©2001 May not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. This includes publishing at other websites.
HOUSTON AUTO SHOW
The wunnerful Houston Auto Show is happening January 27-Feb 4th at the Astrohall. I'll be there January 27th, Saturday, 10 till 4 and Thursday night, February 1, from 4 till closing, at the Mercedes-Benz booth.
The best time to come to the auto show is at night during the week. Saturday and Sunday are usually wall to wall people. Don't expect the new cars and prototypes as in Detroit, LA, NYC, and Chicago. This is not a tier 1 show. I presume we will have some free tickets the week before the show.
NEW MERCEDES AT DETROIT AUTO SHOW
First Ever C Class Wagon for US
(to see full-sized photos, click on thumbnail:)
Capitalizing on the already-successful C-Class sedan introduced last September, the 2002 C-Class wagon makes its World Debut in Detroit. The C320 wagon will become available next fall, powered by a 215-hp, 3.2 liter V6 engine. This first C-Class wagon for the US market will come with a long list of standard equipment, including safety items pioneered by Mercedes-Benz like smart front airbags, curtain side airbags, the Tele Aid emergency call system and ESP stability control. Like the larger E-Class wagon, the highly flexible interior of the C-Class wagon makes it an ideal car for people with an active lifestyle who need a versatile vehicle with high cargo capacity. One or both of the rear seats can be folded forward to create a flat loading area, and the rear seats can be folded forward to create a flat loading area, and the wagon offers VDA cargo capacity ranging from 16.6 cubic feet with the rear seats up to 48.9 cubic feet with the seats down. An easy-to-use luggage cover also incorporates a retaining net partition. Mercedes designers developed the C-Class sedan and wagon together. While both versions lead with the same elegant, sporty face, the distinctive lines of the wagon are marked by a long, curved roof that blends into angled roof pillars at the rear. At the top of the tailgate is a discreet, integrated spoiler that contributes to exemplary aerodynamics and high-speed handling.
C32 AMG
(to see full-sized photos, click on thumbnail:)
Mercedes re-enters the C-Class hot rod ranks with the C32 AMG. This new supersedan offers all the value of the landmark C-Class plus the power, style, sportiness, and luxury of Mercedes-AMG. Powered by a new 349-hp. 3.2 liter supercharged and intercooled V6 (NOT turbocharged, but supercharged) Kompressor engine, the C32 AMG not only develops an astounding 332 lbs.-ft. of peak torque, it delivers nearly 300 lbs.-ft. from just 2,300 rpm, making for outstanding driveability at all engine speeds. Early estimates indicate acceleration from rest to 60 mph in just 5 seconds, and it delivers this performance while meeting stringent emission regulations that don't take effect in Europe until 2005. A new high-capacity SpeedShift five-speed automatic transmission receives specific shift programming at Mercedes-AMG, making for the liveliest performance possible when needed, yet exhibiting refinement when driving under normal conditions. The C32 AMG's racing derived brakes and suspension are engineered with great influence from Mercedes-AMG's competition experience and the C32 AMG's chassis is transformed to provide handling feedback and grip dictated by the new Kompressor V6 driveline. The C32 AMG receives its own unique design cues echoed by every Mercedes-AMG model. These are a direct result of research to minimize aerodynamic lift and maximize aerodynamic balance front-to-rear at top speed.
SLK32 AMG
(to see full-sized photos, click on thumbnail:)
(Driver/model is Bernd Schneider, 2000 DTM series champion)
This exciting compact sports car combines a new supercharged V6 Kompressor engine developed by the high performance Mercedes-AMG division, the classic appeal of a roadster and the practicality of the award-winning SLK-Class, the first modern car with a fully retractable electric hardtop.
The 349-horsepower SLK32 AMG promises shattering performance thanks to light weight and high torque, athletic handling, and superb stopping ability. The new SpeedShift transmission provides up to 35 percent faster gear changes than a conventional automatic. Under heavy braking, SpeedShift will automatically downshift, selecting the optimal gear for the situation. Also, by tipping and holding the gear lever to the left, it will determine the best gear for maximum acceleration in any situation. With experience borne out by a number of racing championships, including this past year's DTM 2000 Championship with driver Bernd Schneider, Mercedes-AMG has engineered outstanding brakes to withstand hard repeated use. Front vented discs measure 12.15 inches in diameter, while the rear vented units measure 11.8 inches, serving enthusiast drivers under any circumstance.
C-Class Sports Coupe
(to see full-sized photos, click on thumbnail:)
Panoramic sunroof open
Panoramic sunroof closed
Also shown at the NAIAS is the new C230 Sports Coupe for the 2002 model year. This trim new coupe is smaller than the C-Class sedan on which it is based, yet it offers all the Mercedes-Benz safety firsts also standard on the sedan, such as smart front airbags, curtain side airbags, the Tele Aid emergency call system, and ESP stability control. The C-Class sports coupe debuts an innovative panoramic sunroof allowing skyward vision from the windshield header to the very rear of the car. Three glass sections include a front that pops up to deflect wind, a midsection that lifts up and glides rearward over the rearmost section, which is fixed. The C-Class Sports Coupe is powered by a supercharged and intercooled 190-hp engine and offers the option of either a six-speed manual transmission or a five-speed automatic with Touch Shift manual gear selection.
PRIMETIME AND ESP
ABC's tabloid show, Primetime, had a segment on SUV rollovers and the cure. They took a junked Blazer and simulated the typical rollover with two unbelted dummies aboard. 80% of the fatalities of SUV rollovers are unbelted! This should tell you something. Want to improve your chances of survival by 80%? Fasten your seatbelt.
The Blazer was remotely steered off the road on the left shoulder. Then the wheel was turned violently to correct, overcorrecting, putting the truck into a skid, which caused the topheavy, poorly suspended vehicle to tip over, digging the wheel into the asphalt, and rolling the truck onto roof, then wheels. The dummies inside became projectiles and dented the roof with their heads. Had they been humans they'd have been dead or quadriplegics.
Then they demonstrated a Mercedes-Benz ML320. They ran it through an obstacle course of cones. They had outriggers so it wouldn't roll over. With ESP off the outriggers were activated because they got it on 2 wheels.
With ESP turned ON, they were unable to get the ML out of sorts.
They complained that ESP, which they called, incorrectly, Electronic Stability PACKAGE, instead of Program, wasn't on moderately priced SUVs and should be.
Well, duh, they explained why. It adds $1,000 to the cost of a vehicle. Why would a company run by bean counters put on a $1,000 item which has to be explained to the buying public?
Mercedes, which invented it, put it on because their Bored of Directors, back in 1960, made safety their most important priority. Engineers still get to outvote bean counters in matters of safety.
ESP is on EVERY 2001 Mercedes-Benz.
Yeah, they do cost more than Explorers, and I'm aware that not everyone can afford them. The main reason vehicles cost so much today is the safety and antipollution devices that weren't there 30 years ago. But there are still multiple SUVs with minimal safety equipment. Feel free to buy one of them if you don't care about your life or your loved ones.
If you don't want your SUV to roll over, buy an ML.
IBS REVISITED
It finally happened. The owner of Star Motor Cars has decided he can't use sales personnel who average less than 95 on the Initial Buyer's Survey. Those who can't get their averages up by March 31 risk being terminated. This is a very high target. MBUSA requires 94 average for annual awards (among other criteria).
Where I grew up 95 is an A. This means an A- is unacceptable. I have no problem with that. Mercedes-Benz automobiles deserve A and A+ representation.
The Initial Buyers' Survey is half of the Dealer's Customer Relationship Index score. The other half is the Ownership Experience Survey. The IBS comes to a client 2 weeks to a month after delivery. The OES comes after a year. The former rates the dealership at point of sale. The sales rep is responsible for the score. The latter rates the service department. The service advisor is responsible for the score.
Every IBS eventually comes to the sales person. I file every one I get and refer to it as needed.
My average is above 95. Usually my quarterly report will have a page of 20-30 100s plus a few who didn't fill in all the blanks (one arrived on my desk today which would have been a 100 but he missed the first page) plus one or 2 low scores.
Occasionally the low score is because the client didn't understand that the Excellent/Completely Satisfied line is 100%, but the Very Good/Very Satisfied line is 60%. If you rate Satisfied/Good, it's 40% (!)
Some clients, when questioned, say "I didn't mean to cut you, but so-and-so ticked me off." Well, so-and-so didn't get the low rating. I did. The sales person is responsible for the IBS scores. So-and-so doesn't work for me. As I'm the low man on the totem pole at Star, nobody works for me.
There's probably not a thing I can do to keep from getting 1 or 2 bad ones a quarter. I've agonized over every one. In most cases I simply shouldn't have sold that person a car. There were warning signs, and I tried to get the sale anyway. In one recent case the entire store bent over more than backwards to accommodate the client, but the client wanted more and more and attacked the character of the sales manager and me before the sale was completed. Unfortunately I tried very hard to please, when I should have just not worked as hard to get him a car.
QUOTE
In life you have to play hard as well as work hard in order to get the balance right.
Richard Branson
DIMINISHED VALUE
If your car has been in an accident and has been repaired properly you're still not off the hook. The insurance company might have paid for the repairs, and thus you think you're okay. Then you'll go to trade the car in, and the Pre-owned/used car mangler will take an electronic gizmo off his belt and say, "Eureka! The car's been painted on." Then he'll start examining and checking for hidden serial numbers and such, and he'll say, "The B-pillar's been welded on," or "This fender/door/quarter panel has been replaced." And he'll crucify the car's trade in value.
Why? It was repaired very well.
Yes, but we have to disclose it was wrecked. Usually when people hear that, they run like rabbits.
Everyone wants a virgin.
Your car is no longer a virgin.
As a general rule, a car will be diminished, compared to a perfect specimen, by several thousand dollars, even if repaired well. A car which would have done "Average trade in" according to the NADA Used Car Guide, which is usually real world what a perfect specimen is worth for various reasons, is now worth loan value minus $2,000-5,000.
In other words, you're screwed.
But there is hope-If your car was repaired by the OTHER GUY'S insurance company, as soon as the body shop finishes with it, bring it to our Pre-Owned/Used Up Car Mangler, and he will give you a before/after appraisal. Then you can go back to the insurance company and make a claim for DIMINISHED VALUE.
If it was your own insurance company which paid, well, you're screwed.
"BUT CURT! You can hardly tell it. You had to use a machine to tell it was worked on. How can you use that to appraise a car. It's not fair."
No. It's not. But if we don't discover it, and we sell it without disclosing it, we'll wind up in court.
"Mister Rich, how long have you been in the car biz?"
"Twenty-three years."
"Isn't is your business to be able to look at a car and determine whether it was wrecked or not?"
"Well, maybe not mine, but at least the appraiser."
"And the appraiser did not determine it had been damaged?"
"No."
"And your mechanic who checked the car over didn't determine it had been viciously and maliciously wrecked?"
"No."
"If you were a doctor and you made such a mistake, wouldn't you call it malpractice?"
"Well, I wouldn't, but you probably would."
You get where this is going. We're held to the standards of a profession. Mistakes of this nature are not acceptable, and triple damages are collected in Texas.
Additionally, if a car has had any chassis welding or a fender replaced it's not eligible for the Mercedes-Benz StarMark warranty program. If it isn't eligible for the program we're probably not going to put it on our lot. We'll probably wholesale it. If we do retail it, it will bring considerably less than a virgin.
I don't make the rules of life. This is just one of them.
QUOTE
And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life?
Matthew 6:27
LETTERS
Loved reading your newsletters - we have a few things in common, infantry officers, like MBZ's, NRA members and your 5 principles are pretty much what I tell my staff.
Anyways, I'm quite bitter that I purchased my CLK 430 from these shysters here at (deleted) Motors (Northern Cal) instead of cruising down Texas-way. (I know it wouldn't have passed our smog test in CA, but oh well) Can you put me on your newsletter mailing list ? Great stuff and I'm still chuckling.
Keep rockin'
Kincy Clark
Thanks. Nice to hear from an infantry officer still alive. Actually every MB sold in the USA would pass California Smog tests. That's all MB sells. But I don't expect to sell in Northern California as much as I'd like to. I'll put you on the mailing list, but you'll get it quicker on the net by signing up for Net Minder to remind you when it's changed. The online version has everything the mailed one has, sometimes more because there are no space limitations.
Trailer Hitch
Just sat down to read your latest newsletter, and more particularly the item on the ML with the trailer hitch.
On my previous ML320 I had a hitch installed by Star when I picked up the car new. I got unending grief from a gentlemen in my office about leaving the insert on all the time. Personally, I just found it inconvenient to put in on and take it off as I needed it. It turned out to be a wise decision. On my way home one day, I was smacked in the rear by a truck. It was a pretty good hit. In fact, no sooner had I been hit, was I hit yet again. Needless to say I was really, really pissed off having been hit by the same truck twice! Getting out, I expected quite a bit of damage. I was very surprised to find no damage .. none to the tongue, the hitch, or the frame .. and most importantly none to the bumper or body work. I'd say that tongue was the best insurance I ever bought.
Just my two cents worth.
Robert Marsh
Makes me want to put a trailer hitch, grille guard, and side rails on the ML, with a couple of Claymores with proximity fuses.
MISC. RAVINGS
This morning in my daily mission to survive traffic and get to work a Porsche ragtop got on my radar by cutting me off. This being the "new" me, I didn't, as in the old days, resort to flipping the red cover over the toggle switch and arming the Jerk-seeking missile and firing same when I got the confirming beep (you have to be close, otherwise the sensor gets confused. There are so many targets out there that fit the criteria). Instead I backed off 2 seconds and continued on my way, moving onto the freeway and over to my left lane. Traffic was moderate by Houston standards. Between the Barker Cypress entrance and Beltway 8 I observed him make 22 lane changes. Apparently Porsche Boxters aren't equipped with turn signals in some sort of cost saving measure.
The interesting thing was I stayed in the left lane approximately 2 seconds behind the truck ahead. He zigzagged and tailgated for 5 miles. When he exited , he was behind me.
Aside from the futility of his actions and the dangers, he violated Brock Yates' "Run Silent, Run Deep" rule and my Recon driving rule. You will get into less trouble if you are as invisible as possible. He would probably tell me that's why he didn't use signals. A lot of drivers have told me that using signals a) makes them too visible to revenue collectors, and b) telegraphs their intentions (duh!). But all it does is give a revenue collector 2 tickets to write instead of one. Running with constant turn signals will raise attention, but 3 or 4 clicks per lane change keeps you legal. If you're changing lanes so much you're in danger of getting the attention of the revenue collectors because of excessive turn signals, you're doing something wrong anyway.
Schlumberger Card
Employees of Schlumberger are trained in defensive driving. They get a card. On one side are the 5 "Seeing" Habits of Defensive driving. They go back to the Smith System from the fifties. Mr. Smith had a system for lowering fleet accident costs. It was used by a lot of companies and taught in driver education in Texas. I remember he lost the Ford contract because he didn't fasten his seatbelt when he took Ford Executives for a drive. But his 5 points survive:
1. Aim High in Steering
2. Get the Big Picture
3. Keep your eyes moving.
4. Leave yourself an out.
5. Make sure they see you.
This meshes well with what I teach in Drive to Survive.
Their employees also are tested in a "Commentary Drive." This takes me back to the Institute for Advanced Motorists in Great Britain. IAM members get a little bumper badge which tells the British Revenue Collectors that here is someone who knows how to DRIVE instead of just operate a motor vehicle. As a result they are forgiven minor sins, and the revenue collectors can concentrate on people who drive like Americans. The IAM test is difficult, and passing the Commentary Drive with them is tough. You drive over a route chosen by the inspector, and you have to describe everything you see which might influence your driving, and you have to explain every decision. Slow talking Texans who pass the IAM test are few.
The back of the little wallet card has a Commentary Driving Demonstration Check List. This is what their inspectors are looking for when they go on their Commentary Drives annually.
1. Stopped in traffic, One car length
2. Intersections: Check Left-Right-Left before entering.
3. Count 1, 2, 3 delay after vehicle ahead starts to move.
4. Four to Six Seconds Following Time (Remember they're training truck drivers. 2-3 seconds is sufficient for car drivers-if you can maintain it. People will constantly be pulling in front of you.)
5. Five to eight second mirror check.
6. Stale Green Lights-Point of Decision.
7. Scans the steering wheels of parked vehicles.
8. Wheel to Ground Reference. Okay
9. Glance over Shoulder. Clear Blind Spot (*See Below)
10. Establish eye contact with others.
11. Does not abuse vehicle on rough terrain
12. Equipment abuse not a factor.
13. Instruments and gauges are checked.
14. Trained Eye Lead Time Practice.
*This is an old list, developed before adequate side view mirrors were placed on vehicles. If you're having to do this on your street car instead of using the right side mirror correctly (see Drive to Survive), then you'll someday have an accident. PROPERLY ADJUSTED side view mirrors and constant mirror checks (like #5 above) eliminate blind spots. A lot of people come in here saying our cars have blind spots, and they are still looking for a car without a blind spot. Well, if you're looking over your shoulder, they ALL have blind spots.
Remember, if you're able to see the edges of your car in your outside side view mirrors, when you're sitting in your driving position, the mirrors are misadjusted no matter what they told you in driver's ed.
LUSH TEXAS
No, this isn't an article about the Fredericksburg Wine Festival. I was watching The Western Channel, which I do until The Redhead starts to have steam coming out of her ears, so I change to the Chick Flick Channel*.
On New Years Eve they ran the Black Fox trilogy. This is 3 TV movies starring Christopher Reeve shot just before he broke his neck. I'd never heard of the series. Perhaps it was for Canadian TV. I couldn't find out. It's set in Texas just before, during, and after the Civil War. Reeve is a Carolina slave owner who grew up with one of the slaves (Tony Todd) and thought of him as his brother. So he left Carolina and came to Texas with Todd and their wives. That part escapes me as Texas was a slave state. I'd have figured they'd keep on going to California. They moved to the frontier, somewhere near the Brazos. The first two movies take place between the Brazos and the Red River near Fort Belknap.
On the Western Channel Dennis Weaver pops up occasionally to introduce the movie, usually badly. As he introduced the third movie in the series after giving away the plot he complained that the scenery looked too lush for Texas. It was filmed in Canada.
I presume Dennis has never come east of Arizona, or maybe, giving him credit, El Paso. However the Hill Country is very lush, Africa like, with lots of trees and greenery only a few miles from mesquite and scrub grass. The Comanche Valley area (where Fossil Rim Wildlife Park and Comanche Peak Nuclear Facility are located and not that far from old Fort Belknap), is so Africa-like that the aforementioned wildlife park is able to successfully breed a lot of endangered African species. These areas were never used for movies that much. The Hill Country was used to represent Africa in "Ace Ventura; When Nature Calls." It's in "All The Pretty Horses."
I'm tired of everyone getting their views of Texas from old John Wayne movies filmed in Arizona or California. The worst is The Comancheros, an awful movie which got EVERYTHING wrong historically placing a rock-rimmed desert between New Orleans and Houston, having Texas Rangers wear badges in 1840 (1885, first badges), and carry 1873 Colts and 1892 Winchesters.
The Black Fox series, by the way, gets nearly everything right. The guns are correct for the period as are the clothes for the most part (belt loops were invented in the 20th century. So if you see them on pants, the costume is wrong.) I doubt that any Henry rifles or Gatling guns made it to Texas in 1865, as shown in the movie, but at least they existed then.
*Of course her definition of a Chick Flick is the TV series La Femme Nikita.
Hitting the ground running
I don't know if that term predated our combat assaults in Vietnam, but it was applicable. When the helicopter got close to the ground we jumped out and literally hit the ground running. I presume it went back to WWII and airborne assaults, but it could be older than that.
The term is still applicable in this job. Now that I have one of the neaty-keen Motorola TimePort 2001 Mercedes-Benz phones in my pocket, I keep my number at Star forwarded to it most of the time. It'll start ringing while I'm still at home and continue until I get home. By the time I reach work there's usually a fire to put out. I don't mind hitting the ground running, but the incoming fire is a bit annoying.
(Interestingly enough, sometimes the forwarding doesn't work, and I'll find messages on the voice mail. Since I've forwarded the phone, I don't check the voice mail as often, and messages get stuck there for a day or so at times. So if I don' return a call quickly, try again.)
The cars are getting more complicated. Tele-Aid is a wonderful boon to Mercedes drivers, but it's a pain in the neck to sales types. We have an extra form to fill out and a "sales pitch" to put on the client. Now we're not getting paid for Tele-Aid, so monetarily I don't care whether the client takes it or not. But 15 minutes of explanation and form filling is a minimum for every Tele-Aid system. I would hate for one of my clients to decline Tele-Aid because I didn't explain it adequately. It's too valuable. So I take the time to "sell" it. (Some sales types don't, and a percentage of their clients won't sign up for it. They don't care. They spend less time that way.) Then every once in a while the Tele-Aid people will fax or call saying there's a problem activating the system. This morning the vehicle I delivered at noon needed its system changed because it had a duplicate serial number. I figured this out after 3 phone calls and giving the car back to the technician once to get the C.I.D. (whatever that is). By the time I got the word, it was after 11, and the technician worked miracles getting a new one in there by 12. Nothing just happens. I had to tell the dispatcher, find the sales manager, get him to write the ticket authorizing the work, and one of us had to go to the Volvo store where his printer prints (!), and walk it back to the Mercedes dispatcher. Little things like that consume my day.
Maybe I need a flak jacket.
Reversal:
Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as Vermont's own Constitution very carefully, and his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New England and elsewhere.
Maslack recently proposed a bill to register non-gunowners and require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun, thus being an extra burden on law enforcement and expecting the state to take care of them.
SL
The latest is the new bodied SL will be out in early 2002 as a 2003 model. I think I said early 2003 in an earlier issue.
Gumment Rolls Over on Roll-Over Ratings
Your big gumment at work: The NHTSA released roll-over ratings on cars, trucks, SUVs, and mini-vans. Ignoring the importance of ESP (Electronic Stability Program), they didn't test vehicles. They just measured center of gravity and the width between the front tires (according to GMA, rear tires according to Dr. Sue Bailey, the gumment lackey in charge of the NHTSA) and gave a rating based on that. The Mercedes ML, Lexus RX300, and BMW X5, which have some form of ESP, weren't rated. They only rated 34 vehicles.
Heated Seats
We haven't had a winter in a while. We've had 109°F days in September, record summers, enough to make one almost believe in global warming (almost). Now the cycle is changing, as weather cycles do, and it's cold in Texas. We're getting record cold spells. Many of our cars have heated seats. A larger percentage than normal of ML320s had heated seats during the 2000 model year because they were part of the M1 package, and the package price was lowered, and they were made a separate option, but MBUSI apparently had already ordered a lot of heated seat components, so we got trucks with heated seats. ML430s have heated seats as standard equipment.
The heated seats met with a lot of resistance during the record heat. Now, of course, the trucks coming without heated seats. Strangely enough, vehicles with heated seats are selling quite well now.
If you haven't tried heated seats, I do recommend them for your next Mercedes. I have them in both vehicles, and they do an excellent job of taking the chill off quickly. In August just don't turn them on.
Pilling the dog
Cats are supposed to be the ones hard to give medications to. This is true of 2 of our 3. But Merlin, the one who has to get 2 pills daily sits meekly and purrs for it.
To make up for it the dog, John Moses Browning, has become a pain in the neck. He gets 2 pills a day, a vitamin, and a heart-worm prevention medication. One day The Redhead came home with Filarbits-Plus sized for big dogs instead of small dogs-a lifetime supply apparently. She broke them into quarter-tablets. He wouldn't touch them. So we started camouflaging them in canned dogfood. Then we'd find the pill on the empty plate. So we started cutting them into small pieces and mixing it thoroughly with dog food. Then we found some of the pieces on an empty plate. Now I cut them into REALLY small pieces and mix them in the food thoroughly. Then I find really small pieces on an otherwise empty plate. So I made them even smaller. Now I found smaller pieces. Then I grab the dog and shove the pieces down his throat like I should have in the first place. Then he bites me.
ANOTHER SHOOTING
The day after Christmas a disturbed man attacked his workplace and killed 7 people. This, of course, dominated the victim-obsessed media on an otherwise slow news week. According to well-respected researcher Dr. John R. Lott, Jr. of Yale University Law School, there are more than 20 such shootings annually in the United States, with an average of 1.5 people killed and 2.5 people wounded each time.
Perhaps you're wondering how you can avoid being a victim of such a horrible tragedy. Here are some suggestions:
1. Don't live in a state with draconian gun control laws like Massachusetts. (Forgetting that the Battle of Lexington was about gun control, Massachusetts has some of the worst gun control laws in the US.) Such attacks generally occur in gun control states. According to Dr. Lott, "without letting law-abiding citizens defend themselves, we risk leaving victims as sitting ducks."
2. Don't work/shop/have dinner in a "Gun Free Zone." Would you put a sign on your house which said "This is a Gun Free Zone"? No, you'd know what it said to criminals: "Unarmed Victims Here!"
Don't assume you're safe because there's a metal detector and an armed guard at the door. As a goblin in Washington, D.C. figured out, if the goblin simply shoots the guard, who is guaranteed to be in Condition White (See Drive to Survive), then he is home free as he has killed the only armed threat. (Obviously there are exceptions, such as federal buildings where FBI agents work. They get past the metal detector. If no one does, and it's not an airport, it's probably a dangerous place.)
3. Do live and work in one of the 32 Concealed Carry Friendly States. Violent crime, in general, is down in those states compared to states with anti-gun laws, and such shootings are much more prevalent in gun control states. According to Dr. Lott, in the 23 years he has studied, "the number of multiple-victim shootings declined by a dramatic 67 %. Deaths and injuries from these shootings fell on average by 78 %."
4. Carry, or work with people who do. Several such shootings have been nipped in the bud by armed citizens. This almost never makes the national news. One such incident in California didn't make the local newspaper. Good guys killing bad guys isn't news in a lot of places. (Carrying also requires the responsibility of getting as much training as you can stand. If you won't learn and practice, don't carry.)
Three examples of armed citizens vs. mass murderers:
Pearl Mississippi, October 1997. A student went on a shooting spree. An assistant principal ran to his car, retrieved his pistol, and physically immobilized the shooter for ore than 5 minutes before police arrived. There were people who wanted to have him charged for bringing that gun into the "gun free zone" of the school, of course.
Edinboro, Pennsylvania, spring 1998, a school shooting left one dead, but a bystander subdued the shooter for 11 minutes before the police arrived. (Note that in neither case did the good guys shoot the bad guys. Thus, in the anti-gunners statistics, these incidents don't count. Good guys use guns 2.5 million times a year according to criminologist Gary Kleck. "The best available evidence indicates that guns were used about three to five times as often for defensive purposes as for criminal purposes." (Kleck, Targeting Guns, 1997)
Portsmouth, Virginia, December 22, 2000, a 18 year old man decided to rob an alcoholic beverage store at gunpoint. He put 6 people on the floor, preparatory to shooting them. One of them had a legally concealed weapon. He decided it wasn't his day to die and shot the thug 8 times while the thug was shooting at him an missing. No charges were filed. This didn't make any national news wire.
Now, if you ignore all 4 of the above and find yourself in an office/school/restaurant where a goblin is systematically shooting people, and he hasn't gotten to you yet:
1. Realize the wisdom of the 4 points above. It isn't necessary or productive to phone me to say, "you were right," but if you survive, consider it afterward.
2. You have a choice now. You can, as Jimmy Buffet says, put "Dive under your desk and kiss your ass goodbye," or you can fight or you can run, or you can do both.
Running is preferable in some circumstances, generally where there is an exit nearby. Most bad guys can't shoot for sour apples. I can't find any instances of real marksmanship on the part of the shooters (not counting the Texas Tower incident from the sixties). They tend to get close to their victims, who freeze in terror, and then they shoot them. So if you can get 20-30 yards away, or even 10, you're a lot more likely to survive than at contact range.
But if you can't run, fight. A cup of coffee might not be a match for an AK-47, but hot coffee in his eyes might give you time to do something more productive. I can't find much evidence of unarmed victims fighting back. Either it's being suppressed, or they are all freezing like deer in the headlights.
Remember, you've already screwed up. Odds are you're going to die. You can choose to die like a sheep or like a lion. Generally lion hunters kill lions. Occasionally lions kill lion hunters.
Dogs have masters. Cats have staff.
CURT RICH FEBRUARY 2001
