Right Wing Rambo Apologists: The Final Word

Another head-slapping letter to the editor in the Daily Star:

After the Virginia Tech incident, I recalled the men on the plane on 9/11 who attacked the hijackers, preventing them from harming many more people. Also, people over the years who have thrown themselves on grenades to save many more of their buddies. If six or more of the students had rushed the killer at Virginia Tech, he would have killed some but not all of them and they could have overpowered him. It's too bad it didn't happen that way.

Second, I'm always surprised and disappointed to observe that the SWAT teams, who are supposedly trained and paid to rush the "machine-gun nest," seem to invariably hang back behind trees and cars waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition before rushing him. Not many people in this world are truly altruistic.

These people seriously need to shut the fuck up. I have been wishing for a pithier response, but have been unable to move beyond shut the fuck up, until now. This comment, left by someone called Jrod on Sadly, No!, says it perfectly.

I never used to think that violence in video games has any negative effect, but now I’m not so sure. No, they don’t “cause” violence, they just cause idiots to wonder why one of the students didn’t kick out one of the crates in the room to get the glock hidden inside, shoot out the vent in the room, crawl through it, picking up the body armor hidden inside, jump out of the vent in the hallway 100 yards in front of the killer, and take the killer out while running forward while precisely strafing to avoid the return fire. Sure our hero would take some damage, but that’s what medkits are for.

Thank you, Jrod, whoever you are. Oh, and Mr. Rush-the-machine-gun-nest? I strongly suspect that SWAT cops are not encouraged to confront their targets in Revolutionary War-style ranks marching twelve abreast because all the time and money invested in their training makes them really expensive assets to lose. But I'm sure they'd be happy to take volunteers for the Human Shield Corps, and I'm sure someone as altruistic as you will be first in line to sign up, possibly knocking other enthusiastic volunteers to the ground on your way to the front.