Train attack and 'ON AIR' murder - two different outcomes.

Two incidents occurred recently which got me to thinking about how much situational awareness really matters. For those of us who might not know about these incidents, one was a man on a train who was shooting people and the second was a man who shot three people while on live TV. Instead of getting tied up in the mired of items we could discuss revolving around these two incidents I want to focus on one item which seems to make a difference in these two incidents. Awareness of what is happening around you! Having awareness is very important in situations like these and in these two cases might of been the difference between living and dying.

Too many people spend the day with a very narrow focus on what is happening around them. Do not think so? OK, here is your homework for the day. Put your phone down and look around. While you look around count the people who are staring at their phone and not looking up. How many of these people could you walk up to and smack upside the head before they would even know you were there???? ONLY TRY THIS ON PEOPLE YOU KNOW!!! Or don't, might make the day more exciting to just smack random people!!!! (thats a joke!) The point is people do not simply look around or pay attention to their surroundings during their day. How can you see danger if you are staring at your phone?

I am going to try and discuss both of these situations without giving anything to the people who committed the acts. Personally I feel it is wrong to even say the names of people who do these things because I feel the motivation for some of these incidents is the notoriety the people get after the event. The first incident occurred on a train in France...........

A person was observed walking into the restroom with his baggage, one of the passengers thought this was odd and observed the man step out of the restroom with a rifle. The passenger attempted to disarm the gunman in an attempt to protect his wife who was also a passenger on the train. The passenger lost the scuffle when the gunman shot him in the neck and he fell to the floor of the train. Other passengers took over the fight and they were able to subdue the gunman. One of these passengers was wounded when the gunman pulled out a second weapon and cut him with it. The gunman was "hog tied" and held by the passengers until law enforcement could take over.

With the gunman and weapons secured the people on the train tended to the wounded aboard the train.

The second incident was during a 'ON AIR' live report from a TV reporter. There is video the killer put up on the internet. I'm not going to add a link. If you must see the video just look it up on your own............. The most striking thing to me in the video is watching the gunman walk up to the victims, point a firearm at them, step back from the victims and point the weapon back at them before opening fire on the victims.

How could this have happened? How can a person walk up to three people, point a gun at them from close range not once but twice and none of them react?!?!?!?!?!?! I wonder what the outcome would have been had any of the three not had tunnel vision at that moment. What is tunnel vision? This is when your perception has narrowed to a point you might as well be looking through a tube at the world around you.

When I watched the video of this murder I was screaming at the images because these people should have clearly seen the danger!! On more than one place in the video the victims eyes, ears or gut should have told them something was wrong!!! Having someone walk up to you when you are off to the side of a setting as they were should at the very least get a curious glance just to see who is approaching!!!! Yet this gunman walked up to them, pointed a gun, obviously did not like the view his camera was recording, changed his position and opened fire when he was satisfied with the view his camera would record..................................

Now before anyone gets all fired up, no I am not saying being shoot was the victim's fault!!! What we are attempting to discuss is the need for awareness in our everyday life!!!! You want to change this conversation that is your business! Moving on..........

When we are out and about during the day we need to remember to take a moment and see what is around us. If you are focused on something right in front of you, your area of awareness becomes very small. This can also be brought out into a bigger idea. If your input of information comes from only a few sources your knowledge or world view is very limited. The same way lifting your head out of a book while sitting at the park allows you to see the folks playing soccer, reading a different newspaper or watching a different news channel broadens your view of the world and allows you to see more. If you can see danger coming you can avoid it, always option one, or deal with it. If you can not see the danger coming you are simply a victim waiting to be victimized..............

We all need to work on our awareness and should start today! Try to put your phone down and look around. This is called "panning and scanning". Look around your area and see what is going on. (side note: you might be surprised who you see also panning and scanning) This is not being paranoid, just look around and see what you see. Who's in the area around you? What are the people around you doing? Why are they doing it? Just take moment and people watch. Doing this more often is a benefit and increases your awareness. Heck make a game out it with your kids! Ask them to remember the color clothes people wore or other such items. Give them the gift of awareness!!!

As always,

Stay Safe!!