This post is likely to get some negative responses. But I’m ok with that. I’m prepared for it. Because this is something that needs to be said.

Americans are pre-programmed with a victim mentality.

There, I finally got it off my chest. And it feels pretty good.

Note that I am not saying that anybody involved in the recent Aurora, CO shootings is to blame.

But I have a few questions about this whole incident.

I noticed immediately that conspiracies were flying around rampantly. I love a good conspiracy theory just as much as the next guy, but come on now… even I feel the “conspiracy” behind this is a bit far-fetched. Questions were asked about how an unemployed PhD student could get $20,000 in firearms and associated items. Well I have an easy answer for that: Credit cards. Come on people, $20,000 is absolutely nothing for someone to get.

There were also questions about how an individual could elaborately rig his apartment with booby traps. I can assure you, that is nothing difficult to do. A little common sense and just about anyone could do it.

I also saw a picture of some guy holding up a hand-written letter floating around the internet. The guy claimed to be a combat Marine, and stated that he could not pull off such a thing despite his top-of-the-line infantry training. I call horseshit. Cave-dwelling goat herders in Afghanistan can pull of similar incidents with relative ease, yet a “highly trained Marine infantryman” can’t?

Come on people, this guy walked into a theater, dropped a tear gas grenade or two, and started shooting. What is so difficult about this?

Anyways, on to the point of my story.

I read two stories, both written by Mike Adams on NaturalNews, the first titled Why did no one fight back? Questions linger over James Holmes Batman movie theater shooting, and the second titled Shock revelation: City of Aurora, Colorado would have arrested anyone who stopped the Batman massacre with a concealed weapon.

I wasn’t surprised by the second one. Turns out in Aurora (and many other Colorado cities) that firearms are illegal, and discharging one in public is a felony. So, if anyone was carrying that night in the theater, and decided to cut short the massacre, they very likely would be a criminal themselves (thought I have my doubts that they would be charged, or the charges would stick).

It was the first article that really got my wheels turning, though.

Why didn’t anyone fight back?

Sure, this guy came in with guns. So what? Why does everybody cower in the face of guns? Is it because our media (along with Hollywood) has brainwashed us into thinking that guns are some super-weapon that we don’t stand a chance against?

Perhaps it’s my own military training, but to me, a gun is not any more dangerous than any other type of weapon, including a knife. In fact, if you’re involved in hand-to-hand combat, a knife is more dangerous than a gun. It’s more difficult to disarm someone of a knife, the knife will never “jam” or “misfire,” and many other things.

If it’s about survival, sure, it may seem that not resisting is the best bet for survival. But that’s wrong as well. Until all the facts come out I won’t know, but how many people were shot in this movie theater while cowering on the floor in front of their seat? How many were killed at Columbine while hiding under tables?

Could you be killed rushing the attacker? Sure. But you could just as easily be killed while on your knees begging for mercy.

A classic military maneuver is the flank. If you can outflank your enemy, you place yourself at their most vulnerable position: the back. If this shooter truly was wearing a gas mask, his range of vision would be extremely poor, and limited to that which is not much beyond what is directly in front of him. In a dark theater, it would be relatively easy to maneuver yourself behind him, at which point many possibilities exist.

There is a move I am particularly fond of, but unfortunately I do not recall the name of. Basically, once behind somebody, you reach up between their legs and grab a hold of their pants at the belt line. You place your other arm across their back, right at or beneath the shoulder blades. You pull back with the arm grabbing their pants, while simultaneously pushing forward on their back with your other arm. This, combined with a quick sweep of the leg, will face plant anybody, even if they outweigh you. If the assailant is not already unarmed at this point, unarming them would be relatively easy. If you managed to knock them out, then all is well. If not, they will surely be disoriented enough that you can perform any number of maneuvers, including having others pile on and pin him to the ground.

Hell, even hitting the guy in the ears from behind would do some good. A moderately strong person could even break the assailant’s neck from behind like you see in spy movies. A well-placed knife to the jugular would cause death within minutes (while having the effect of immediately stopping the shooting and disarming the subject).

Bottom line, it’s not impossible to neutralize an armed threat. Sure, it’s very dangerous, but is it any more dangerous than simply hoping you live through it? I would say it’s not.

But then again, this is all very easy for me to say, because I was not there. Indeed, it’s easy for anybody to play the role of armchair quarterback.

But my question is: How many people actually thought about any of this? And if none, then why not?

Are we as Americans to the point that we cower in fear at any act of aggression? Are we now so frightened by a crazed gunman that we’d rather play dead and hope we don’t end up really dead?

Maybe it’s just me. In my mind, chances of survival go up significantly if the threat is neutralized. What are your chances of success? That depends on many elements, but I’d say they are higher than your chances of survival by just sitting there.

But then again, I wasn’t there.