I understand talking about allowing concealed carry on college campuses in response to the Virginia Tech horror but... it's more about the attitude it represents than than the slim chance (which is better than none) that someone would have been present who had a gun with them and would also have had the opportunity to use it.
Instapundit linked to an older post from Dr. Helen. Read it!
The assumption, the practice of self-defense, is what makes the difference. You are not impotent. You are not powerless. Without this reality firmly in your head you are *not* going to be able to fight back when under stress.
We are safer when people assume that we each are the first line of defense for our own safety. The assumption is more important than the weapon. The weapon is merely a symbol of that assumption.
Not that all advice on how to survive a violent crime first tries to make you feel powerless or suggests going along with your attacker hoping not to get hurt. But then maybe I listen to people who understand that fighting back makes you safer.
When we first moved here I recall someone saying that it's better to be shot refusing to go along with your attacker because bleeding in the parking lot of Home Depot you're within minutes of the emergency room. Dead on the mesa, you're just dead.
Common sense. Remember poor Polly Class? She could have screamed, she and her friend, and parents would have come running. She obeyed her abductor, believed that obeying was what she should do, (and her friend waited, as told to wait, before reporting that Polly had been taken away, IIRC,) and Polly was killed.
Believing that someone who is threatening you or robbing you or abducting you "doesn't want to hurt you" is incredibly foolish. Believing that going along with them makes you safer is incredibly foolish.
Instapundit linked to an older post from Dr. Helen. Read it!
Have you noticed that most of the tips you get in recent years for how to survive a violent crime involve an accompanying psychological maneuver of first trying to make you feel impotent?
The assumption, the practice of self-defense, is what makes the difference. You are not impotent. You are not powerless. Without this reality firmly in your head you are *not* going to be able to fight back when under stress.
We are safer when people assume that we each are the first line of defense for our own safety. The assumption is more important than the weapon. The weapon is merely a symbol of that assumption.
Not that all advice on how to survive a violent crime first tries to make you feel powerless or suggests going along with your attacker hoping not to get hurt. But then maybe I listen to people who understand that fighting back makes you safer.
When we first moved here I recall someone saying that it's better to be shot refusing to go along with your attacker because bleeding in the parking lot of Home Depot you're within minutes of the emergency room. Dead on the mesa, you're just dead.
Common sense. Remember poor Polly Class? She could have screamed, she and her friend, and parents would have come running. She obeyed her abductor, believed that obeying was what she should do, (and her friend waited, as told to wait, before reporting that Polly had been taken away, IIRC,) and Polly was killed.
Believing that someone who is threatening you or robbing you or abducting you "doesn't want to hurt you" is incredibly foolish. Believing that going along with them makes you safer is incredibly foolish.
Comments
The focus on evasion and taking cover is more of a tactical precept, than any sort of psychological attempt at training the civilian mind in philosophy and justifications. And that's the difference. Tactics is not the same as psychology or philosophy, but you need both in a violent situation. You need to know what actions are justified, and which actions you will need to take that will help you reach your goals. You cannot sort through all this stuff in the moment of crisis, you must pre-plan it.
And if a person has a set psychological outlook on violence, their tactics will derive from such.
When we first moved here I recall someone saying that it's better to be shot refusing to go along with your attacker because bleeding in the parking lot of Home Depot you're within minutes of the emergency room. Dead on the mesa, you're just dead.
You know what happens when you stand in front of a cavalry charge by more than 2000 horses and men, and you start thinking about what those guys on sabers will do to you when they arrive at your location? Holding the line becomes less likely the more you think about how the enemy is going to slaughter you instead of what you are going to do to the enemy.