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.