Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Notes on the News

It's been a busy couple of days, and I haven't even thought about this blog. However, did you read about the guy who held up the Bellagio Casino in Vegas. He walked over to the craps table with a pistol and made off with 1.5 million in chips. What was the guy thinking? It's not like that's real money. And if he shows up at the cashier's cage with a stack of $25,000 chips, the casino is bound to ask questions.

Next we read about a shooting at a Florida School Board Meeting. It seems that the guy was upset about something, pulled a pistol and threatened the School Board. After the shooter got off several shots, the school security chief shot the guy and the shooter finished the incident by killing himself.

This guy fits the pattern for a school shooter. The pattern is normally that a shooter will provoke the helpless until confronted by an armed adversary. Once an armed adversary shows up, the shooter normally commits suicide. That's why we're trained to aggressively approach an active shooter and take him under fire as soon as possible. It's the safest way to end the conflict.

In other news, I'm going hunting this weekend even if it hair-lips every cow in Texas. I've been too long away from the lease and I'm starting to get twitchy.

2 comments:

Rivrdog said...

It helped that the shooter couldn't have hit the broad side of a barn with his gun.

What I want to know is why the school board was doing the amateur shrink thing with him. Seems to me that their best bet would have been to push their panic buttons, clam up and listen to his rant until an armed person got there to take him out.

That's piss-poor technique to say ANYTHING to one of those loonies. You MAY think that you're defusing the guy, but instead, you may just push his button.

Anonymous said...

Most of us serving on school boards don't have panic buttons. And thanks to the gun control law(s), Board members can't protect ourselves on school property.

But Rivrdog, you're correct, it would have been best to let him rant until one of the people sent out of the room could bring back help.

Dz