WWBD?

Via Ana Marie Cox, it appears that John Derbyshire has been doing some musing over at The National Review's The Corner. He admits that it's easy to second guess the behavior of others in a crisis, which I guess is why he just goes right ahead and does it. But I think there's more to this than just a quick blog post about the situation at Virginia Tech. Is there a career change in his future? See what you think:

As NRO's designated chickenhawk, let me be the one to ask: Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn't anyone rush the guy? It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake--one of them reportedly a .22.

At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. Handguns aren't very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can't hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than I am. And even if hit, a .22 needs to find something important to do real damage--your chances aren't bad.

Clearly, Derb is working his way through the question in my title: What Would Batman Do? Batman doesn't hide when there's some punk with a gun on a rampage (especially if one of those guns is a puny .22)--he jumps right into the mix and takes the punk out. And (so he hopes), so would Derb. Because, as he points out, your chances aren't bad. One would have to be a better shot than Derbyshire will admit to being in order to hit a target point blank.

Derb has a great opportunity to launch a career as a costumed vigilante. Why wait to be caught in a situation like the college kids at Virginia Tech when you can go out looking for trouble? It's just too bad that Derb hadn't already been out looking for trouble to crush. If he'd been cruising through Blacksburg and seen the Derb signal shining into the sky, he could've been on the scene within moments. He wouldn't have wasted his time with the wussiness of counting gunshots, he would've dived into action and jumped the shooter (one of the guns was only a measly .22, remember) and taken him out the old-fashioned way.

And he wouldn't even have to give up his day job if he didn't want to. It's been proven a couple of times that you can fight crime and keep a full-time job in journalism. Actually, I don't think Derb is testing the waters or looking for reactions. For all I know, this is a done deal. After all, if he's half the man of action that he hopes he is, he's already on the case.