There were more heroes than villains in that Aurora, Colorado movie theater where 12 were killed.
At The Good Men Project we do a lot of talking about the state of men and boys in today’s society. We look at whether or not men are manly enough and even question what manliness is. With all that’s happened recently, I would like to recognize a few men who made a difference.
Three female survivors of the movie-theater massacre survived with minor injuries, but not without a lot of emotional pain of loss. These three young ladies lost their boyfriends who heroically died saving them.
As final acts of valor, Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn, and Alex Teves used their bodies to shield others as a madman turned the Aurora, Colorado movie theater they sat in that day into a shooting gallery.
Jon Blunk’s girlfriend, Jansen Young, Matt McQuinn’s girlfriend, Samantha Fowler, and Alex Teves’ friend, Amanda Lindgren, made it alive through the attack—but they would have been killed had it not been for the men sitting beside them.
Although one lone man was doing the shooting, three men gave their lives saving the lives of women. And even though the media is quick to talk about men behaving badly, for every man who will take the life of an innocent person, I believe there are countless men who would give theirs to save the life of others, often for those they do not even know.
Let us remember John Blunk, Matt McQuinn, and Alex Teves. Whoever they were in life, there was something special within them that made them heroes.
Read more on the Aurora shooting:
Three Aurora Victims Died Shielding Others, by Good Feed Blog Editors
Men and Mass Shootings by Andrew Smiler
Not a Joke: Why Do Our Boys Keep Up the Mass Shootings? by Tom Matlack
The Aurora Shootings: What’s Wrong With White Men? by Jamie Utt
The Evil That Men Do: James Holmes, Aurora Colorado and Mental Illness by Shawn Maxam
What Makes White, Middle Class Men Kill? by Christian Piatt
Mass Shooting in Aurora, Colorado – Tell Me Why We Don’t Need Gun Control Again? by Josh Bowman
—Photo credit: Sarah_Ackerman/Flickr
When I wrote this, it was no more then a spur of the moment thought while watching the news before I left for work. In the brief moments, my mind wondered and I thought of my own wife and what I would have done and came to the conclusion that I personally know of no man, acquaintance or friend, who wouldn’t have done the same. I don’t know about you guys, what you think you would have done for a loved one that was sitting next to you in the same situation. But I have a feeling that you would… Read more »
Three good examples of why women need to believe something good is out there for them and nothing prepares you for this. This is one of many situations in which one does not know how they will react until we are there. May we all remember these men did not become heros in that theater each and every one was born that way and was tragically slain for it. They sacrificed there lives for many that night just the women they sheilded because each round that struck them was a round that could not stike any other. They sacrificed there… Read more »
There are (at least) 5, actually, from this atrocity. Another man died for his female friend, and a 5th man was injured helping out a stranger and her children. We don’t know how many more men there shielded their girlfriends/wives and didn’t die while doing so.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Palmdale-Resident-Jesse-Childress-Aurora-Dark-Knight-163348556.html
http://www.thisis50.com/profiles/blogs/a-true-hero-19-year-old-jerrell-brooks-helps-young-mother-her?xg_source=activity
I actually don’t think it’s that common for women to put themselves in harm’s way for their husbands. Despite the disrespectful attitude feminism has engendered in women toward men, astonishingly men are still willing to die for us.
I believe, and this is another one of my theories in incubation, that some time in a protohominid world some female started pranking men…. And had us convinced that chicks dig guys who will give up their lives…. No seriously, in order to reach the evolutionary places we have gone- protein was necessary. Animals, and particularly large animals which are dangerous, are the sole source of any kind of meaningful protein in a pre-agricultural world. Population densities pushed pre humans off the sea shores in search of protein. And once you get past gathering molusks and beached whales it gets… Read more »
So, please don’t take this the wrong way, but… Jon Blunk was estranged from his wife, who lives in Reno, Nevada. Jon Blunk has two kids, a 4 year old girl and a 2 year old boy. His estranged wife said he liked to spend time with his kids. Those kids will now grow up without a father to do all the kinds fathers do with kids. Dollars to donuts all of these dead gentlemen acted out of instinct, to protect the women immediately with them. And I appreciate your view that this is heroic behavior. They gave up their… Read more »
JustAMan, I’m going to take your comment at face value. I hear you talking about the costs of a human life. This is exactly the kind of evidence that the jury will hear when the killer is sentenced. Jon Blunk, a man, a human being, a father, boyfriend, and co-parent, has been murdered. Who will help raise his children? I don’t think Blunk and the others who acted to protect others were acting on any kind of instinct or conditioning. I’m told that we cannot be conditioned to act in a way that will get us killed. Real conditioned behavior… Read more »
Justin, you took my musings as I had intended. Thank you. And I agree it is heroic to lay down one’s life for another. I just ache at the propensity in this society to encourage and praise such instant sacrificial heroism by men, without acknowledging the hole that it leaves in the lives of others. It has a quiet, corrosive tendency to discount the long-term value of men, as human beings, to themselves and in their relationships with others. A factual question in follow-up: among the women who were shot, had any taken bullets for a husband, boyfriend, girlfriend or… Read more »
I haven’t been reading enough of the news to comment on your follow up question. In this case, maybe there were none, but it doesn’t mean that women haven’t routinely died for their children, taken bullets for them, and put themselves in the way of harm to protect their husbands in a number of ways. There are countless stories of sacrifice and heroism attributable to both men and women. Since we are The Good Men Project, it’s appropriate that we look at and applaud the men who represent courage and other virtues. We don’t have to do it in a… Read more »
“It may mean that we have to revise, for cultural or biological factors, our definition of heroism.”
Let’s not do so in a way that is, itself, gendered or uses a double standard.
No, and I could have been more clear that what I mean is, women and men have different realities: bodies, social power, and so on. So what is a real threat or sacrifice to one may not be to another. What is an empty gesture on one person’s part may be meaningful and save lives, pain, or property. Somewhere else I read that one of the men in the theater that night was carrying a baby, dropped it, left the baby, toddler, and the children’s mother, his girlfriend, and ran like hell. Then later he proposed to the woman and… Read more »
Read through the comments section of the story bellow (linked to in the other tribute by Joanna, as well as bellow), notice how many people say these men’s actions were that of “Real Men”. I believe this is the attitude JustAMan is speaking of. To suggest, in order to be a real man, one must sacrifice their lives for others, regardless of the harm done to their families and friends. And yet, we have just as many, if not more, articles here on GMP alone attributing the gunman as an example of manhood. If sacrificing yourself for others is what… Read more »
Being a good man, and being good at being a man, are different. I don’t think the gunman was good at being a man. No one will ever trust that guy: it’s why we don’t feel safe with people like that walking the streets. It didn’t take courage or loyalty to execute. I don’t know who you are talking about, Mark, who seriously looks at you and me and every other man and truly expects us to rape, abuse, and shoot them, and simultaneously expects me to protect them from the same kinds of violence. Even in the ancient paradigm,… Read more »
You know, it really annoys me when feminists ask “who’s saying that” about a noted societal expectation of men/masculinity, yet seem to have no issues with complaining about the sexism and discrimination of societal expectations placed on women (Example: any discussion of the pay gap that includes the “expectation” for women to be the caregiver). “Who seriously looks at you and me and every other man and truly expects us to rape, abuse, and shoot them, and simultaneously expects me to protect them from the same kinds of violence.” HUGO SCHWYZER and Noah Brand have both made such assertions. Both… Read more »
Thank you for reminding us how many heroes surround us, Tom.
Tom has previously written for us in the 100 Acts of Male Goodness series.