“50 dead, 53 injured in mass shooting in Orlando, FL”
It’s sad & I feel bad for the survivors, and the surviving loved ones.
They didn’t have a fighting chance. Even if there were 25 Black Belts in whatever type of karate, they would have had no fighting chance.
If you accidentally spill a beer on someone in a club, they get angry and want to hurt you for it right there and then, you have a fighting chance of not getting hurt. You’re both within arms reach, have two arms and two legs, and a mind to think with, even when intoxicated. You have a fighting chance of not getting hurt or minimizing the hurt to yourself. You may even be able to talk your way out of it.
With the weapon of mass destruction called the M 16 the fighting chance is now non existent. Yeah I know the civilian version is called an AR 15, But when I was issued it over 40 years ago no one thought it would be a civilian toy. To think, we joked that we thought it was made by Mattel. It is a weapon intended to cause mass casualties from a safe distance.
As a martial artist I’m sometimes asked what I would do in a scenario like that. I can’t lie or joke about it, I’d probably be among the casualties. So would you Sensei, Shihan, Guru, Master, Whatever title you have.
Sure, we imagine lunging at the attacker, doing a swift and elegant disarm and turning the weapon on him. But that won’t happen when it’s locked and loaded and finger on the trigger and aimed at you from 10 feet away, or 20 feet or 50 feet.
My martial arts, and a lot of martial arts out on the street, even the best ones, are intended for personal protection in a civilized setting versus singular attackers with perhaps just a little more strength, size or equipment than you. The M16/AR15 used as it’s supposed to be, is wayyy, wayy, way more than what any martial arts is supposed to handle.
How does the military handle that? 
With greater firepower.
It’s obvious but let me be clear: there is no defense for an M16 fired at you from more than 1 foot away, and I may be overstating the distance. If you are not within arms reach you have no chance unless the gun miraculously jams.
Every one of these weapons in civilian hands is a potential invitation to tragedy. Yet, they’re a dime a dozen in every podunk gun shop all over the country, here in Florida, well, don’t get me started on Florida…
Anyway, it was a weapon intended for battle, for the field of war. The field of war, where, your opponent has one too. On that field it is tantamount to “A Fighting Chance.” In our city streets, our suburban retreats, our public venues, it’s nothing but a terrorist weapon of mass destruction, whether the terrorist is of any grouping is no matter. A mentally handicapped kid in Connecticut is just as deadly as an ISIS operative, and because of the weapon, they are both equally effective as terrorists.
Because of this weapon scores of innocents have to die and suffer at the whim of one deranged person. Violence because of unstable people will continue, but you can reduce the body count per episode by getting rid of the weapons of mass destruction. An angry guy with a baseball bat can hurt some people, but the people have a fighting chance there.
What’s the answer? One answer ridiculous as it is, is for more of us to get and carry around these weapons. When a guy in the theater starts shooting three or four people in the audience raise their machine guns and shoot back. Instead of 1oo people shot it might only be 15 or 20!
Yes we all go around with an automatic rifle slung around our bodies, to dinner, the theater, for a stroll down the street. What an awful answer.
How about, get rid of those weapons! The automatic rifles with holographic sights and high capacity magazines. Yup. Confiscate them. People in my neighborhood don’t need them. We don’t hunt, we have supermarkets. We’re not expecting the Russians to invade our block at dawn. These weapons carry the vibe of ” I can hurt a lot of people I don’t like from a safe distance. I’m God! Not a good vibe to give insecure, self absorbed, hungry, ignorant and envious people.
We want handguns for personal defense from one or two people. OK. They serve that purpose just fine. A druggie breaks into your home at night and you reach into your nightstand and you can neutralize him. Reach for an M 16 and you blow chinks of him all aver the place and into your neighbors bedroom! Excessive. It’s not a weapon of personal defense, it’s a battlefield weapon. A .38 revolver with 6 rounds would accomplish the personal defense mission just fine, without endangering your neighbors.
So we have another mass shooting made possible by a weapon of mass destruction, and some people are surprised. The people who make and sell them are surprised, the politicians who benefit from their sale say they can’t believe it, the owners who have these weapons in their homes are surprised and probably snicker “At least I got mine, I have a fighting chance. Too bad for everybody else”
Lets all have a fighting chance. Take them away.
Better Living Personal Development & Martial Arts 