Anti gun crowd afraid of own shadow

[philip964]

Note to self: don’t go to liberal rallies.

[Jose_in_Dallas]

What just happened there? Why did they all turn and run?

[Rafe]

Injuries from falls or trampling while attending leftist rallies or protests occur at a rate 582,462 times higher than do injuries from people being shot by law abiding gun owners. And I may be a little low on the number.

[TxRVer]

What just happened there? Why did they all turn and run?

According to reports, someone yelled "I am the gun".

[Rafe]

What just happened there? Why did they all turn and run?

According to reports, someone yelled "I am the gun".

Makes me want to try to get a gig speaking at a big anti-gun rally like that just to see what would happen when they introduced me under a pseudonym: Iman Haas Gunn.

[mayor]

I have a friend that has a chihuahua like that. Wakes up in a new world every morning and jumps at every new thing. He put her out to do her business, he took his shoes off and put them by the door. The dog almost broke in half coming in the door by the "new" shoes.

[cirus]

That was a beautiful sight. It brought a tear to my eye.

[Jose_in_Dallas]

What just happened there? Why did they all turn and run?

According to reports, someone yelled "I am the gun".

LOL!

[crazy2medic]

Makes me wonder what would happen if somebody played the sound of Machinegun fire over the speakers! I'd do it just for entertainment value!

[Excaliber]

That herd is easily stampeded and never learns.

[Rafe]

That herd is easily stampeded and never learns.

Yep. Allelomimesis, or specifically allelomimetic behavior: "in which performance of a behavior increases the probability of that behavior also being performed by other nearby animals." I wrote a paper about it many years ago, back when it was considered only relevant to ethology, the study of animal behavior. Konrad Lorenz is the first I remember writing about it, particularly in his book On Aggression (1966).

But we're animals, too. And the applicability to humans is clearly demonstrated in that video clip. A more innocuous example: Have a large movie theater with four sets of doors. Prop open the central set of doors and leave the two at the sides closed...but unlocked. The vast majority of people exiting the theater will queue up and wait to file through those two sets of open doors.

I think it should be brought up as part of situational awareness courses, too. We don't necessarily realize our natural tendency to do it until it's pointed out and reinforced. If someone had fired shots at that rally, perhaps the worst direction to run would be the one in which the crowd chose to go. You might get jostled, tripped, or at the very least clogged-up in the congestion with no place to go: makes for a target-rich environment.

Part of situational awareness is knowing what points of ingress and egress are available to you, but also knowing which of those are most likely to become clogged in an emergency. When possible, take the road less traveled.

[K.Mooneyham]

That herd is easily stampeded and never learns.

Yep. Allelomimesis, or specifically allelomimetic behavior: "in which performance of a behavior increases the probability of that behavior also being performed by other nearby animals." I wrote a paper about it many years ago, back when it was considered only relevant to ethology, the study of animal behavior. Konrad Lorenz is the first I remember writing about it, particularly in his book On Aggression (1966).

But we're animals, too. And the applicability to humans is clearly demonstrated in that video clip. A more innocuous example: Have a large movie theater with four sets of doors. Prop open the central set of doors and leave the two at the sides closed...but unlocked. The vast majority of people exiting the theater will queue up and wait to file through those two sets of open doors.

I think it should be brought up as part of situational awareness courses, too. We don't necessarily realize our natural tendency to do it until it's pointed out and reinforced. If someone had fired shots at that rally, perhaps the worst direction to run would be the one in which the crowd chose to go. You might get jostled, tripped, or at the very least clogged-up in the congestion with no place to go: makes for a target-rich environment.

Part of situational awareness is knowing what points of ingress and egress are available to you, but also knowing which of those are most likely to become clogged in an emergency. When possible, take the road less traveled.

I appreciate the reminder, dovetails with Anti-Terrorism Level I training I've received in the past.

[philip964]

Someone in there midst with a gun and evil intentions, their only helpless defense is to run away. Thus the reaction you saw.

Now imagine the same crowd at a pro gun NRA rally.

Everyone would have looked for a threat and acted accordingly.

There would have been no running, unless towards the threat.

[mayor]

Someone in there midst with a gun and evil intentions, their only helpless defense is to run away. Thus the reaction you saw.

Now imagine the same crowd at a pro gun NRA rally.

Everyone would have looked for a threat and acted accordingly.

There would have been no running, unless towards the threat.

[howdy]

I had a layover in downtown NYC on Dec 31st. The First Officer and I went down to Times Square to see the ball drop at midnight. We did not know that after the ball drops, EVERYBODY goes to Central Park to see the fireworks. That is a mass of humanity and once that mass starts moving, there is no going against it or through it....you go with the flow (and you better not fall down) Now I try to avoid situations like that and if I do go I will stay next to the exit point or next to something solid to get behind.