One thing that was apparent from the Virgina Tech shooting is that Americans no longer have a complacency that the authorities will protect them from the bad things that can't really be happening anyhow. Not here in America. At least not here in the nice part of America.

Students didn't wait around to see what happened. They jumped en mass from second floor windows, breaking legs. They used their bodies to barricade classroom doors to keep the killer out. These students and professors knew they were on their own and had to save themselves.

I call it the United 93 Syndrome after the fourth plane hijacked on 9/11 that crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers fought back. Up until that point, and that day, Amerians lived in a bubble in which they believed (myslef included) that this couldn't really happen, except on TV. And if, by chance it did, the authorities or maybe even Spiderman, would come and save them at the last moment. Once those plane passengers realized that sitting quietly wasn't going to save them, in fact at that point, nothing would, they took action into their own hands.