That is a good lesson to remember. The attacker in this case gave little consideration to his personal security, by all accounts, and was not going to stop until someone stopped him. Munley understood this and went against every human survival instinct to pursue a confrontation with a murderous lunatic — and nearly got killed for her efforts. Her heroism saved lives at Fort Hood.

I refuse to be a victim. Because we do not live in an ideal world, there will always be those who want to victimize us, be it a madman or the government (but I repeat myself), and I need to make sure that I can win—if it ever comes down to the contest of brute force.

Update (12/26, h/t: Elliott): my point exactly. Americans are not born victims—that’s why Founders enshrined the right to defend oneself in the Second Amendment. Absent statist drive for power, I don’t see why anyone would strive to make any place (airports, airplane, etc.) constitution-free zone and designate everyone in that area victim. Regulations—after all, for something as potentially dangerous as guns and cars, we do want to make sure that people using them are properly trained and do not intend to harm others—I can understand. Blanket bans, I cannot.

Why wasn’t there any significant media coverage? Was there so little coverage when the French donated the Statue of Liberty as well? Or is this lack of coverage just another indication of their bias against covering anything related to Islamic terrorists unless it puts America and her allies in bad light?

Regardless, now that I know (thanks to this essay), this is one place I want to visit in some near future (the World Trade Center memorial would be another place, if it existed).