I'm going to disagree with one of my favorite gun bloggers, Say Uncle. Regarding the recent stabbing, disembowelment, and decapitation that recently happened on a Greyhound bus
So, let that seep in a minute. 50 or 60 times and then decapitated him. 37 passengers and a bus driver nearby. How long do you suppose it takes to stab someone 50 or 60 times and then decapitate them? And none of the 38 others intervened? Brave? Now, it’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback but, Jumping Jesus on a Pogo Stick, I cannot imagine why no one tried to intervene.
So, let that seep in a minute. 50 or 60 times and then decapitated him. 37 passengers and a bus driver nearby. How long do you suppose it takes to stab someone 50 or 60 times and then decapitate them? And none of the 38 others intervened? Brave?
Now, it’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback but, Jumping Jesus on a Pogo Stick, I cannot imagine why no one tried to intervene.
Because it is totally unnatural to run towards danger. We didn't survive as a species because we ran into the exploding volcano or thought "Wow! That was an interesting growl. I wonder if I can see what kind of animal made that?". No, we survived because we ran like hell.
Eventually, man figured that a long, sharp stick put us out of reach of the pointy fangs of the kitty that wanted to make us dinner. We learned that the loud KABOOM from the mountain and the pretty red gunk rolling down the side weren't things to go touching. We instinctively learned to avoid certain colors when choosing a snack because generally, things that were of those colors were not generally 'food' and would make us sick.
They had a term for people who didn't learn those things - desert.
Here's an experiment. Walk into a large crowd, light and drop an M-80. Watch how the people scatter away from the sound (then watch as the cops pummel your ass).
As gun owners, we tend to have a little bit of bravado about us. This isn't just compensation for miniature genitalia, it's because we've taken on the responsibility for our own safety and some of us train our minds to be able to overcome the natural panic instinct. But the vast majority of the populace exists in Code White and have no ability or training to ever exist in anything else. In any situation, running is the best option as it stands the best chance of preserving one's own personal line of genetics. Move away from the danger.
Because we are armed, we also have the "long, pointy stick". Weapons come in different flavors - those that give us reach, those that multiply our force, and those that give us mobility or speed. Guns fit into the first two easily and with a bit of creative twisting, the last as well. With a firearm, you can take the minimal energy of grasping the gun and pulling the trigger into a small bullet traveling at hundreds to thousands of feet per second, you have multiplied your force. By the fact that the bullet can travel long distances, you've also extended your reach. Because of this, we can remove ourselves from the immediate vicinity of danger and still act. To be honest, this isn't really "brave" either since, if I were sitting on the back of the bus, I'd have very little danger involved to myself in shooting the bastard.
It's part of what makes the firearm so damned effective.
But these people didn't have guns. They were Canadians. No offence, but Canucks, like many other Western civilizations have self-neutered when it comes to protecting themselves. The best course of action was to run since none of them knew any better.
This is part of what I fight for in my blog here, but I sense that I'm fighting a battle that would have King Leonidas I of Sparta tossing in the towel. We are societal creatures. We do best when we specialize and utilize the skills of our neighbors to compliment our own. However, there are many things which are not beneficial to specialize in, and self reliance / protection is one of them (along with parenting and wiping one's ass). As we've grown more and more accustomed to only having to do one or two things well in life to survive, we've lost that ability to do much in the way of protecting ourselves except run and hope someone else will do it for us.
This gruesome story is part of what happens when we do.
No, those people weren't cowards. Faced with the same situation, I may have chunked a fire extinguisher at the guy, but I wouldn't have put my own life in the way when it wasn't clear I was going to change the outcome. Also, not having been in such a situation, I can't say for sure that my own instincts wouldn't kick in and, like the caveman would do when faced with the saber-toothed sloth, got the hell out of there, preserving my own self for another day.