As if kids don't have a hard enough time growing up and staying in one piece these days, we now have the idjuts at Fox News doing entire segments on how kids should rush active shooters instead of running.
Soooo stupid.
A Fox & Friends demonstration where children neutralized a gunman during an active shooter situation offered dubious advice to parents, as experts emphasize that confronting the gunman should be "a last resort."
The Fox News segment never explained that in an active shooter situation people should prioritize escaping and hiding over physically confronting the gunman -- only mentioning the first two actions in passing -- and instead emphasized engaging the gunman in a physical confrontation.
The December 8 broadcast of Fox & Friends featured two krav maga instructors and three children who demonstrated martial arts techniques that could be used to disarm an active shooter.
Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck introduced the segment saying, "In an active shooter situation five seconds can mean the difference between life and death. But there are some things that you can do, and your children can do, to make a difference" before asking the instructor to "display for us and exemplify what would happen in an armed shooter situation." The instructor then used a stapler as a prop while his co-instructor demonstrated how to disarm a gunman from behind.
Attempting to evacuate or hide only came up in passing when Hasselbeck asked the instructor what to do if you find yourself in an active shooter situation with alongside another potential victim. The instructor, said, "Once we're hiding, let's say we couldn't run away, and we hide and then we've realized that we might be discovered, we have to basically communicate with each other and say, 'Listen, this is what is going to happen, if I grab the gun, you guys are going to tackle the person.'" The comment didn't clearly explain that these steps should be taken first -- whether if you are alone or with someone else -- and the segment then moved on to another demonstration of disarming a gunman.
About 25 years ago, I was in a store when an armed robber held it up. I was in the back of the store at the time, and hunkered down with a woman who had a baby in a stroller. I would no sooner have considered rushing that guy than I would have considered shooting myself. And I sure as hell wouldn't tell my kids to do anything differently.
Fear of mass shootings is now part of our daily reality, but instead of informing the audience about how we might prevent them, they put on a krav maga instructor to tell them how to rush headlong into them?
And then, after they're dead, we can hail them as heroes. What an incredibly cynical, stupid, selfish thing for them to suggest. Elisabeth Hasselbeck cannot leave that show too soon.
