Category: News and Views
Some guy shooting up a theater at a midnight showing of a movie. What chance would a blind person have with something like that happening so fast? There was a post on one of these boards about going out at night not being somebody's thing to do. I agree. And with all states having different gun laws, it's scary out there.
If the people had hit the floor the tear gas would have made them difficult to see. Depending on how far you were from the shooter blind or sighted made no differents in your chances. Day or night doesn't matter either. Crazy people will be crazy. Even if you can see someone if you can't shoot back and she or he is shooting at you your chances are bad.
Fear makes people forget to fall on the floor, so they run to the door. He was probably banking on that.
I agree, I sometimes hear of a news item like this and wonder if I would have been a survivor or a victim. But I firmly believe you shouldn't change your lifestyle just because some crazy person might be in the crowd. I mean crazy people with no regard for life can be anywhere. You can be sitting on your front porch on a hot summer night and be hit by a stray bullet or by a drive-by shooter. So staying home isn't necessarily any safer than going out in a crowd.
Less important than eyes is your disposition, and perhaps if for a medical reason you cannot hit the ground in time. If it were me in the theater, I and those with me would be hitting the ground and, if chicks, sue me later. Your eyes aren't your biggest enemy in a situation like that, your disposition is. Running, shouting, panicking, flailing people get killed. If I had one of the young spazzes with me, I'd probably pin her arms to her side so there'd be no flappin', and put a hand over her mouth to prevent squawkin'. Shooters in this instance are bottom feeders and so are going for the most vulnerable.
Vunerable in this instance = running, jumping, shouting, screaming, anything to draw attention to oneself. Also best to be getting under the seats out of the way of trampling human hooves.
Contrary to popular mythology, people are trained into a level head and stout disposition. Few are just born that way. That means if you today are a flighty flappy flutterbudgety squealgirl you can train and become level-heded. It's not out of your reach.
A really good exercise program is a great way to start because in order to become fit yu control your own body, your own responses, whether it's to push yourself for the next quarter mile, or test yourself to see how many you can do. And practice on all the little things that affect you daily: all the things that make you stress, train yourself to handle situations with an even temperament. I believe women and girls can do this as easily as men and boys. After all, men and boys are just culturally trained for it by their fathers and older men, while girls are culturally trained that their emotional outbursts are something they cannot help or control, and the rest of us just have to put up with. This is not a nice thing the feminists and/or chivalrists have done: they have farmed girls out to be food for bottom feeders like this guy. In a world where women and men can come and go as they please and are not cloistered, women need the same tools men have had for millennia, to be able to control their own emotional outbursts. The men and man-boys you see who don't, and who are volatile like that, are at the same disadvantage.
But girls CAN do it as well as we guys: I've seen it done in the Coast Guard. And girls who don't, who rely on psychology and things that say they just can't? It's like a blind person refusing to do laundry because they can't see the colors of the clothes or the soap. Only far more dangerous, because, as I said, people who commit these acts of domestic terror are bottom-feeders, and they BANK on you screaming, carrying on, flailing and flapping about like chickens in a box. But you have to practice in your everyday situations, learning to not go flighty over every little thing. Every time you conquer your emotions, you're equipping yourself to be stronger and more capable should any sort of situation arise.
What chance would we have? As good as anyone else. Personally, I find it amusing that anyone would think that a blind person shouldn't go out at night because, in the event of a shooting, a fire, etc, they would parish more rapidly than their sighted counterparts. That's such crap, because in the event of a shooting or a fire, no one is really watching anything. I agree with the previous poster; The calmer you are, the more chances you have. It has nothing to do with sight. We're just as mobile as anyone else who happens to have vision. If we were in wheelchairs, then that would probably be a bit of a different story. A person in a wheel chair can't get on the ground as quickly as a person who has use of their legs, I imagine. It's so funny that people warn us not to go out in the dark; People. We already live in the dark. How much harm can it do us to go out at night. We can't see anything anyway during the day. So perhaps we shouldn't go out either at night or in the day. Would that be safer? lol
My sister use to ask me that exact question, because I would offten times travel home at 3 AM and will even now go out at night. "aren't you afraid of going out at night" Its dark?
Well I am no better off in the day either, so. Lol
There are more people around during the day. I knew of one guy who got choked for his money, and another person had their dog shot and killed. The girl was then raped and robbed. I don't say stuff won't happen during the day, but at night there are fewer people around. That being said, I worked in a bad neighborhood at a hospital for 9 years. A job was a job. Folks told me I had a bad transfer point for a bus, right in a ghetto. I have to say I then put an ad in hospital papers for a ride home at night, but did travel to work in the morning.
Meant to say in my last post, when I did the hospital job for 9 years, there was no paratransit, no cell phones. With technology now, it helps some.
This is the exact reason I support blind people learning how to defend themselves. So many of us think we can't do it because we're blind, especially with guns and the like. I fully support learning how to, and actually carrying a gun by a blind person. If not a gun, then learning some other way of defending yourself.
Its awareness that makes you safer, not sight. Sighted people are mugged and raped every day. We need to be equally aware as sighted people, and we can be. In fact we can be more aware. We just have to try.
As for the shooting in Colorado, the best thing to do would be to hit the floor, get between the seats and hide. The man was aiming at the door. There was actually an interview with a victim who was saying that people told her not to run because if she went through the door, he'd shoot her.
Still, events like this are so rare, don't let them effect your life. Don't deny yourself the joy of an independent life just because you're afraid to be injured. learn a safety technique, and some basic rules of safety, and be aware at all times. That's my advice.
I know if I were in that situation, I would have hit the floor and played dead. Not everyone can fit out those doors at once and that is why the shooter killed and injured so many people. You have to have a plan because things happen unexpectedely. I have taken some self defence classes but whether I could beat the hell out of someone with my cane, I don't know if I could do that if i were in a panic. i try not to put myself in places I don't know unless I am with my husband. Again, I would have just hit the floor and if that didn't work and I got shot anyway, oh well... you just never know.
The trick also is to learn not to panic.
The term for training your responses is called neuroplasticity. Sadly, especially American white chicks, are fully convinced that they are total slaves to their emotions and hormones. The truth? I'm not a slave to testosterone and the sometimes edgy nature it can put me into, nor the tendency to become depressed for months on end. The reason is training your brain. Some call it brain-hacking, whatever you call it, stop thinking large and start thinking small. Train your brain for the small everyday situations and you will better handle the big ones.
It doesn't mean you don't use what we call intuition in an immediate situation. The reason you have that as a survival mechanism is it is technically slower to think through a baseball coming towards your head, and what to do about it, than it is to reflexively duck. But intuition is just a pattern of learned responses. The real trick is to learn the right responses. Knowing that you have control over these things is very freeing.
The most haveful, racist and misogynistic statement against white women I can think of is this nonsense that they are totally mastered by hormones and emotions, and just can't master it. I used to believe it, make compensations, and think we all were being sensitive and enlightened. And all the while, young men with a decent role model are taught to control themselves. That would definitely place women at a profound, and unnecessary, disadvantage.
That sort of thinking created the legislation Amelia Earheart worked to overturn, preventing female aviators from flying aircraft while on their menstrual cycle. That same menstrual cycle argument was placed against women serving in the Armed Forces. And it's the same thinking that tells young girls they just can't help it, while their assailant may have had the advantage of being taught to control himself as a man, used it wrong, and through a series of cold and calculated steps easily spotted them as food.
Start by training yourself to remain in control when you're taken off guard, when you have a bad hair day, when you're just so stressed you can't help yourself. That will take you miles in having the advantage in any situation, be it a shooting like this, a natural disaster, or anything else. As equals, women should avail themselves of the same advantage as the rest of us. Probably easier in some ways for independent women with disabilities, who are already familiar with the problems associated with the overprotective and excuse-making situation that can affect a disabled person. Not calling womanhood or manhood a disability, just drawing the logical connection.
The problem I have with self-defense classes is that they are usually a one time thing. You go, you learn a few basics, and that's it. That will lead to you not remembering anything you were taught when you need it.
When you're learning to use a gun defensively, the thing you practice most isn't the actual shooting, its drawing the gun and getting it into play. That part is the hardest. the shooting you practice at the range.
If you're going to take a self-defense class, practice it daily. Then you will be confident that you'll remember it.
I don't think a gun is a good form of self-defense. Not really. Not in a situation like this. And I'm not just saying it's not good for a blind person; I'm saying it's not a wise choice for anyone in general. Anything can happen in a crowd. Your gun can be knocked out of your hand, someone can bump into you and you can accidentally skew your range... Admittedly, I don't know much about guns, so before anyone jumps down my throat for being inaccurate about some tiny specific thing, Let me just say this. I don't care. I wouldn't feel safe knowing that someone had a gun in the general public, whether it be with good or bad intensions. Yes. Cops carry guns. And yes, even they make me nervous sometimes, not every cop has good intensions. But at least a cop's had formal training. And he's expected to cary a gun. I don't think I want every tom, dick and matilda packing a pistol. If you want to cary a gun, become a cop. If you want to defend yourself and others, become familiar with any of the fight techniques that are practiced. There's no need to defend yourself with bullets; It's enough that there are fucking mental cases walking around loaded already. Be smart, think fast, stay calm, and have good reflexes. There's no need for any extra bullets flying around in any panicked crowd, especially if they're being fired off by amateurs.
those who say the calmer you are, the better, hit the nail right on the head.
also, just because there are more people around during the day, doesn't mean any of them will be ready to help you, should you find yourself in a dangerous predicament.
so, that argument doesn't hold weight, as far as I'm concerned.
if you can't help yourself/don't know what to do when a crazy person starts shooting, or any other scary situation, that's your own damn fault.
no one else is, or should be held responsible for what you don't know or do. that's all there is to it.
Write away, you just gave every argument given by the anti-concealed carry advocates, and honestly, they're all bad. I understand where your coming from, but it really shows a lack of education about guns and concealed carry. Which is not a sin.
First, little known fact, cops only have to train at a range once a year, and some not even that much. Concealed gun carriers practice on average once a month. Its the exact same training, you shoot your gun, one does it once a year, one does it once a month. Most police training is not gun involved.
next, concealed carry classes teach you to choose when is good to use a gun, and when it isn't. This situation is one of the isn't times. if you're in a crowd, you shooting would just add to the chaos. Carrying a gun is an individual protection, perhaps a protection for your loved ones, no more than that. You're taught not to pull out your gun in a crowd.
Also, I've gone into this on other boards, but martial arts are not good ideas for defense. They only work under set circumstances. That is why they are taught in a gym, and why their are rules. There are no rules in an attack. Very few styles of martial art are actually designed for defense. They are designed for exercise and fitness, but not actual defense. In a real fight, the ones who are trained in martial arts, are often the victims.
If a person that was practiced up on using his or her gun were in that crowd he'd not have shot so many people. They'd have taken him out.
He had on a vest, and helmet, so this would have had to be someone that was effective.
No, it would have had to have been someone with goggles, and probably infrared goggles. He through teargas intothe theater. If someone had pulled out a gun and tried to take him out, they would probably have killed as many people as he did. No trained person would have taken out their gun in that instance. Its not what the concealed weapon is for.
When will America learn. When everyone has a gun!
What's that supposed to mean?
Its a slogan by some gun rights activist that is basically saying that the people who are against guns, probably don't own one. If they owned one, they'd know how they work and how they're properly used, and they probably wouldn't want gun restrictions so much. I don't really believe that's entirely true though. Some people are just afraid of guns.
Still, interesting fact, Switzerland actually issues an automatic rifle to its citizens, and they have the lowest crime rate in Europe. Go figure.
All the crooks keep there money there. Gonna be peaceful.
I should have phrased that different, they have the lowest violent crime rate in europe. Lots of other crime in switzerland, but very few people breaking into homes.
I've even heard that in some countries you're actually required to own a firearm because of the crime there. The way I see it is guns themselves aren't the problem and never have been. It's some of the people who use them. Like drugs, the more laws we make to try to restrict guns the more people are going to find other ways to get them if they really want them.
As I said the crooks keep there money there. If you know its gonna be hard or deadly you'd not brake in either. Lol
A sighted person has as little chance as a blind person has against a bullet. It wouldn't have mattered.
I agree, a bullet is a bullet, sight has little to do with anything in a terrifying situation like this.
What's really ad/disconcerting is that people are so scared of terrorism when statistically it makes no sense to be. Honestly, the fear is much worse than reality, and people who are scared probably should have a look at the facts, and then continue living. I'm not saying live stupidly, but realize just how unlikely it is that terror will ever effect you before throwing away your rights/freedom.
This article is a bit add heavy, but the stats are interesting.
http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/06/how-scared-of-terrorism-should
No thanks to the damn media, and the government of course. I mean yes terrorism sould be resisted but the way they talk is bound to make people paranoid. And we saw the same thing with the piggy pox AKA Swine Flue outbreak a few years back.
I bet there is some kind of study that says keeping the overall level of fear in society artificially high makes people buy things, or something like that. LOL!
wow, nice topic, and good points made, no extra points from me, I would have said just about that much. except for the last few posts.. nice tips too. I agree.