Monday, June 13, 2016

Social Combat Against Terrorists

Orlando. 50 dead by the hand of one mentally unstable gunman.

Imagine you were there.

Suddenly the door crashes open and you hear someone shouting "Allahu Akbar", followed by shots. LOUD shots. You look up, and 3 metres from you stands a man carrying a gun, with his back to you. A surge of adrenaline hits. Your perception of space and time changes. This is IT.

How do you react? You have a choice.

First option, get under the table and wait to die. The gunman can stroll around, picking you all off one by one, at leisure. Let's call this the Passivity Option.

Second option: you, and others, rush forward and overpower him. Call it the Resistance Option.

Both options carry the risk of death, but the scale is different.

The Passivity Option means as many people die as he has bullets in his gun and on his belt. Could be everyone in the place, including you.

The Resistance Option means no-one may die, or maybe one or two resistance fighters may get injured or die, depending how many respond.

If only one person goes for it, s/he will probably fail and die, but then s/he will probably die in the Passivity Option also. If on the other hand, three or four other able bodied people in the restaurant have the same reaction, everyone may survive. And they will have a good story to tell.

Resistance has to be the best option. It could play an important part in putting an end to the kind of attacks that happened in Orlando, or in Paris with Charlie Hebdo or the Eagles of Death Metal concert. 

Terrorism uses violence against vulnerable unarmed, civilians. It is the warfare practised by cowards. When cowards find that people fight back, they tend to stop.

And it is not just terrorists. If you live in the USA, you are far more likely to be killed by a freedom-loving gun owner than an Islamic terrorist, and the Social Combat technique works on these on freedom-loving gun freaks too.too.

Social Resistance has been practised a few times already - on one of the 9/11 planes, and in August 2015, when four passengers overpowered a shooter on a train in France. Jasper Schuringa acted on an airline when someone tried to blow it up.

These actions were spontaneous. It will be easier once we have got this idea to spread.

It needs to become a meme, a viral idea. We need a movement. A badge or ribbon maybe. A name. Social Combat Against Terrorists maybe?

There is no point in expecting Government to give advice and leadership on this. I've asked the British Government, twice, and they will have nothing to do with it. I get the impression they fear getting sued by someone who has a go and gets hurt.

So it is up to us, as citizens, to take responsibility.

It is a tough issue. The chance of having to rush a terrorist is about the same as the chance of winning the Lottery (small) but it does happen, but if the default reaction of all able-bodied citizens is to attack a terrorist, the chance of its continuing to happen will grow less.



More on this:

The Schuringa Rule

Why the government does not want us to tackle gunmen

Spotting the flaw in the Government's logic

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