The Pessimist

Millions of Muslims heaved a giant sigh of relief today as the identity of the Virginia Tech mass murderer was announced. He was a Korean bastard -- a country with no Muslim population. So, Muslim extremists were not involved in this latest tragedy. Phew!

Of course, there shouldn't have been much worry. Muslim extremists aren't known for close quarters combat, unless the victim is their wife, or daughter or other female relative. Or perhaps a hog-tied hostage being decapitated. No, Muslim extremists are happiest when sowing death with roadside bombs, or suicide belts or RPGs.

The Virginia tragedy was very sad. I won't be mentioning gun control at this time. Everybody knows the U.S has none and wants none. Periodic travesties like this one can't budge their consitutional right to quick and easy access to deadly assault weapons. But with everyone so heavily armed in the States, what are the odds that nobody on the scene was packing heat and willing/able to take out this freak.

I do wonder how one person can kill 30. One can, of course, never know how one might react in a situation like this. I'm certainly just as likely to have voided my bladder and my bowels and dived under my desk too. But, you'd think that when a gunman enters a (class)room filled with people and opens fire, that somebody, or preferably several somebodies, would have jumped the bastard. Yes, you might get shot, or you might die. But, you're trapped in a room and are quite likely be shot or die anyway.

Before 9/11, it was conventional wisdom to sit on your hands and keep your eyes down during a hijacking and hope everything turns out ok. I don't think that would happen now. With the number of school shootings in the recent past, shouldn't the fight back approach be tried now. It is now police protocol in Ontario (and perhaps elsewhere), to charge in and kill the gunman, rather than cordon of the area and wait for the gunman to kill themselves, as was done in Columbine.

I wonder what The Worst Case Scenario would recommend?