Gun owners, especially those who own firearms and have trained in personal defense, are keenly aware that a firearm can even the score against multiple violent criminal assailants, or aid the old, weak or disabled from a bigger, stronger violent predator.
Many in our society believe hiding or surrendering to violent attackers is the best course of action to minimize chances of being hurt. You’ve surely heard it countless times before, especially from big-city folks: “Just give them what they want and everything will be okay,” they say.
Considering someone may be threatening you with death or great bodily injury, it seems curious that these big-city, anti-self-defense types would promote some sort of dubious contract between bad guys who ignore social norms and civilized behavior and their victims.
Of course, we all saw what happened on 9/11 to those “don’t resist” types compared to those who took it upon themselves to fight back. While they all perished that terrible day nearly 11 years ago, those who fought back prevented the loss of life on the ground.
Recall the “Let’s Roll!” comment from Todd Beamer on Flight 93.
For those who aren’t familiar with Todd Beamer and UA Flight 93, here’s the Wiki entry:
After United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked, Beamer and other passengers communicated with people on the ground via airphones and cell phones, and learned that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been attacked using hijacked airplanes.
Beamer tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to GTE supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Beamer reported that one passenger was killed and, later, that a flight attendant had told him the pilot and co-pilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded. He was also on the phone when the plane made its turn in a southeasterly direction, a move that had him briefly panicking. Later, he told the operator that some of the plane’s passengers were planning to “jump on” the hijackers and fly the plane into the ground before the hijackers’ plan could be followed through. Beamer also recited The Lord’s Prayer with Jefferson. According to Jefferson, Beamer’s last audible words were “Are you guys ready? Okay, let’s roll.”
So, frankly, we at Guns Save Life find it particular refreshing that one Alabama city is training its kids and teachers to fight back in the face of criminal attack – and it’s getting play in the mainstream media!
This sort of self-reliance is what America is founded upon, but many in today’s society seem to think it’s government’s role to protect people while they are being victimized, but we all know that police can’t be everywhere – and they are the “second responders”.
Teachers, students in one Alabama city told to fight back if facing violent intruder
Associated Press
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Police have a new method for dealing with armed attackers who get inside school buildings in Tuscaloosa: They’re teaching educators and students to fight back.
School systems typically tell workers and students to lock every possible door and hide if an intruder enters a classroom building. But Tuscaloosa schools have started a program with city police in which employees and students are being trained to fight back if necessary.
The Tuscaloosa News reported Sunday the training centers on running, throwing things at intruders and restraining them.
Raquel Payne-Giles, principal at Paul W. Bryant High School, said the school’s faculty and staff started their training this summer. She said she was surprised that the training taught them to attack an intruder.
“They did a skit where a person walked in with a toy gun and what actually happens if everyone throws things at him,” she said. “The person began to protect themselves, and it threw him off for a few minutes. That’s time to run.”
Police Lt. A.B. Green, who is overseeing the training, said hiding from intruders is sometimes not enough.
“We can train teachers and students to a certain degree. At a certain level, though, we have to train the students to use their last resource, which is to defend themselves,” he said. “We want to remind them that they can also fight for themselves using whatever they can use. It’s more like, if all else has been exhausted, you fight for your life.”
The city school system’s current lockdown procedure has city school employees locking doors and hiding from intruders who come into a school. Now, employees are being told to flee from the intruder, and if necessary, fight. Students will soon receive the same training.
“What the training really encourages is more than simply stopping and hiding,” said Green. “That’s really what we’ve been teaching nationwide is everybody stopping, locking the doors and hiding where you are. Those concepts work, but they’re not an absolute.”
The program is called ALICE, which stands for Alert-Lockdown-Inform-Counter-Evacuate training.