Real Men Fight Back

Excellent ShrinkWrapped piece entitled "Trauma, Passivity, & the Fear of Aggression" looks at masculinity, a potential new policy about what school children should do when a gunman attacks (hint, not lie there and take it), and the increased psychological trauma that can come from being a passive victim in the face of criminal aggression. References a Dr. Helen piece where I found this comment:

"If kids are saved, then this is the most wonderful thing in the world. If kids are killed, people are going to wonder who's to blame," she said."

And that's precisely why most schools will NOT adopt this eminently sensible approach. A gunman comes and shoots ten people lying on the floor -- well, that's just an act of random violence. Couldn't be prevented. A gunman is rushed by students trained by their school to do so, and manages to kill only one of them, and there will be twenty underemployed plaintiff's attorneys panting to argue that it was the training that was responsible for the death -- because it can't be known for certain that the gunman had massacre in mind.

Proving to an average jury's satisfaction that the gunman would have killed someone anyway, in the face of a sympathetic plaintiff like a grieving mother, would be almost impossible.

$#$@ lawyers (said the lawyer).

It seems that our society currently runs on the principle "I'd rather be carried out by six than convicted by twelve," so the commenter has a point.