BELLICOSE WOMEN UPDATE: Two heroic New York women jumped a racist gunman, and quite probably prevented a massacre. (Via email from Patrick Nielsen Hayden)

UPDATE: Reader Allen Russell says:

I think you missed the most important element of this story. Apparently 40 people allowed this man to hold them hostage even after making it obvious he was going to burn them alive (dousing them with kerosene, having someone handcuff them). People need to realize that if someone holds a gun (or boxcutter) on them that they may as well fight (and maybe die) rather then sheepishly put themselves into an even worse situation. I understand there may be times when it’s better to do as your told (a convenience store employee being held up), but there are limits to what you should allow even in the face of probable death. I would rather have someone shoot me in a struggle (where I may get wounded, but probably won’t die) then allow them to handcuff me and shoot me in the head at their leisure.

Yeah, or worse — as you note, that guy was carrying kerosene and matches, too. John Lott has some words of advice today. On the other hand, reader David Cohen notes that:

In the story on the gunman in New York, the Police Commissioner praised the women who jumped him as “having done the right thing.” This strikes me as a change caused by 9/11 — before that, it seems to me, the police took the position that citizens weren’t supposed to get involved. Next thing you know, the NYPD will be calling for a “shall issue” law.

Well, maybe not. But attitudes certainly are changing this. The notion that you can avoid harm by being harmless is on the way out.