What they did do. Stay alive any way they could. The only despicable thing is second-guessing them for it.

I too suspect the tough talking guys would get all poopy pantied and hide or run, or be uselessly killed. I also think hiding or running is despicable.

What to do?

I’d like to think I would do something better than skulking. Is ‘Death before Dishonor’ still around. If we lose the ideal does the reality degenerate?

The tough talkers are right about one thing – a swarm would have taken him down. Machine guns, even bunkered ones, have been successfully assaulted by infantry.

I agree that many of our parents are not pushing our children to accept enough responsibility in their lives. The bulk of those parents happen to be in the middle and upper classes.

I’ve never seen a working-class eighteen-year-old that I wouldn’t call a responsible adult. They generally don’t have the luxury of remaining a child through their mid-twenties.

Kevin Granata had heard the commotion in his third-floor office and ran downstairs. He was a military veteran, very protective of his students. He was gunned down trying to confront the shooter.

And died.

Some of them defended themselves and lived.

The small group of 10 in Haiyan Cheng’s computer class heard the loud banging outside. She thought it was construction noise at first, but it distracted her. No, they were pops. Then silence, then more pops. Cheng and a female student went to the door and peered out. They saw a man emerge from a room across the hall. He was holding a gun, but it was pointed down. They quickly shut the door. More popping sounds, getting louder, closer. The class was in a panic. One student, Zach Petkowicz, was near the lectern “cowering behind it,” he would later say, when he realized that the door was vulnerable. There was a heavy rectangular table in the class, and he and two other students pushed it against the door. No sooner had they fixed it in place than someone pushed hard from the outside. It was the gunman. He forced it open about six inches, but no farther. Petkowicz and his classmates pushed back, not letting up. The gunman fired two shots through the door. One hit the lectern and sent wood scraps and metal flying. Neither hit any of the students. They could hear a clip dropping, the distinct, awful sound of reloading. And, again, the gunman moved on.

They didn’t seem to have any other options.