Survival Guides for Domestic Terrorism
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
I have been reading various survival guides in this era of (mostly gun violence) domestic terrorism. One thing that seems common is the reversal of everyday logic like "safety in numbers", "fight back" , "good guys with guns", etc. Free association contributes the orchestra of the Titanic when playing Nearer My God to Thee, and next, the thought of rearranging chairs on the deck of the doomed vessel. The aura of inevitability, predestination, and hopelessness is all around if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Free Association
Free association brings up images of the orchestra on the Titanic playing Nearer My God to Thee, the rearrangement of deck chairs on the doomed vessel, 911, etc. Bouncing back from doomsday thoughts and notions of inevitability brings focus to the weapons involved in domestic terrorism. Singling out guns brings the thought that these are weapons of war. They fire high velocity missiles that have explosive impact, require only a modicum of skill, making up for a lack of shooter accuracy with rapidity of fire under semiautomatic direction.
Bringing a population intent on shopping, recreation, milling about etc. in contact with weapons of war is the equivalent of involving populations of cities in wartime with mass destruction (Dresden, London, Hamburg, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc.). With the tactics adopted of a no holds barred nature against a declared, expendable enemy. A situation where the winner makes the rules and war crimes are unlikely to be declared. The survival guides for such situations do not exist. Buy back efforts, more careful registration requirements, and gun show inclusion in registration pale into insignificance when the aura of war is introduced. The domestic terror situation is not defined by guns alone. There have been a number of knife killings, the threats of home made explosives, pressure cooker explosions, and water supply contamination.
Avoid Dangerous Situations
I suspect that staying away from places where large numbers of people gather is probably wise. Avoiding places where inhibitions are loosened by alcohol or drugs is also wise. Understanding what help is available and under what circumstances. Calling the local police while moving away as rapidly as possible requires a cell phone and good legs. The elderly should avoid crowds and confusion. The elderly poor are most vulnerable to the hate explosion that characterizes what is occurring. They must add the possibility of hate based incursion into communities already ravaged by crime and violence and where routine police response may not occur.
Again, demanding responsiveness from elected officials is recommended. They must be made aware of the concerns and fears and they must know what is and is not responsive at the next levels. If the sociopolitical level is not involved, then we may be using a "book of the dead" as our survival manual.
