7 Seconds

I haven’t paid much attention to the mainstream media lately; but, from what I gather, the church shooting in White Settlement, TX has gone largely “under the radar”. The cynic in me would argue that it hasn’t gotten much press because it doesn’t “fit the narrative”. Whether that is the case or not, I don’t truly care. What I do care about are the lessons this incident can teach us if we pay attention.

First, if you haven’t already, go watch John Correia’s analysisof the video at Active Self Protection on YouTube. He gives a thoughtful, unbiased analysis of the incident which is worth anyone’s time regardless of whether you carry a gun or not. Here are some of my thoughts after thinking on this.

1: Evil can happen anywhere. Even in a “House of God”. This shooting took place in a suburb on the west side of Ft. Worth. According to Google Maps, West Freeway Church of Christ is 24 miles / 28 minutes from my house. This isn’t the 5TH Ward in Houston, the south side of Chicago or some other big city “bad” neighborhood. This is flyover country suburbia. It could have been anywhere. Tragedies happen every day and just about every corner of this old mud ball we call home. Sure, we expect tragedy in a war zone or even a “bad neighborhood”. A lot of us get complacent because we live in a “nice neighborhood.” If you want an eye opener, look up the police blotter for your area. You would not believe the amount of stuff that happens within walking distance of your front door. You can also plug your zip code and email address into www.spotcrime.com, and you will get a daily email of the crimes committed within 5 miles of your home.

2: Evil happens fast. Go watch the video of the shooting. Go watch videos of any violent encounters that are out there. The White Settlement shooting went from a peaceful Sunday at church to full rodeo to over and done in less than 10 seconds (the seven seconds mentioned in the title). We can quibble about the reports that the church security team had concerns about the shooter before he pulled the shotgun and what they coulda shoulda woulda done; however, the simple fact is that no “civilian” in the congregation had time to say hello to a 911 operator much less give any detail before the entire incident was over. The police, even with an officer in the parking lot, could not have responded fast enough to handle this situation without even more innocent people being killed or injured. The only incident I can recall in recent memory where police stopped a shooter cold before they had a chance to do harm was the “Draw Mohammad” Cartoon Contest in Garland, TX where a police officer working an off-duty security gig stopped the would be shooter in his tracks before he even had a chance to get inside.

3: The only human being you can rely on to protect you is you. The US Supreme Court ruled in the 2005 case “Castle Rock v. Gonzales” that the police do not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm. This ruling affirmed a 1981 court of appeals case with the same finding. The police cannot be everywhere, nor can they be everything to everyone. They generally do not have legal justification to act until a crime has been committed. Even then, the old saying is true: “When seconds count, the police are minutes away.” This is not intended as a harsh indictment of the police but rather a statement of fact. Look up the average response time for police in your area. An active shooter situation will get the highest priority the department can give it, but the time between when dispatch makes the call to when officers arrive on scene will be more than a minute and likely more than a couple of minutes. As this incident shows, life and death is measured in seconds.

There is a quote I usually see referenced as Rule 23 for Combat that goes: “Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence and de-escalation.” I take this to mean that you cannot live in a bubble and expect everything to be just fine. You have to take an active role in your own protection. Walking around oblivious to the world around you is a recipe for disaster and tragedy. Look at the video again closely. How many people had guns out by the time it was all said and done? At least 5 that I counted and I’ve heard as many as seven.

4: Your mind is the weapon. Everything else is just tools. Train your mind to use any tools you can to defend yourself. There was an Air Force fighter pilot by the name of John Boyd who came up with the concept of the OODA loop. An OODA Loop is not an aerobatic maneuver, but rather a tactical and strategic concept that can be applied broadly in a variety of endeavors. OODA stands for “Observe, Orient, Decide, Act”. Jack Wilson, knowingly or unwittingly applied the OODA Loop to great affect in less than 7 seconds. You’ve probably heard people say there is no timer in a gunfight. The truth is there is a timer, and it is the aggressor who starts the clock. You, as the defender, have to “get inside the aggressor’s OODA Loop”. You do that by implementing your own OODA Loop that will hopefully throw off the aggressor’s plans enough for you to gain the advantage. If that means taking a shot, throwing a book, tackling the aggressor, etc., you use the tools at your disposal to eliminate the threat.

5: Evil will find a way. Felons don’t get their weapons legally. Very few mass shooters in recent history obtained their weapons through legal means. When guns were not available, rocks, sticks, cars and other weapons do stand in duty as the tool of choice for those intent on committing murder. 9/11 proved that a box cutter is all that is required to take control of an airplane and turn that plane into a flying bomb.

6: Evil isn’t always easy to identify. The White Settlement shooter reportedly walked in wearing a trench coat and a fake beard. I’d call that a tad odd but not necessarily evil. As odd as that is, very few people have the ability to read the mind of another human being and know their intentions. Two innocent church goers paid the ultimate price because it was not possible to discern the shooter’s intentions before it was too late. Could they have handled the situation differently and avoided unnecessary blood shed? I don’t know, and neither does anyone else. I am sure they believe they made the best decision they could at the time with what they knew and saw, and I am equally sure the survivors will second guess those decisions for the rest of their lives.

7: Skill training is important. As Wyatt Earp said: “Fast is fine. Accuracy is final.” Do not ignore basic marksmanship skills. Shot placement is critical, and putting shots where they need to go on demand when it counts is literally life and death in a situation like this. You cannot expect to “rise to the occasion”. Here’s a simple test: go to the range, no warm up/no practice, set up a life sized silhouette target at 10-15 yards, put a 3x5 index card in the head of the target, set a shot time for random start and find out how long it takes you to put one cold bore shot in the index card. Did you even hit the index card? If you did, was it less than seven seconds? Now, add adrenaline and movement into the mix. Did you still hit the target? Now, add in some “no shoots” between you and the target, some sweaty palms and a bunch of chaos and noise. Some of this is impossible to practice, but any training is better than no training.

The people in White Settlement suffered a terrible tragedy, and it would be a shame not to learn everything we can from the incident.

What *Is* The Answer? Part II

Part I

I don't have the answer, but I do have some thoughts.

Most pro-gunners are preaching to arm the teachers.

I have a slight problem with this.

Our public school teachers are already expected by society to raise our children in addition to teaching them.  Yes, when we send our kids off to school, we have a reasonable expectation that our children are safe while in the care of the school.  Yes, I can absolutely understand why parents, especially pro-gunners, want to arm our teachers.  WE, gunnies, are comfortable with guns, gun handling, and the thought of using our guns defensively.  Teachers are teachers because that's who they are.  If they wanted to grow up to be gun-toting cops, they would have.

Not only do I not think it's fair to put teachers in that position, I worry about the safety of my children if their teacher is *required* to be armed, but not comfortable with it.  We've all been out on the range with someone who isn't very good with their gun.  Not only are they a danger to themselves, they're a danger to everyone on the range.  I don't want to put my children in that kind of situation.

Are there teachers out there who are gunnies and who *want* to be armed?  You bet.  I'm one of them.  In my real life, I'm a college instructor.  If I wasn't forbidden from carrying while at work (we're privately owned and our corporation forbids it), I would carry.  But shooting is something I take very seriously and train for.  I have a lot of time and money in my training.  I didn't just take some four-hour concealed carry class and call it good.  I know in my heart that I could kill someone if the situation called for it.  Is it fair to ask our teachers to make that decision - a decision that will change someone's life forever?

In law enforcement and the military, everyone on the team has their job and they are expected to do it.  There is a clear chain of command, this ensures that every job gets done and nothing is missed.  Our teachers' job is to teach. 

In our society, we've tasked to police with helping to protect us.  If their job is protection, why don't we allow them to protect our children?

Rather than arming teachers, let's actually utilize the police.  A lot of school districts already have School Resource Officers, let's use them.  One (or two) armed, POST-certified SROs per school.  All day, every day.  Not one assigned for five or six schools.  One for every school.  On site, every day.

Not some minimum-wage doofus that we slap a uniform and a badge on.  And not the old, about-to-retire, broken down police officers who are put out to pasture at the schools.  Specially trained, top-of-their-game LEOs.  Personally, I'd like to see SWAT-trained LEOs inside the schools.  That way, if the school goes into lock-down, there is someone on the inside who can coordinate with the LEOs on the outside (and hunt down the bastard if they need to).  Hell, make all SWAT (or SERT, depending on what your department calls them) members rotate through the schools.

Or, as I saw on Facebook last night, let's put some of our out-of-work vets to work protecting our kids.  We have an abundance of already trained vets who need the work and who would be thrilled to be tasked with protecting our children.

I want to be clear: I'm not saying to not arm teachers, but they should have the choice and fully understand the responsibility choosing to be armed brings.  I fully support teachers who choose to carry; who choose to obtain and maintain the proper training.

They should also not be the first line of defense.  Their job during an active shooting should be to make sure the children in their classroom are secure, not to go hunting down the shooter.  I don't want them to hesitate if they're called to protect our children.

Should a teacher choose to accept the challenge, ideally, they should be trained in conjuction with the SROs, just like SWAT Medics are trained - as part of the team.  However, I don't see that happening, so it is absolutely essential that the teachers who choose to go armed: 1) develop a good defensive mindset; 2) get good, quality on-going training, and; 3) practice, practice, practice to increase their skill set.

Like I said, I don't have the answer, but these are my thoughts.

What *Is* The Answer? Part I

I've spent the weekend thinking about what happened on Friday, reading a lot of what has been posted, taking into consideration the sources.  I've also gone back to sources that I absolutely trust and respect.  I've tried to tune out the rhetoric - and Lord knows there's a lot of it out there right now.

My heart is breaking for the families, friends and community of Conneticut.  It's a terrible tragedy that can't easily be solved.

From the antis, we're hearing, "Ban Guns!"

From the pro-gunners, we're hearing, "Arm Teachers!"

For what seems like the first time ever (or at least since I've been a shooter), the antis and the pros agree on one thing: Mental Health availability needs an overhaul. (Now, if we could just get the politicians to effing listen to us!)

Teachers, neighbors, even parents (who aren't in denial) are able to pick out children who are going to be a problem.  Not "oh, little Johnny's a handful" problem, but "oh, this kid's going to grow up to be a mass-murderer" problem.  However, even if those children are identified, there is nothing as teachers that can be done about it.  Parents have no resources to help them.

Fifty years ago, when children like this were identified, they were institutionalized.  However, in our kinder, gentler society we want to do everything we can for our children, which I completely understand, having three of my own.  But there are some members of our society - juveniles - who are just "wrong" and "dangerous".  As a society we acknowledge them, sort of.  Otherwise there wouldn't be the TV show "Killer Kids" on Biography, or "Kids Who Kill" on the Crime and Investigation (History) channel.

On one hand, we're fascinated by them and say, "wow, I'm so glad my kids aren't like that!".  On the other hand, how many people actually think, "oh shit, we need to do something!"?

Until we figure out what to do with the kids who are identified as dangerous, and start offering support to the families who are trying to deal with these children on their own, nothing is going to change.

Nothing.

You can take guns away from law-abiding citizens (hypothetically, let's not get crazy here).

You can arm teachers.

But until we address the root of the problem, we're not going to see any change.  We're still going to have mass killings.

If it means locking up dangerous children, then by God, DO IT! This namby-pamby, touchy-feely stuff is killing innocent children.  I know people are afraid of locking up a child who might not be dangerous, but, honestly, I'd rather take that chance than have to see another massacre like we had Friday.

Even if we don't go so far as institutionalizing dangerous children, we need to have resources available for teachers and parents.  Something other than a patronizing pat on the head by the mental health professionals and a script for yet another medication.

Speaking of Situational Awareness...

...Do you have a plan for things like the Aurora movie theater shooting?

Yesterday, I talked about not avoiding bad situations, or not escalating them.  But what do you do when a bad situation comes to you like it did last night?

Before I get to that, though...I have to get something off of my chest.  What is wrong with parents?  If they had kept their kids at home or not allowed them out for the opening of the movie, we'd have a lot fewer injured children.  Why the hell were there infants and elementary-aged kids at a movie at midnight?  Don't you people believe in bedtimes?  Really?!

Back to our regularly scheduled post:

What do you do when the situation comes to you?  That was the question.

The movie theaters in Colorado, as a general rule, are gun-free zones.  Most CCW-permit holders I know are law- and rule-abiding citizens - if they weren't they wouldn't be issued a CCW.  Essentially what happened early this morning was a perfect example of what disarming citizens will do to our country.  The law-abiding will not have guns, the bad guys will.  Who wins?

We must have a way to protect ourselves from the wolves in society.  The theater was full of sheep (now, remember, being sheep isn't necessarily a bad thing according to Lt. Col. Grossman, but it's their choice to be sheep) and left without the protection of a Sheepdog, because the Sheepdog was stripped of his/her tools to properly execute the job.  When the wolf came a'calling, the Sheepdog couldn't match force.

So...you're a law-abiding citizen going for a nice premier of a movie, and though you usually carry, you're following the rules and left your gun in the car or at home.  A bad situation comes to you.  What now?

First - make sure you know where all of the emergency exits are so you can get out and direct people how to get out. In this instance, the bad guy came in the emergency exit.  How?  I don't know.  He might have bought a ticket, left the theater through the exit, rigged it so he could re-enter, and gone to his car to "suit up".  Or he might have had an accomplice.  We don't know yet.  What we do know is that the emergency exit wasn't an option, but the other two doors entering the theater were certainly available.

Second - don't lose your combat mindset.  This is probably the most important thing to keep in mind. Keep aware of your surroundings at all times.  Know that just because you might get shot doesn't mean you're dead.  Lt. Col. Grossman has compiled scores of documented scenarios where a person was shot and continued fighting until they won.  If you're not already, become a follower of Sheepdog tip of the day on Facebook.

Third - if you can't get out - FIGHT!  Remember Tara's post?  Fight to the death.  The bad guy has a gun, yes.  The movie theater probably held three hundred people.  If only a tenth of the theater had fought the bad guy, he would have quickly been out-numbered.  Remember my previous point: just because you're shot doesn't mean you're dead.  Keep fighting.

Last night shooting was a tragedy and my heart goes out to all affected by it, but we must not allow the anti-gunners to turn this into another reason why we should all be stripped of our basic right to protect ourselves.  If there had been just one other person in the theater with a gun - one "good guy" - the outcome would have been drastically changed.

Does anyone else have anything to add to the list?  What are your suggestions/comments/thoughts?

Here's a link to a post Mr. Mrs. Mom wrote for us after the Gabby Giffords shooting - might be worth a look-see again.