How Another Unarmed Man Fought Back Against An Active Killer In Oregon & You Can Too

I’m not going to focus much on the killer in this instance — because it truly is the same old story and it seems they mostly want fame for their actions — so let’s talk about the hero.

What do we know about this guy Chris Mintz?

How did he fight back? What did he do? Did it work?

And finally, what can you learn from this event?

Who is Chris Mintz?

A crazy guy decided to shoot up a community college in Oregon and one of the students who fought back was a guy named Chris Mintz.

According to the info I’ve found (and it’s hard to be accurate with conflicting news reports coming out left and right so close to these events), Chris played football in school, then was in the Army for at least 3 years. He also had faught and practiced MMA and had even done 2 amateur MMA boughts (1 win, 1 loss) a few years ago. He was also training to be a fitness instructor while taking courses at the community college.

He also had a 6 year old son, who it appears had his birthday that same day that Chris was shot.

What Did He Do?

The details are still fuzzy at this point. First accounts had Chris “charging the shooter”. Later accounts say that he told others to move to a safe place and he went either outside a door to confront the shooter, or blocked a door to keep the shooter from getting in.

Either way he was shot at least three times for his efforts, and then when he was laying on the ground he “Looks up at the gunman and says, ‘It’s my son’s birthday today,’ ” his aunt said — and he was shot at least two more times and then the shooter moved on.

It appears that both his legs were broken, but no vital organs were hit, and Chris is in the midst of making a full recovery in the hospital now (all the news reports say he’ll have to learn to walk again).

It appears that Chris slowed the killer down and might be responsible for saving an entire classroom full of people.

In short, Chris Mintz is a hero.

Should YOU Fight Back Against An Active Killer If You’re Unarmed?

There is a simple answer to this question: if you have to.

Here’s what I mean by that …

If I’m with my family — my wife, my kids — my first responsibility is their safety. If I can escape with them safely, then that is the first priority.

If I happen to be a in place where I have a gun with me, then I can provide armed resistance as I’m getting my family to safety, if needed.

But, let’s put ourselves in Chris’ shoes here …

We’re unarmed. There’s no family to worry about. It’s just you and the Active Killer coming down the hallway.

Let me quickly cover something important …

Whatever You Do, Talking Is NOT The Solution …

Let me take a moment to discuss the possibility of “talking down” the active killer.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TALK HIM DOWN.

This is so stupid as to border on unbelievable.

I am aware of only maybe two times that this has “worked”. Just don’t do it. It’s possibly the worst survival/resistance strategy possible …

For the rare instance that it has worked, it has been complete divine providence and outright dumb luck on the part of the victims.

Here’s what you have to understand: Asocial vs social violence.

An active killer that goes into a school (or any other gun free zone) and starts shooting people (or even at people) is not operating within the social dynamics of society. They are operating in the realm of Asocial violence OK?

Trying to respond by “talking down” or with “intelligence” is responding with social skills. This is not the solution. It will not work because this is NOT a social situation. You will be murdered and the killer will smile as he feels the godlike power of shooting someone begging for their life or begging for his mercy.

The difference between a social violence conversation and asocial violence conversation is VAST.

The guy in the bar talking trash at you to impress his buddies, then only trying to “fight” when his buddies grab his arms and are already holding him back is not actually committed to violence. He doesn’t even want to fight. He is only communicating within the social realm of violence. You can successfully, and almost always should, talk down that situation. Swallow your pride and ego and make it go away non-violently because violence is not the only solution.

The asocial violent criminal comes up behind you without you even knowing and starts jamming a knife in your kidneys to start the conversation about how he wants to acquire your wallet. He just wants to kill you or your property, at that point it doesn’t matter. The WRONG thing to do is turn around and ask the guy jamming a knife into your body why they are doing what they’re doing, why they picked you, or “could you please stop?” or “please have some mercy?”

Talking is useless in a situation where you are faced with an Active Killer (unless you’re somehow using it to set up a violent counterattack such as a distraction, but I don’t really see that working well either).

I hope you understand that critical point. This is not a social situation, so don’t treat it like one. He has already initiated violence, therefore if you can’t escape and are confronted with the killer, violence is the ONLY solution.

You Should Fight Back If You Are Unarmed And There’s No Other Option

My buddy Greg Ellifritz has a great article on fighting back against Active Killers when you are unarmed. He makes some great points, and you should click here to read that article.

Among them, he points out that even unarmed resistance (if you can’t escape) works. “With that said, unarmed attacks against armed killers frequently do work.  Ron Borsch’s research on active killer events suggest that roughly one half of active killer attacks are stopped during the shooting.  Nearly 2/3 of the killers who are stopped are stopped by UNARMED citizens.  Police stop less than 20% of active killers during their act.”

He recommends:

1. Wait for a good opportunity
2. Set an Ambush
3. Get some help
4. And utilize Chokes and Improvised Weapons

That’s all great advice, and you should read Greg’s full article.

What else?

If A Gun Is Shoved In Your Face, Or You’re Close Enough To Talk To The Killer, Do Not Beg, Simply Attack

Let’s say your tactics suck or it just is not your lucky day. And before you know it, or even really know what’s going on, you come face to face with the killer and he’s pointing a gun at you.

In my opinion, now would be the time to attack him as violently and quickly as possible. 

As Jeff Cooper notes in his Principles of Personal Defense (emphasis mine) …

“…On a realistic note, I can point out that in every single successful defense against violent attack that I know of and I have studied this matter for nearly three decades –the attacker was totally surprised when his victim did not wilt.

“The speed, power, efficiency, and aggressiveness of the counterattack varied greatly, but the mere fact of its existence was the most elemental component of its success.”

Active Killers like this have never been hardened criminals or street gang members. They’re often outcasts of society, weak and cowardly who want fame and attention by getting the highest body count of unarmed, defenseless victims as possible. This is why when confronted they often either give up, get shot, or shoot themselves.

What this means is they have a plan and have fantasized about how it will all go down. They kit up, grab a gun or two, and they’re gonna go in a gun free school zone where nobody is going to shoot back at them. They’re then going to see everyone fleeing from them, scared to death, in awe of the power over life and death that they wield and then they’re going to systematically murder as many of them as possible as quickly as possible before dying. They are going to get off on hearing people beg for their lives because for once NOW they’re the bully, now they’re going to make other people the victims.

As the man said, “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face”.

Violently attacking an active shooter is a way to mess up his plans severely.

If you start attacking keep attacking and trying to take him out of the fight. If you’re hitting him, don’t stop. If you’re trying to strangle him, don’t stop until he stops moving.

Keep fighting until you win.

I’ve written before that you should probably start preparing now to be tougherbecause it would be a good thing if your first experience with belly-to-belly violence wasn’t when your life depended on it.

Keep in mind that Chris Mintz was not only a veteran, but before that he played football and wrestled in high school, was involved in some form of mixed martial arts and even did two amateur MMA fights.

In other words, he did hard things, and when the moment of truth arrived it was natural for him to respond aggressively because he spent a lifetime training that way.

His aunt credited his MMA and wrestling background in an interview with NBC. “He was on the wrestling team and and he’s done cage-fighting so it does not surprise me that he would act heroically,” said Sheila Brown.

I’ll repeat it again …

You Can Do It Too, But You Need To Build The Warrior Mindset Everyday

Basically, stop taking it easy.

Challenge yourself. Build your resilience. Do hard stuff.

Stop watching so much TV.

Are you overweight? Start working out. Will it suck at first? Sure, because you’re soft.

Go on a diet. Yes, it sucks. Good. Embrace the suck. Stop taking it easy on yourself.

Get pissed when you see a killer attack like this happen and make an effort to go get in shape and train your mind and body to be ready.

Get tough.

I’ll close once more with the words of Jeff Cooper from Principles of Personal Defense:

“There is always an element of luck in any sort of conflict, and I know of no way to guarantee success in every instance.

What I do know, however, is that if the victims of the dozen or more sickening atrocities that have gained nationwide fame in recent years had read this book, and had heeded what they read, they would have survived those actions.

Additionally, a small but select number of goblins would not be alive today, bounding in and out of courts and costing us all money that could be much better spent.

George Patton told his officers, “Don’t worry about your flanks. Let the enemy worry about his flanks.” It is high time for society to stop worrying about the criminal, and to let the criminal start worrying about society. And by “society” I mean you.”