Don’t let your fantasies overcome good sense

Just before you fall asleep at night, have you fantasized about heroically foiling an attempted terrorist attack, a bank robbery or some other life-threatening situation?

Of course you have, if you’re a normal delusional American who has seen too many “Die Hard” movies. In these fantasies, you usually are able to somehow disarm or knock out the assailant even if he is twice your size, and walk away without a scratch.

Or, in more modest fantasies, maybe you simply outsmart the bad guy and manage to escape.

But these fantasies are best confined to the safety of your bed. In real life – unless you’re highly trained and experienced, such as a veteran cop or member of the military – your reaction to a life-threatening event is likely to be panic and paralysis.

That’s not necessarily a matter of cowardice. It’s just the way we’re wired. We get transfixed by the internal debate over fight or flight.

But Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and GOP presidential candidate, is confident he would not freeze in such a moment of peril. Just days after the shooting at an Oregon community college left 10 dead, Carson was on CBS offering advice to those who might find themselves caught up in future attacks.

Carson said if he had been present during the Oregon shooting, he would “not just stand there and let him shoot me. I would say, ‘Hey, guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.’ ”

And if I had been there with him, I would have replied, “OK, Ben, you first.”

Of course, I really have no idea how I would react in that situation, and I doubt Carson does either. No one does until he’s actually confronted with danger of that magnitude.

Carson’s statement is offensive on at least one level. He clearly implies that the victims in Oregon elected to “just stand there” and let themselves be shot.

Beyond that, his advice goes against what experts tell us is the sensible response. The first thing they say to do is run. Then, if you can’t run, hide.

Only as a last resort should you fight the attacker. And that requires overcoming the possibility that you’ll be killed or badly hurt if you try.

Heroes do rise to the occasion in some cases, helping to subdue an attacker or minimize the casualties in some way. But the number of heroes is dwarfed by the multitudes who just stand there or run away in a haze of hysterical frenzy – both motivated by a natural sense of self-preservation.

In other words, the normal people.

Carson’s idea of attacking the attacker also seems to foster one of the National Rifle Association’s favorite – and dumbest – sayings: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

Advice to all bystanders: Make sure you don’t get between these two guys.

The Huffington Post published a story this week about a woman in the parking lot of an Auburn Hills, Mich., Home Depot who opened fire on an alleged shoplifter attempting to flee the store. She emptied the magazine of her 9 mm handgun, shooting at the man and then at his getaway car. Police think she might have hit a tire, although they still are searching for the car.

Of course, this good gal with a gun might also have hit Home Depot merchandise, other people’s cars or buildings next door. Thankfully, she apparently didn’t hit any unsuspecting customers or their children or pets.

By the way, she had a license to carry a concealed weapon. She probably won’t be charged with anything.

Here’s another salient fact: Hitting an intended target with a handgun is hard to do, even at close range, even if you’re a trained marksman – and especially if the intended target is shooting back.

So, here’s another piece of advice: Don’t be a hero except in your dreams.

This story was originally published October 8, 2015 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Don’t let your fantasies overcome good sense."