- Jan 2, 2006
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There's been a lot of threads about why the students didn't rush the shooter at V. Tech when he entered their room, or take some kind of offensive action.
Points to lay out:
1. Students are students. They are not trained to handle or act offensively in situations like this. They will be scared. They will suddenly see, probably all for the first time, their own mortality. For real. Finito. This is it. This is not some random accident that can kill you. It is a shooter actively targeting you with the purpose of killing you.
2. In the vast majority of college classrooms, there is no place to maneuver with the cramped seating.
3. The shooter is blocking the only exit point. Also, the shooter has excellent visibility and field of fire of the entire room from this spot, as well as a very easy escape route (simply walk back out the door), at which point the door becomes a natural bottleneck TO HIS ADVANTAGE when any student tries to escape out of the room via the door.
What would probably happen if a shooter came into a classroom:
1. Students are either not expecting the shooting or in shock at hearing previous gunshots outside of the classroom.
2. Shooter storms into the room and IMMEDIATELY guns down the professor and the kids near the door. Students see blood spray everywhere, horrific exit wounds, and their fellow classmates and friends in their last throes of life. The room also magnifies the intense sounds of the gunshots.
3. Many students probably freeze for a few seconds in absolute shock at #2. Some will hide under desks that provide very little cover or hiding ability. These people are only postponing being gunned down.
4. Others who are not frozen have the natural reaction to flee... to the back of the room, perhaps to the corner furthest away from the shooter.
a. Fleeing to the back of the room means there is no place to flee to.
b. This act of movement in a room cramped with desks sprawled all over the place or in narrow columns or rows almost guarantees anyone trying to rush the shooter will be blocked by people trying to get as far away from the shooter as possible.
c. People in the back will be bunched together into a sea of human beings that the shooter can now target with much more ease (think Omaha Beach). Even if you rush now you're too jammed and unorganized to rush *weaponless* through an obstacle course of desks, chairs, bodies, and people pushing in the opposite direction of the rush.
College Classrooms:
Very little room for people in the middle to move. People can only effectively move horizontally. Seats and desks are bolted into the ground.
Column Orientation. This one is actually spacious.
Row Orientation. Only way to escape is through the center floorspace.
In this day and age many colleges are trying to cram more students into their rooms as more and more people start going to college and colleges try to capitalize on this increased demand by offering more seats in classrooms - but not more space. This creates little space for people to easily get to their seat, move around, or exit the classroom. I'm sure many of you have had to wait or even stand in line to get out of class, especially in big auditorium-style classrooms as people have to slowly shuffle horizontally across the rows to get to the steps leading down to the exit.
Many of the people in the seats closest to the shooter will get gunned down quickly.
People in the middle will have their mobility hampered by the design of the room and by people trying to run to the back.
People in the back won't have a chance to move hardly anywhere. If you're in the back trying to get to the front, the shooter will have more than enough time to shoot you.
Bah, I need to go to class
Points to lay out:
1. Students are students. They are not trained to handle or act offensively in situations like this. They will be scared. They will suddenly see, probably all for the first time, their own mortality. For real. Finito. This is it. This is not some random accident that can kill you. It is a shooter actively targeting you with the purpose of killing you.
2. In the vast majority of college classrooms, there is no place to maneuver with the cramped seating.
3. The shooter is blocking the only exit point. Also, the shooter has excellent visibility and field of fire of the entire room from this spot, as well as a very easy escape route (simply walk back out the door), at which point the door becomes a natural bottleneck TO HIS ADVANTAGE when any student tries to escape out of the room via the door.
What would probably happen if a shooter came into a classroom:
1. Students are either not expecting the shooting or in shock at hearing previous gunshots outside of the classroom.
2. Shooter storms into the room and IMMEDIATELY guns down the professor and the kids near the door. Students see blood spray everywhere, horrific exit wounds, and their fellow classmates and friends in their last throes of life. The room also magnifies the intense sounds of the gunshots.
3. Many students probably freeze for a few seconds in absolute shock at #2. Some will hide under desks that provide very little cover or hiding ability. These people are only postponing being gunned down.
4. Others who are not frozen have the natural reaction to flee... to the back of the room, perhaps to the corner furthest away from the shooter.
a. Fleeing to the back of the room means there is no place to flee to.
b. This act of movement in a room cramped with desks sprawled all over the place or in narrow columns or rows almost guarantees anyone trying to rush the shooter will be blocked by people trying to get as far away from the shooter as possible.
c. People in the back will be bunched together into a sea of human beings that the shooter can now target with much more ease (think Omaha Beach). Even if you rush now you're too jammed and unorganized to rush *weaponless* through an obstacle course of desks, chairs, bodies, and people pushing in the opposite direction of the rush.
College Classrooms:
Very little room for people in the middle to move. People can only effectively move horizontally. Seats and desks are bolted into the ground.
Column Orientation. This one is actually spacious.
Row Orientation. Only way to escape is through the center floorspace.
In this day and age many colleges are trying to cram more students into their rooms as more and more people start going to college and colleges try to capitalize on this increased demand by offering more seats in classrooms - but not more space. This creates little space for people to easily get to their seat, move around, or exit the classroom. I'm sure many of you have had to wait or even stand in line to get out of class, especially in big auditorium-style classrooms as people have to slowly shuffle horizontally across the rows to get to the steps leading down to the exit.
Many of the people in the seats closest to the shooter will get gunned down quickly.
People in the middle will have their mobility hampered by the design of the room and by people trying to run to the back.
People in the back won't have a chance to move hardly anywhere. If you're in the back trying to get to the front, the shooter will have more than enough time to shoot you.
Bah, I need to go to class
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