<p>There have been stories of how boyfriends took bullets for their girlfriends in the senseless Colorado shooting. </p>
<p>Could you imagine doing that? It doesn't matter whether you are a girl or a boy, in a relationship or not. Could you imagine taking a bullet for a special other? </p>
<p>I understand that there is a dichotomy between what we say and what we do, and our circumstances often dictate our actions; sitting at our computers, we cannot fully experience the collective adrenaline rush that surged through the patrons of the theater that early morning. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, could you honestly imagine doing something like this?</p>
<p>If you couldn’t “sneak-attack” him (if, for instance, he was in body armor, using an assault rifle, and had a clear view of the entire group, as in the Colorado case), what would you do? Charge him? Lay low? Or try to save someone if given the opportunity?</p>
<p>I don’t know about a romantic significant other (I don’t have one yet ), but I could think of a few people I’ld definitely take a bullet for. There are others which I might take a bullet for.</p>
<p>If the situation was so quick and impulsive I might take a bullet for someone (anyone) without thinking. I might just feel like I should save someone, think for a second, “wait, what about pain?” and then decide that I’ld just deal with that later. I might know that I’ld be regretting my decision during the pain, but think that I’ll be glad of what I did after it passes and I could think clearly again.</p>
<p>Or I might completely panic with my 1st reaction being “OMG I don’t want to die!” and then decide not to take a bullet for just anyone and take one for someone I care about. Or not take the bullet for someone I care about, because I didn’t have enough time to come to my senses before the trigger is pulled, and someone is already shot.</p>
<p>It depends what my logic is like during that moment in time. As you can probably tell, I’ve thought about this a few times before. When I do, I usually feel an automatic “protect and take the bullet” feeling in my gun like a trigger (sort of like what villains in those TV shows call “weaknesses” I suppose), but I can’t say for sure since it’s never happened to me before. The idea of death can be pretty strong too.</p>
<p>wow, I was not expecting this post to get so long…</p>
<p>I would blend in with the crowd trying to escape and sneak out. If there’s only one exit, I would hide behind lots of people and given the opportunity that the gunman’s back is facing me, I would charge at him with a group of people QUIETLY and take him out.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t have been worth it to take him out. The scene was so chaotic and hectic from what I heard that there was a bigger chance of you taking out an innocent person than the culprit.</p>
<p>it may sound selfish, but I would never take a bullet for someone. I’m terrible in split seond situations, and I would probably freeze.</p>
<p>Once when I was volunteering in a hospice, a lady walked up behind me. I turned around and said “hello.” Suddenly she began to wobble and lose her balance. I gasped and did nothing as she fell. I of course felt bad later, but in the moment I was paralyzed in shock.</p>
<p>I’ll use my second amendment and try to kill the shooter, hopefully killing him or at least buying other people time to leave while he is firing at me.</p>
<p>To take a bullet for…? Would I knowingly step in front of what was sure to kill me for a boyfriend? The fact that it’s against my most basic instinct to survive should guarantee a no. But I’m a coward. I don’t know if I’d be able to deal with not jumping in front of a bullet.
How could I live knowing I could have saved someone? A boy, girl, elderly man/woman it wouldn’t matter.
I could have stopped a life from being taken-- except a life would still have been taken.
People would still grieve. Would it help? What is it to die for someone? Does it cause any less suffering?
The honest answer is I don’t know. No one can know until it’s already happened.</p>
<p>Sounds like what I would do. I would assist as many people as I could, but I probably wouldn’t consciously put myself between someone and the shooter. </p>
<p>“Get down!”
“Crawl over there!”
“Keep low!”
“Run!”</p>
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<p>Ideally, yes. </p>
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<p>Noble. </p>
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<p>That’s probably true. Remember, Reagan’s shooter pulled off six shots, despite all the Secret Service agents that surrounded Reagan. I doubt that an untrained high schooler would be able to disarm the shooter.</p>
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<p>Again, noble, but there is the problem of collateral damage. </p>
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<p>Well-written and thought-provoking. Unfortunately, in the spur of the moment, people don’t have time to contemplate. They act, mostly out of instinct. And this, perhaps, invalidates my question, but still, it’s interesting to contemplate. </p>
<p>@stressedout - I like your delineation of all the various types of scenarios. I agree that we don’t truly know how we will react until we are put in the situation. Often times, people simply fail to react at all in stressful situations. </p>
<p>For example, one family was driving a Lexus. The accelerator was stuck, and the car was going at 125 MPH. The family called 911. The dispatcher, in the last moments of the call, heard the family praying. Rationally, you’d probably try unsticking the accelerator, or taking the keys out the car, or hitting the brakes and engaging the emergency brakes. Instead, the family started praying.</p>
<p>^The above post is not a condemnation of prayer; instead, it goes to show that people often become deers in headlights in stressful situations or act not in accordance with the immediate situation. We might be reasonable from afar, but in the thick of the situation, our usually logical selves often disintegrate.</p>
), but I could think of a few people I’ld definitely take a bullet for. There are others which I might take a bullet for.</p>