Another Virginia Tech tragedy: student murdered

No, I'm comparing the all-purpose instinct to "get involved" with the reality of your chances to subdue an armed attacker who all of a sudden starts attacking people.

Or is your instinct in that split-second somehow going to change whether that attacker pulls out a knife at a cafe or at a day care center?

 

Buck, you're forgetting one thing. What gets me shit on my people here is my opinion on the bus incident. My opinion is, and always will be, that a bus full of people in a small, confined space could have at least tried to subdue that maniac instead of running away.

You get four or five guys, bum rush him with seat cushions and not only are you (theoretically) ok, you prevent said psycho from cutting the dude's frakking head off.

You may not have saved his live, but you prevent the family from having to live with the most morbid details of that crime.

But, I'm sorry, what was I thinking? If you run off the bus fast enough maybe you can outrun your shame.

 

I have read that police tactics advise staying 20 feet away from someone armed with a knife, unless you are armed. And that's for a trained combatant.

 

So explain to me how you're going to get "four or five guys" to formulate a plan of attack, agree to a plan of attack and execute that plan of attack ... all the while this creep's got a knife and he's acting psychotic on the bus/cafe/whatever.

You'd be lucky if you can get one other person to help, let alone several. And even then, you're still unarmed and facing a psycho with a knife.

I repeat: idiotic machismo, even if I can empathize with the instinct to get involved (especially if kids are around.) You sound like a G.I. Joe wanna-be.

 

I doubt very much that the people working at the child-care centre had any kind of training designed to disarm a painted-up lunatic with a knife.

Until you've actually walked in the shoes of one of those bus passengers, why don't you just keep your misinformed opinions to yourself?

 

It's a lot easier to say what one should do (theoretically), but it's a lot more difficult I'm sure when you're actually faced with a life-or-death situation.

 

Absolutely.
I told this story before on the bus murder thread, but when I was in high school, I applied for a job at a convenience store and one of my friends tried to convince me I wasn't cut out for the job.
He asked what I would do if someone tried to rob the store. In a mocking tone, he said I'd probably just give him the money and call the cops. He was implying that if it were him, he'd use some martial arts stuff and kick the crap out of the guy or use a gun that owned to shoot him or some macho bullshit like that.
Well, he was right about that. I would give the robber the money. First, most companies have a policy that requires the clerk to do that and not try to physically subdue the robber. Second, if thinking that my life is worth more than the contents of the register makes me a pussy, than I guess I'm a pussy.
But I'm a pussy who gets to go home at the end of the shift.
I know it's apples and oranges compared to the cases we're talking about, but lacking the training to deal with an armed attacker, I'm not going to try to be a hero, especially if the victim is already dead.

 

Gal had graduated from MUN in St. John's, N.L., so their China connection must go back a few years?

 

There is a massive backstory to this crime that I hate to say I'm anxious to read.

 

When a person removes another person's head, when is there not a backstory?

 

Big, BIG talk from someone who wasn't there.

 

Pretty tough bouncer dude once told me that guys who scare him most aren't the ones with guns, they're the ones with knives. A gun can jam, misfire, someone can forget to load it. When someone's coming at you with a knife, you're in knee-deep, no matter how many ninja moves you claim to know.