Bizarre Battle

Another day, another news story about a completely preventable mass shooting from America. Pictures of devastated families will trickle out into the press, the perpetrator will be found to have extreme right-wing affiliations, noises will be made about really having to actually do something about all the guns this time... and then everything will go back to normal. Then the cycle will repeat itself: again and again and again.

One of the more baffling symptoms of the American right's near fetishistic obsession with their right to bear arms are the attempts to address the problem... without doing anything about the guns. This training video, produced by the FBI, aims to educate people on how to respond to the tellingly militaristically named 'active shooter' threat via their latest guidelines: run, hide, fight.

It's the most backwards, ambulance at the bottom of a cliff response to the issue we've seen in a while. The glossy film depicts a man opening fire in a crowded bar, with the terrified patrons then addressing the camera with safety tips as they flee for their lives. It's telling that one of the first instructions is to keep your hands up and empty when faced with cops, because you're never really safe even when the 'right person' is wielding the firearm.

The theatre of it all is bizarre from the outside - civilians being expected to assess 'direct lines of fire' when going about their day to day lives is nothing short of surreal. One of the most egregious moments - which is frankly insulting to those murdered in similar incidents - is a man declaring that he's 'no victim' as the film reaches the 'fight' portion of its advice.

So that's the solution the most brilliant tactical minds in America could come up with - rather than put a single reasonable restriction on gun ownership, they think everyday people with no fight training should spontaneously transform into Rambo and take down a gun toting maniac through sheer force of will. It simply boggles the mind, especially when a huge number of these shootings take place in schools.

Are children meant to mobilise against an adult with an automatic weapon? Or are teachers meant to hope their obituaries mention their heroic efforts to save their students? This is an entirely political and deeply stupid way to approach a threat which the rest of the world can clearly see has one cause: the guns. It's always been about the guns, and nobody with the power to do anything seems to give a shit about that.

Product Category: Government Departments

Territory: USA

Bizarre Battle

by Syd Briscoe

Another day, another news story about a completely preventable mass shooting from America. Pictures of devastated families will trickle out into the press, the perpetrator will be found to have extreme right-wing affiliations, noises will be made about really having to actually do something about all the guns this time... and then everything will go back to normal. Then the cycle will repeat itself: again and again and again.

One of the more baffling symptoms of the American right's near fetishistic obsession with their right to bear arms are the attempts to address the problem... without doing anything about the guns. This training video, produced by the FBI, aims to educate people on how to respond to the tellingly militaristically named 'active shooter' threat via their latest guidelines: run, hide, fight.

It's the most backwards, ambulance at the bottom of a cliff response to the issue we've seen in a while. The glossy film depicts a man opening fire in a crowded bar, with the terrified patrons then addressing the camera with safety tips as they flee for their lives. It's telling that one of the first instructions is to keep your hands up and empty when faced with cops, because you're never really safe even when the 'right person' is wielding the firearm.

The theatre of it all is bizarre from the outside - civilians being expected to assess 'direct lines of fire' when going about their day to day lives is nothing short of surreal. One of the most egregious moments - which is frankly insulting to those murdered in similar incidents - is a man declaring that he's 'no victim' as the film reaches the 'fight' portion of its advice.

So that's the solution the most brilliant tactical minds in America could come up with - rather than put a single reasonable restriction on gun ownership, they think everyday people with no fight training should spontaneously transform into Rambo and take down a gun toting maniac through sheer force of will. It simply boggles the mind, especially when a huge number of these shootings take place in schools.

Are children meant to mobilise against an adult with an automatic weapon? Or are teachers meant to hope their obituaries mention their heroic efforts to save their students? This is an entirely political and deeply stupid way to approach a threat which the rest of the world can clearly see has one cause: the guns. It's always been about the guns, and nobody with the power to do anything seems to give a shit about that.

Product Category: Government Departments

Territory: USA