Shooting at Virginia Tech

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

You point the gun at the bad-guy and pull the fucking trigger.
Whew, that sure was hard!

You don't consider this even slightly over simplified? You're telling me that when they hand a guard, police officer, or solider a gun they could do nothing more than simply include the instructions "1. Point at bad guy. 2. Pull Trigger"? There's nothing more to it than that? No emotional aspects, no panic control, no training on how to handle high pressure life and death situations, no efforts required to concentrate as people around you lay bleeding to death? "Mental clarity" is not how even the most experienced officer would describe their thoughts during something like the VT situation and it completely evaporates in people who are going about their everyday business and are suddenly thrown into shock by events that they come closest to only in the worst of nightmares and cheap Jerry Bruckheimer flicks.

Just "pull the fucking trigger". Right.

Sadly enough, my CCW test didn't even go that far. It included absolutely nothing more than "show me how to make the weapon safe". Drop magazine, lock open the slide, check chamber, lay on counter. "You passed, you're done, go enjoy the range." That, plus a photograph, a money order, and 90 days does not make one ready for situations even remotely similar to what happened yesterday.