Please read the article first and then the rest of the post.
Below him, he saw two men with rifles and what appeared to be ammunition draped over their shoulders. Black cloths were wrapped around their heads. One was shooting at a security guard, the other toward the mall. One of the men looked up at Kamau and raised a hand in the air.
“He screams ‘We are al-Shabaab!’” Kamau told me. “When he said that I repeated to the guys behind me, ‘Did they say al-Shabaab?’”
via Surviving the Westgate Terrorist Attacks in Nairobi, Kenya : The New Yorker.
We can safely say that Westgate Mall is a great example of the expression When The Shit Hits The Fan.
Now, if anybody has Walter Mitty fantasies about solving a situation like that, please discard them right now. When you have 15 to 30 individuals armed to the teeth with full auto AKs and grenades, your Plastic Wonder in 9mm is not the magical solution to end the attack.
But what it will work is a combination with “keeping calm” (or trying to keep your wits about it) and avoiding the bad guys . Both victims and attackers will fall into the confusion created by sensory overload: too many things happening with too many people around with high levels of stress (fear) makes for chaos and it can be used to leave and take yourself to a safe area or find a good hiding spot like the people in the article.
The gun you carry is a tool that may either give you access to an exit point, or defend you from an imminent attack. If in your way to an exit, you happen to bump into a Terr or two, the appropriate and aggressive use of the gun may give you a way to clear the obstructed path. Again, your gun will not be used to bring justice to the unjust world but it is a way to get you the fuck out of the killing zone.
If you have chosen the hiding strategy, the gun may give you an option if your location is about to be or is discovered. If the Terrs are being cocky (as they usually are when they think they have a nice big herd of pasture animals ready for the slaughter) you can with an (again) appropriate and aggressive use of the gun to send them to the Other Side. You may have now a chance to either remain hidden, look for another hole or initiate escape.
You may have noticed this expression repeated & bold: appropriate and aggressive use of the gun. I’ll wait for another post to make it clear to those who may have doubts. (You can now read what I mean by appropriate and aggressive use of the gun) Right now I want you once again to go back, read the article and mentally prep yourself by coming up with a strategy.
In incidents like that, you are not going for accolades, medals and a 15 minute spot in Oprah. Your prize is to keep yourself and your loved ones alive. Like this woman did.
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Why we stopped wearing armor (French cuirass struck by a cannonball at he Battle of Waterloo).
