Movie Theater Shooting - A Teachable Moment

There have been two national news shooting incidents that have resonated with me in a profound way. The first was the shooting at Virginia Tech. That shooting impacted me so strongly because I had been on that campus and in that building myself on several occasions as a recruiter for my company and as a parent of a graduate studies student. It was hard for me to not picture myself there during the incident.

The mall shootings and the church shootings had my attention, but for some reason did not grab me enough to get me to visualize my presence and to analyze what I would/should do in these circumstances except superficially. Now comes the movie theater shooting and for reasons not completely understood by me, it has occupied my thinking. Perhaps because theater attendance is one of the pleasures my wife and I try to indulge at least once a month.

Several questions come to mind. What do you think?

• What would you do as a third party if you were armed?
• Would you be inclined to use deadly force?
• Would you attempt to hold the shooter at gun point?
• Would you try to escort the shooter from the premises?
• Would you try to empty the theater?