Written by robertusmax@gmail.com   

ORLANDO SLAUGHTERHOUSE
We are consumed by the Orlando murders. Rumination without insight is a waste of time. The time line of the shootings may be revelatory.

ORLANDO SLAUGHTERHOUSE

We are consumed by the Orlando murders. Rumination without insight is a waste of time. The time line of the shootings may be revelatory.
Mateen was inside that club for about 3 hours. Only the last 15 minutes was he under assault by the police. In the 2.75 hours before the police assault he killed 49 people and wounded 53 people. Witnesses (who survived to tell) describe him methodically reshooting people to be sure they were dead, methodically looking for others to kill, methodically driving his kill number higher with planning and execution. He did not use his assault rifle on automatic, or even semi-automatic. He did it one bullet at a time, one finger squeeze at a time, methodically. He did not waste ammunition as he wasted lives the old fashioned way, one shot at a time.
Police doctrine in a killing situation is called “active shooter protocol”. The swat teams assemble quickly, surround the building quickly, blow out all the doors and windows simultaneously, toss in flash-bangs to disorient the shooter, and rush him from all directions at once, and shoot him dead. The Orlando police did not use the active shooter protocol until near the 2.75 hour mark. The lack of rush provided the time for the active shooter to shoot, kill, slaughter, and butcher the 100 trapped sheep.
The active shooter protocol is based on the Marines’ protocol under fire. They move towards the firing, since to dig in and return fire is to die. When under assault, advance. This requires courage, brass balls, a cast iron gut, discipline, and training. And leadership. This is not a situation any civilian force is ready for. I do not expect people under attack to advance into fire. It is counter intuitive. The taking down of Flight 777 over Pennsylvania by passengers rushing their terrorists armed with boxcutters is heroic in the extreme. They put that plane into the ground in PA, saving lives, glory, and the white house in Washington DC… the other target that day. A heroic act. Very unusual. Doesn’t happen very often. You cannot count on it happening again when you need it to happen.
Had I been on the police force that night, I would have had diarrhea and run away. The policemen’s’ “Widows and Orphans Fund” and the police families are not grieving. Had the Orlando Police Department followed protocol against this evil man armed with his assault rifle the loss of police life might have been awful. Instead, they took a considered path, saving people where they could safely do so. They were not wasting time. They were doing the considered thing. It just happens to be the wrong thing. The Orlando police Department were not heroic until the end. But, their considered wait to develop their heroic attack gave evil 2.75 hours of killing time.

Why did the Police use their judgement instead of their balls? Because they were outgunned. This man’s possession of an assault rifle did not enable his killing efficiency: As I stated above, he was slow, methodical, and deliberate in his butchery. Such an efficient gun stirred their atavistic desire to live. His assault rifle bought him time to kill. The police were afraid of attacking him because he had such an efficient gun. They wanted to survive their attack. They did not want to die attacking him. They wanted him to die, not them. They were not sure they could kill him before he killed many of them. They held back. They were not led forward into fire. Who knows if they were even trained to do so.
The police were out gunned. The police were daunted. That is the danger of letting the citizenry have assault weapons. It frightens, delays, inhibits, and hobbles law and order. Our options? We could up the ante: Arm the police with more and better and bigger weapons? Have bigger gunfights when the police finally do SWAT their way in? The active shooter protocol requires quick, immediate, almost-reflexive reaction to stop the shooting ASAP.
More, better, and bigger tools won’t enable the police to quickly engage in an active shooter scenario in this situation. That still requires leadership, training, courage, and balls. Is this what we want for our police forces? I don’t. Better armed police (with crew-served machine guns and/or mortars and/or tanks?) would kill the hostages while trying to kill the murderer. The psychology in the Police would shift from its current “deliberation upon the risk because he has an assault rifle” to careless “machismo because we are invincible”. Nope. The only thing that makes sense is to get rid of these weapons that give the police pause.
OMG! The LAST thing we need is a better armed bad-ass police force. So let’s just impose limits on the arms war in our civilian society. Let’s go back to the good old days of mano a mano in the streets of Tombstone, with no more than 6-shooters. None of this assault weapons stuff. Can you imagine the gore at the OK Corral if the Earps &/or the Clantons were armed with assault rifles?
The failures of our legislatures have put at great risk: our forces of Law and Order, our citizens, and themselves.

Robert M. Shuman, M. D.
Robertusmax