Dethroner Tactics: What to Do Against a Man with a Gun?
Published by Joel April 23rd, 2007 in Fighting. Share ThisFor obvious reasons, there has been much armchair prognosticating about what a person should do if confronted by an attacker with a gun. Slate’s Explainer has one take:
Fight or flee, depending on the situation. Running away should be your first plan, when possible. At 20 feet from the gunman, you’re still within a deadly range, but at 40 feet, you’re a difficult shot. If he starts to shoot as you’re making your escape, try to run in a zigzag or another unpredictable pattern. To escape through an upper-floor window, find a drain pipe or a ledge that can slow your descent or let you slide down part of the way. You’ll likely hurt your ankles when you land, so be prepared to break the fall with a quick roll. Protect your body by rolling over one shoulder, diagonally across the back and onto the opposite hip.
Explainer goes on to explain the most economical ways to disarm the attacker, should fleeing not be an option.
While it’s impossible for anyone to accurately second-guess what they’d do in a similar situation, it’s interesting to consider. Without a clean line of sight, throwing something heavy would be impossible. (And we’re presuming that you are un-armed, yourself.) If running is not an option, it would seem passivity would remain the most hopeful option.
Fight or Flight at Virginia Tech [Slate]
i wouldn’t definitely play dead. it would be especially effective because i would have already emptied my bladder and bowels.
Or, have your own gun and know how to use it. Most states allow law-abiding citizens to obtain carry permits for a small financial and adequate training investment. Against a man with a gun you can bet I’m running away too, but also have other options if there is nowhere to go. Passivity just makes you a non-moving target. Seung-Hui Cho shot everyone, moving or not. Of course, don’t try this in a school dorm…that’s a no-no. Only psychopaths are allowed to have guns in college dorms.
It’s hard to say what one would actually do in a situation like that…I’d like to think I’d be like *bleep*in’ MacGyver ‘n’ shit. You’ve got to think on your feet…improvise.
brian, are you suggesting carrying a gun around at all times? this paranoia seems way overboard. personally, despite the fact that i’m around guns all the time at work, i find them repulsive and would never carry one. while the Va Tech stuff certainly is tragic and headline grabbing, the fact remains that 99% of us will never be in a situation like this.
“i find them repulsive and would never carry one.”
Well, then you can just curl up in a ball and cry while some other responsible citizen takes up your slack in the social contract.
Carrying a gun is not about “paranoia” it’s about having the tool you need in the radically unlikely chance that you’ll actually ever need it. The old axiom comes to mind: Better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.
it is social contract to carry around somethine made only to kill others? excuse me? that’s absurd. the chance that you will EVER need to carry a concealed weapon is so freaking small that, yes, it is paranoia.
adam, if no one ever needs them, why are there anywhere from 200,000 (the conservative estimate) to 2,000,000 (the NRA party line) DEFENSIVE uses of licensed firearms by non-police or military each year?
As for your ignorance of what I meant by the social contract, I meant that it’s inherent upon us all to at least make an effort to try to protect one another in dangerous situations. So, when a nutcase decides to attack your group with a gun, you can fulfill your part of the contract by lying in a puddle and crying “Please don’t hurt me, I hate guns.”
That’ll sure stop ‘em in their tracks, eh?
You trying to insult responsible gun owners by demeaning the idea of being prepared for an emergency is laughable. What emergencies are you prepared for that will likely never happen? What precautions do you take every day that, statistically speaking, are utterly useless?
Glass houses, my friend. Luckily for you, there are people willing to bear your spite and insults and would save your butt anyway if it ever came to that.
again, the chances of needed a gun that you constantly carry around are silly. and the prospect of allowing college students to carry them on campus is quite scary. think of the people you went to college with. would you want them constantly armed. the likely result of Va Tech students with guns last week would have been more people being shot during the scary and confusing situation.
again, i’ll *not* carry a fire arm, and be perfectly fine, while you huddle around your power generator and wait for the coming apocalypse.
Again your argument consists of insult and derision. Good luck with that. I hope you never find out how wrong you are.
Um, ok. So I’ve been shot at once, and had a gun put in my face another time. I know how to shoot a gun, and how to defend myself pretty well, but in both of those instances, (both times with my back turned to the person, unaware that it was even a tense situation, much less violent) having a gun on me would have done me no good, and probably would have gotten me killed. It’s rarely a black and white situation.