Apologies for absence from The Corner. The weather here on Lawn Guy Land went suddenly from awful to wonderful, and I’ve been out in my garden, deck, garage, treehouse, repairing winter’s ravages. Tracking back through The Corner, I see some further ripples from my comments on the Virginia Tech murders. The only one that seems to need a response is Bob Tarantino’s “Steynshire” column. It’s a nice try, but if you look closely at the case Tarantino makes (and set aside his snotty and sarcastic manner), there’s nothing there. Things could hardly be otherwise, since we’re working from a very small dataset. The mass killing of dozens of unrelated, unarmed adults by a lone gunman is, in fact, very rare indeed. Most American mass murders are family affairs. Those that weren’t, to the degree they tell us anything, help my case more than Tarantino’s. —Nothing can be deduced about the behavior of Americans from the San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre (1984), since practically all those killed were Mexicans! —In re the Luby’s massacre (1991), Suzanna Gratia Hupp reports that her father, Al Gratia, *did* rush the gunman, and was killed doing so. Presumably Mr. Gratia agreed with me that if you’re going to be killed anyway, you might as well die taking a run at the killer. So perhaps this isn’t such an outlandish opinion after all, nor so impossible to put into practice. —The 1966 Whitman murders don’t seem very relevant, since not even *I* expect anyone to rush a gunman who has barricaded himself atop a 27-story tower. And, as noted on The Corner, armed citizens–including college faculty–were shooting back at him. —Tarantino’s other cases seem even less relevant than that, though if I’m missing something, no doubt readers will let me know. —He does not mention the Long Island Railroad massacre of 1993, which was stopped by three men rushing the killer as he reloaded. To my point about handguns not being very accurate in untrained hands, note this from the New York Times account of the Virginia Tech shootings: “Gene Cole, 52, a custodian, was talking to his supervisor on the first floor when a secretary came downstairs and alerted them to sounds of gunfire. Mr. Cole took the elevator to the second floor. He came upon a wounded woman on the floor, writhing in pain, unable to speak. Before he could get to her, the gunman charged out of a classroom, raised his gun and fired five shots at Mr. Cole. All missed.” So again, my suggestion that an unarmed individual has some kind of chance against a shooter seems to have some foundation in fact. Bottom line: In the extremely unlikely case that you and several other unarmed citizens are confronted by a lone gunman plainly intent on mass murder, go for the guy. You might get killed, but then he plans to kill you anyway. You might stop him and save many lives.