reply to post by Vasa Croe
No one is going to know how they are going to react uhtil they are in the situation.
and there are emotional steps you have to work through to get to a place of reasoning.
And it is easy to decide things sitting from the couch. Just like the greatest athletes in teh world are watching the game from the couch.
Most of the people were probably sitting there because they were:
completely and utterly confused
had no idea what to do
were in shock
were in denial
and then responded to the flight instinct and ran.
In many many studies of psychological response to emergency situations, the first reaction is to just sit there.
Denial is the first response for most. Many report that they shut down, the feel they are watching the events from somewhere else, like an out of body
experience. They can only hear or see certain things.They don't feel anything.
This is the bodies way of protecting the body and the mind from shock. Or keeping from doing something bold and stupid and making hasty decisions, and
allows the brain to gather information before making decisions. Like horses panicking and running into the burning barn.
You may be able to walk around with a gun. But not all places you can. Gun ownership here is so uptight and taboo that people can't even admit they
collect them.
You are not allowed to carry a concealed weapon unless your life has been threatened, and you have to prove it.
And I have seen many people who proved they were threatened, and they still were not allowed to carry.
Even if you own permits and go to a shooting range,and you have a gun in your trunk, law enforcement may still take it from you for analysis.
The ONLY people here who are armed are police and thugs.
In fact it is instinct here that if you see a gun in public you duck because your in the middle of a police shootout or a drug deal gone bad.
My point is that it is so easy to judge and think you know what you are gonna do. And most people think they are gonna be heros, but it is not fair to
judge others when you were not there.
I do agree with you however that a citizen should be able to arm themselves. When i moved from my communist state to Arizona, where everyone can
carry, it was like a different world that took much getting used to.
But the first thing I noticed, is that there were very little muggings, rapes, murders, etc.
Mostly burglaries and car thefts. And everyone does exercise their right to carry. Even grandma could be packing heat. LOL
I would mention guns and all of a sudden everyone whips theirs out.
They thought it was weird that they made me jump. *see former statement*
When you have an unarmed society,you just have armed thugs. Because they are gonnna get guns no matter what.
When everyone carries, no one attacks anybody.Then you have an old west shootout.
What I also learned that was interesting is that everyone highly respects their guns and are very careful with them.
They are not careless. And they take their guns very seriously. Most people seek training though they don't have too. And kids are taught to respect
them.
There were hardly any accidental shootings there. But a lot of kids drowning in pools.
Not that I am gonna advocate guns in schools, but I tell people when we debate gun control: if the teachers were armed in Columbine, how far do you
think those boys would of gotten?
[edit on 2-8-2008 by nixie_nox]