight 93
example the at the next outburst of mass
shooting by a lone wolf killer like Mr. Holmes in the Colorado movie theater.
What if a couple guys had rushed him – instead of sitting there thinking it was
a “stunt?” What if someone had tackled him when he was reloading or after his
weapon jammed? Is lying on the floor
being shot in the back a better way to die?
Before
the Batman nightmare we had the shooting of Congress woman Gabby Giffords, which
was preceded by the mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Columbine. No one
confronted the attackers. It may be dawning on Americans that we face a greater
threat from domestic terrorists like Mr. Holmes than we do from foreign sources
(such as the deceased Osama bin laden).
HOW
do we fix this? Do we focus on the
person or the weapons?
The
reality is that Pandora’s Box has already been opened – assault weapons and
huge ammo clips are already in the market. You can’t put the Genie back into the bottle. Over
300 million guns are in American homes. The Colorado police were on the scene
in 90 seconds – by which time 71 people had already been shot. If the shooter’s
AR-15 not jammed, the dead and injured would have been considerably higher. Had his AR-15 still been working, Mr. Holmes
would have had more firepower then the police sent to stop him.
But
Holmes was a coward, like the Norwegian shooter, Breivik, who chose to kill his
fellow Norwegians and then surrendered meekly to police. They are very much
alike, and lower than pond scum.
Forget
Congress. It won’t even prohibit people who are on the terrorist watch list
from buying guns, so there is no political appetite to make changes, especially
in an election year. As Governor, Mr. Romney signed legislation banning assault
weapons. Now he opposes such a ban. The President has avoided the topic
entirely.
And
Mr. Holmes had no criminal record so even a focus on him would not have
foreshadowed his violent actions. That doesn’t leave us much choice. The facts
are stark.
ABC recently reported: “A
study in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery found that the gun murder
rate in the U.S. is almost 20 times higher than the next 22 richest and most
populous nations combined. Among the
world’s 23 wealthiest countries, 80 percent of all gun deaths are American
deaths and 87 percent of all kids killed by guns are American kids.”
“But
regardless, polls show that public attitudes don’t change, even after a mass
slaughter like this. Forty-nine percent say it’s more important to protect gun
rights while 45 percent favor tighter gun control.
We have lived on fantasy
violence too long—from movies that glorify violence to trash talk radio that
goes over the top and incites the unstable. Yet we are somehow “shocked, shocked” when
fantasy violence turns real. To stop
this will take the hardest change of all – changing our national language of
hate speech into the language of RESPECTFUL debate. We do it by keeping our disagreements verbal
instead of physical. I’m not holding my
breath in anticipation of that happening.
The bottom line may be
this: Next time a shooter opens up, American citizens may have to follow the
example of the brave passengers on Flight 93 – and do what they can to take out
the shooter. It’s about the only option
left.
Michael Fjetland
Global American Series
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