I gotta vent somewhere . . .
I'm taking a class to get folks to start disaster-preparedness efforts in their community. One of our teachers--while he may be a good paramedic--is a rotten teacher. I took notes on how bad he was and gave my notes to the other teacher, who is the boss. Didn't take notes on the content of the course material that week. Did not tell the boss about the following item, but it's been simmering in my head . . .
Among this guy's dumb moves, throwing Tootsie Rolls at the class for right answers, poor organization, lots of 'ums' and 'ers' was one truly stupid move. He's a 'ham' kind of person and he was 'hamming it up' while the other teacher had the floor. Mr. Stupid was at the front to the right of the class when he suddenly went into the Hollywood-style slight-crouch and "blew away" several someones starting about where I was sitting and he swung to the class's right along the wall. He would have "blown away" maybe me, my girls, and a lot of nobodies on the wall.
As I caught this out of the corner of my eye, my first thought was, "Oh, NO!! I'm not carrying!!!!" and I quickly focused more closely on him to notice that he had just his hands, not a gun.
1) He has no idea of the personal trauma in the background of his students. This might affect them more than his just being a ham. A friend of mine had relatives at Columbine. My husband was in an office building which was shot up . . . etc. It's serious, not a game to us. Not funny.
2) He has no idea of the training of folks in the room. I understand that some folks are so well trained that their muscles react before their brain even really registers. An acquaintance was in Special Forces in Vietnam. In spite of his arthritis, etc, he'll throw his wife out of bed even while he's asleep-in the midst of some dream/nightmare. She handles it well, but sweetly says that she doesn't want to be protected.
3) He obviously hasn't thought through that this is a "shall issue" concealed carry state with over 30,000 individuals licensed to carry. What are the chances that one is in a room of 45 adults? Significant, anyway in a small state. And with the very imperfect training of CCW classes, might someone react improperly? (Ok, it pointed out to me that I need to be more aware of my surroundings . . .)
4) He obviously is Hollywood-trained and believes in the "spray and pray" technique. Wasn't very realistic, I thought, but apparently even I've seen enough of Hollywood's products that I recognized what he was doing and it got my adrenaline going. And that's saying a lot as I haven't watched tv or movies in 15 years and never did like gore-type stuff before that.
AAARRRGH!!!! Still makes me mad to think about it. Thanks for letting me vent.
I'm taking a class to get folks to start disaster-preparedness efforts in their community. One of our teachers--while he may be a good paramedic--is a rotten teacher. I took notes on how bad he was and gave my notes to the other teacher, who is the boss. Didn't take notes on the content of the course material that week. Did not tell the boss about the following item, but it's been simmering in my head . . .
Among this guy's dumb moves, throwing Tootsie Rolls at the class for right answers, poor organization, lots of 'ums' and 'ers' was one truly stupid move. He's a 'ham' kind of person and he was 'hamming it up' while the other teacher had the floor. Mr. Stupid was at the front to the right of the class when he suddenly went into the Hollywood-style slight-crouch and "blew away" several someones starting about where I was sitting and he swung to the class's right along the wall. He would have "blown away" maybe me, my girls, and a lot of nobodies on the wall.
As I caught this out of the corner of my eye, my first thought was, "Oh, NO!! I'm not carrying!!!!" and I quickly focused more closely on him to notice that he had just his hands, not a gun.
1) He has no idea of the personal trauma in the background of his students. This might affect them more than his just being a ham. A friend of mine had relatives at Columbine. My husband was in an office building which was shot up . . . etc. It's serious, not a game to us. Not funny.
2) He has no idea of the training of folks in the room. I understand that some folks are so well trained that their muscles react before their brain even really registers. An acquaintance was in Special Forces in Vietnam. In spite of his arthritis, etc, he'll throw his wife out of bed even while he's asleep-in the midst of some dream/nightmare. She handles it well, but sweetly says that she doesn't want to be protected.
3) He obviously hasn't thought through that this is a "shall issue" concealed carry state with over 30,000 individuals licensed to carry. What are the chances that one is in a room of 45 adults? Significant, anyway in a small state. And with the very imperfect training of CCW classes, might someone react improperly? (Ok, it pointed out to me that I need to be more aware of my surroundings . . .)
4) He obviously is Hollywood-trained and believes in the "spray and pray" technique. Wasn't very realistic, I thought, but apparently even I've seen enough of Hollywood's products that I recognized what he was doing and it got my adrenaline going. And that's saying a lot as I haven't watched tv or movies in 15 years and never did like gore-type stuff before that.
AAARRRGH!!!! Still makes me mad to think about it. Thanks for letting me vent.
) Usually, sooner or later, somebody got a craw full and the dipstick got dumped on.
) and I asked to see a Taurus PT-911, which I really want. As the young man was getting it out of the case, I turned my head to talk to the other clerk, and when I turned back, the young man was pulling back the slide to make sure it was unloaded (good!) with the gun pointed STRAIGHT AT ME!!! I stepped aside quickly and said, "DON'T POINT THAT THING AT ME!" When he pointed it away, and I regained mty cool, I said more calmly, "I'm glad you're checking that gun, but please point it in a safe direction before you do." It really gave me the willies, and my heart was pounding for about five minutes.