Survivor Jamie Rohrs left wife and 2 kids to die.

HE put his kids under his seat and ran. tbh I would have thought a stationary baby under a seat is probably safer than being carried across a dark gassy room with bullets flying around by a grown man.

I don't think that deep emotions like love can really be compared to the simple fight or flight instincts that emerge when one is in the situation he was in.

We will have to agree to disagree I am afraid, and you are welcome to judge me for judging him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFZ7C5-h_m4

What I don't understand is how can someone be that cowardly. He ran away from his wife, drop his kids on the floor because he was crying and bolted for the door. He then drove home.

Seriously, I just don't understand how a person can do that. If I did that I would kill myself in shame.

But, this story is pissing me off. How could someone be that cowardly, how could someone live like that. The funny thing is that a stranger had to save his wife and the two kids whilst getting shot in the leg. Now she is marrying the coward who ran away. I hope she doesn't marry the guy.

Indeed we will, and I am not judging you (judgement is your thing perhaps?) but you obviously need to lose the world war 1 attitude towards 'cowardice'.

Most people simply aren't built or trained to face smoke and flying bullets and immediate risk to their life. You keep bringing up your allegorical evidence as somehow equalling universal moral absolute and ignore the fact that a threat is different from pure blind panic.

I don't condone his abandonment of his children, but again, I was not there, and you were not there. Panic is like auto-pilot it can very easily override reasoned thought and 'the right thing'. You may throw yourself in harms way, but next time you could as easily throw yourself to safety, and just because one person has a higher panic threshold doesn't mean that people with lower ones are bad people, that guy didn't ask for the cinema and his family to get shot at, and he sure is beating himself up over a situation he had no control over now.

Like has been said by me and others, no-one is having a go at everyone else who not only failed to use themselves as human shields, but didn't assault the guy shooting up the place. Surely they are as big cowards?

What about the mother herself, why did she not charge at the guy?

Oh right because she was panicking and scared.


Cowardice in the moralistic concept belongs in the last century TBH, Hunger is not greed, lust is not perversion and fear is not cowardice.

What is known is the killer went in there to kill, and judgement should be reserved for him, this perverse need to find someone to blame and round on is pretty disgusting to be honest. We all accept the killer is mentally ****ed up and probably doesn't give a **** so I guess some people are looking for someone with a conscience to pick on but it's really not the mature thing to do.

Thanks for that chief wiggum.
I have been following this thread gobsmacked at how many people are dancing on the head of a pin to find excuses for his actions. All the way through I have been thinking this must be trolling right?
Your post has convinced me.

It's probably different for different people to be honest. If you feared for your own life, do you not honestly think you might just run rather than try to protect your partner as well? (Especially in the heat of the moment.) I dunno, it's hard to know without experiencing something like that yourself.

Partner is one thing but I would never have been able to abandon my children

Well does that not illustrate how everyone has different attitudes in such a situation? Plenty of people have focused on how other guys there protected their "partner" and attacked this guy for not doing the same. Whereas you are focusing mainly on the children aspect, even suggesting that you might not protect your partner in such a situation (apologies if that's not what you meant, but that's the impression I got from your post).

So you're saying you'd definitely put yourself between a murderer with a gun, and your parents, to protect them?

As a matter of fact yes I definitely would. But that wasn't your question was it? Your question was

"Are the kids' lives worth more than his own life though? "

As a parent I can only answer for me and the answer is yes, my child's life is worth more than my own, I would give my life for my child,(and partner for that matter) in a heart beat.
I am just amazed that it would even be in doubt by some.

If you were in a car, and you were going to hit a tree- the natural instinct is to protect yourself- and swerve so the passenger hits the tree...

I can understand your wife but your kid? Really? ****ing hell. I know it's not a rational situation blah blah blah but he has serious balls to go on national television afterwards and propose to his wife. Would drop man card and go to the woods to live a life of isolation and hunting. Can't imagine being able to live with myself doing that.

This.

I'd have to have a sex change after such a display of pussyness.

Goes to show not all women are looking for protection!

Perhaps there a gender distinction

As a Mother, I would protect my children
Though, tbh, I would expect my husband to protect our children before protecting me


If there were just the 2 of us I would hope that we would stick together but I would not expect him to put my life before his (though I may have hoped for that when our children were still tiny)