If you come against someone going postal with a pistol that is accurate up to 75 yards, do you really want a frozen water bottle/ripped soda can/ unbrella as your means of keeping your life intact?
It's true that -- like any brainstorming session -- some ideas are better than others, this kind of discussion may save someone from an attack. The shooter scenario, like we saw at Virginia Tech, is about as likely as being hit by lightning. Even if it does happen, I don't think many of
us could hit a ducking/dodging/weaving target at 75 yards, much less 50 yards, with a pistol. If I can get 15-20 yards away from a bad guy, I think my chances of survival go way up. If that nutcase at VT had been hit with a barrage of full soda cans, water bottles and books when he broke into a classroom, perhaps a few students would have been able to stop the attack sooner, or some more could have bailed out through windows.
On the other hand, I got out of two strongarm assaults/muggings while at Sonoma State University, by being armed. The first -- a pair of muggers -- was stopped when they saw the arnis sticks poking out of the top of my pack (I had a class on campus twice a week). The second was a large group of "yoots" blocking the bike path, who parted like the Red Sea when my hand closed on the heavy chain (used to lock my bike) hanging around my neck.
While I was at Berkeley -- more than 20 years ago -- a male student was raped in Boalt Hall (law building) by a guy with a knife who leaped into the room where he was studying at night. A hardback textbook and a folding knife might have saved that student from a crime that probably still haunts him.
At the small college where I worked after grad school, we were the best place in town to get assaulted, mugged or raped, because on-campus crimes were under-reported to make the place appear "safe."
I think awareness is the biggest problem for most college students. Waking a student up to their environment would be worth more for their safety than the gift of a Spyderco knife.
Part of the reason for the danger level on college campuses is that many students practice dangerous behaviors. You can see them everywhere: walking across campus late at night, head down, busy texting or talking on their cell phones or listening to their iPods. For a two-legged predator, a college student in Condition White is like a gimpy antelope that has fallen behind the herd on the Serengeti plain: prey waiting to be harvested.
Respectfully,
Dirty Bob
