The shootings

It's terrible. My best friend woke me this evening with the news, which I had missed before going to bed for the day.

Scott and I speculated on this question: Did anyone fight back?!?

If not, why, in this post- 9/11/2001 American society, are we not teaching our youth to fight back? Did we learn nothing from those on United Flight 93? From Jake Ryker's subduing the shooter in Springfield Oregon? From Joel Myrick stopping the mayhem in Pearl, Mississippi? Does no one remember how shoe bomber Richard Reid was stopped from committing his own suicide attack by unarmed citizens?

I have no problem with those who ran, jumped out a window, or locked themselves away. Regular readers here will recall that I'm a big proponent of running away from an attack, if you can, and if you're not charged with the duty to stop it. Trust me, I'm not saying that a suicide charge needs to be mounted every time a disturbed individual gets a little gunhappy. I'm saying that, when you find yourself in a corner, and there's no way out, you have to say to yourself, "I ain't goin' like that." Maybe you don't have the means or the freedom to carry a firearm. Maybe you've utterly blown it, and you've got nothing at all beyond the body and the clothing that God and J.C. Penny gave you. Are you going to die, shot while cowering, with your death meaning nothing? Which way will you fall?

If the balloon goes up, and my ticket is punched, please, God, let me fall toward my attacker.

And let me get a lick in.