If there’s anything more irresponsible than Fox News suggesting to kids behavior that’s contrary to what experts recommend when dealing with an active shooter, I don’t know what it could be.
On Fox & Friends this morning, Elisabeth Hasselbeck promoted the use of martial arts for kids facing an active shooter. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security recommends looking for an escape and evacuating as the first strategy. If that doesn’t work, hiding is the second. Taking action against the shooter is recommended “only as a last resort.”
But as Media Matters noted, that perspective was missing from Fox News’ segment today that included some krav maga instructors and three children demonstrating the technique. Some of the kids said that they have active shooter drills in school that involve hiding but nobody mentioned that hiding (and evacuating) should be a person’s first choices.
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.
Hasselbeck had an openly admiring attitude toward the martial arts procedures demonstrated. “Moving from scared to being aware and then prepared is what you really do, is what I’m hearing,” she told the instructor. Later, after chatting with the kids, she said, “To me, this sounds like an enabled heart that I’m hearing. Someone who’s willing, able, prepared, aware and able to actually do something because they’ve gone through some steps.”
It’s bad enough that Fox promotes misinformation about current affairs. But misleading on matters of life and death for children is beyond despicable.
Watch it below, from the December 8 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.
The number of schoolkids killed by nukes in the Cold War-0.
The number of schoolkids killed by crazed gunman-a whole bunch.
It’s a damn shame that Americans even have to spend time considering such a thing.
But don’t worry kids, in case the John Wayne act doesn’t work you’ll receive thoughts and prayers from many.
Remember the guy that tried to shoot the lawyer outside of a courthouse about ten years ago? The lawyer got behind a tree and the gunman was just on the other side of the tree. The lawyer got wounded but he managed to survive an almost point blank shooting.
Anyone with a decent knowledge of the movie probably already knows what specific scene I’d like to show her but for those who don’t know, you can watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anEuw8F8cpE
The fancy swordplay in the scene wouldn’t be all that different from someone displaying his or her (likely amateur) martial arts skill when facing someone with a gun.
Better yet, let’s get a gunman loose in the FoxNoise studios and see just how well krav maga (or any other martial arts) fares against an AR-15 or AK-47 or (more appropriately for krav maga) an Uzi. FWIW, per Wiki, a 9mm Uzi has a muzzle velocity—bullet speed—of 400 meters per second or more than 1300 feet per second.. That’s roughly a quarter of a mile per second, or 900 miles per hour. (Typcially, Formula 1 and NASCAR race cars top out at about 230 mph.)
But, hey, if Hasselhack thinks she could stop a gunman armed with an Uzi with a little krav maga, I’d buy the popcorn and soda for everyone who wants to watch Hasselhack commit suicide. (It really doesn’t take a whole lot of skill to use a gun—especially when you don’t have to worry about silly things like “reloading” after every shot, and most automatic and semi-automatic weapons use magazines which have lots of bullets in them so they can be used pretty constantly. All you need to do with the weapons of choice among “lone gunmen” and “terrorists” is squeeze the trigger until the cartridge chamber empties. It DOES, however, require a decent amount of skill to use ANY martial art—whether judo or karate or krav maga.)
I would even say after every other possibility has been eliminated (including jumping out of a two story building), I would say throwing something at an armed shooter would be better than kung fuuing your way into oblivion.
