There was a great write up on the FBI report on mass shootings over on Gun Nuts media. Its worth a read, but here are a few of the better quotes:
The FBI report is acknowledging a simple, inescapable truth: You are on your own.
We don’t like being on our own. We don’t like the thought that it’s just little ol’ us vs. the bad man. The primary reason people fear such a situation is because they feel helpless. Thankfully helplessness is easily dealt with.
You’re on your own. It’s up to you…but don’t be afraid of that realization. Embrace it. Use it as motivation. I’ll use something Jack Baruth wrote on his blog because I think it works marvelously here:
“you are fundamentally a bio-machine shaped by 17,000 ‘stupendous bad-asses’, as Neal Stephenson once said. Seventeen thousand times, your ancestor survived the famine that killed his neighbor, survived the wolf attack, survived the battle, survived the fall, the injury, the disease, the conflict. Seventeen thousand times, your ancestors survived to reproduce. You may feel like a weakling as you sit in your bean bag chair and play Candy Crush Saga, but you are an apex predator by birth.”
Having police, fire, and emergency medical response a few minutes away is a good thing and we’re better for having them…but it’s never going to be a substitute for a person at ground zero who has a plan and some useful tools.
I think coming to terms with our “aloneness” makes us better able appreciate the times we are not alone…as well as prepare for the times we will be.
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