The Level Up Fallacy.

Speaking of the shooting in Parkland, there’s body-cam footage from one of the Broward County Sheriff’s responding to the scene.

Now let me preface this by saying I am in awe of the job that cops do. They get paid to do stuff that I am quite frankly terrified to even think about doing, much less actually perform.

But.

This is not how you respond to an emergency like an active shooter. Ever since Columbine, when most of the deaths happened while SWAT was getting their game on outside the school, the best practices for the police has been for the first units on-scene to go in right away not wait for backup. This didn’t happen at Stoneman Douglas, and people died because of it.

It’s brutal, but it’s also reality.

When an emergency happens to you or me, we won’t have time to rush out and upgrade our weapons, and we certainly won’t have time to learn to be a better shot. It’d be like trying to upgrade your airbag in the midst of a car accident: Either it works, or it doesn’t, and the time to make sure it was up to the task of saving your life was long before that car pulled out in front of you.

Life is not a video game. We won’t get an opportunity to level up our skills and gear before the boss fight. Plan (and train) accordingly.