Date: 24 April 1999
Location: Xian Sheng’s house, Taman Melawati
(A) Strangle parents to death.
Xian Sheng commented that society is deteriorating rather than advancing. He provided a stark example involving a student who strangled his mother to death and then attempted to strangle his father as well, though the father ultimately survived the attack because of his stronger physical frame.
Xian Sheng questioned what possible reasons could compel a child to place their hands around the necks of their own mother and father to strangle them. He raised the question of whether it could be due to monetary greed or other underlying reasons. This recent spate of violence led Xian Sheng to ask a fundamental question during his sermon last Sunday regarding why people kill. He further questioned whether individuals truly have any right to take another life, drawing a parallel to the atrocities that occurred in Kosovo.
Xian Sheng suggested that the high frequency of killings occurring throughout society has had a detrimental effect on the psychological development of young people. He provided the example of youths who visit the cinema and are continuously exposed to explicit images of killing by strangulation, killing by poison, and all manner of treacherous killing, including the chopping off of a person’s head. He raised the question of whether this desensitisation could be a contributing factor behind the recent surge in young killers.
Another possibility is that the mother, during the period of her pregnancy, could have witnessed violent images involving strangulation. This traumatic consciousness was then somehow passed down to her unborn child, becoming deeply embedded within the child’s cerebellum.
The child grew up with those violent images deeply embedded within their subconscious mind. During a sudden fit of anger, the specific idea of strangulation surfaced from within and appeared to the individual as the best possible way of taking a human life. Xian Sheng raised the question of why strangulation was chosen as the method of murder instead of using a knife, which is much more accessible, far easier to use, and far more common.
(B) What are the reasons for school massacres in the US?
Xian Sheng used the Columbine High School massacre to lend support to his theory that the two students were influenced by mafia-style killings. The massacre had taken place in Littleton, Colorado, near Denver, just a few days prior to his talk. Xian Sheng mentioned that he had passed by Denver from Westminster during his Harley-Davidson tour in the United States of America in June 1998.
Xian Sheng questioned whether the two boys wore trench coats possibly because of the examples set by the adults in movies. The two boys could possibly have tried to mimic the adult actors and therefore copycatted their outfit. Trench coats are popular in movies and synonymous with a cool, lone action figure, even in the Old Western films.
He added that the two boys must have read controversial articles or racist propaganda that promoted hatred against Jewish people and niggers (Black people), and wearing trench coats suited the dark imagination they had copied from films. Xian Sheng stated that the minds of the two boys were apparently deeply affected by what they saw and read.
From the news that Xian Sheng heard, the two boys had 35 homemade pipe bombs with them. He stated that they were prepared to die and wanted to bring along as many people with them as possible.
Xian Sheng stated that these radicalised individuals could be made use of and weaponised to conduct the assassination of prime ministers, presidents, or even kings when they grew up.
(C) Security systems for schools in the US.
Xian Sheng questioned whether the Christians teach their followers not to hate others and, more importantly, whether the Christian religion teaches its congregations not to hate, irrespective of the creed, race or religion of other individuals. He suggested that this is something we have to ask in order to understand the mass killings. He then concluded that, looking directly at the tragic end result of their actions, it is highly unlikely that their religious instruction taught them not to hate.
In America, they have various types of counsellors to deal with all sorts of societal and psychological problems, such as counsellors who address trauma, bad parenting, gang affiliation, and deep-seated hatred. They have developed highly advanced counselling techniques, and yet, Xian Sheng explained that this massacre is not the first time such an event has occurred, noting that there have been many instances where students bring guns to school to commit mass murder.
Xian Sheng suggested that the government could develop a security system to ensure that no weapons can enter school compounds. This would be achieved by requiring everyone to pass through a weapon screening process or a metal detection system that identifies all metals carried in by students before allowing them entry into the premises.
Unfortunately, unlike in Malaysia, where schools are surrounded by high fences, high schools in the United States are designed as open campuses. This open design allows anyone to walk onto the premises, which makes it exceptionally difficult to implement any unified security system. Xian Sheng questioned whether schools in the United States needed to be completely fenced in and equipped with gated security systems that check every individual before allowing entry to the school compound. He noted that the schools would also have to employ professional security guards to actively patrol the entire area.
Xian Sheng suggested an alternative solution for situations where gated campuses are not viable, yet students continue to secretly bring firearms into schools. He proposed introducing a system where the administration assigns multiple students (student perpetrators) within each class to monitor the environment. These students would also intentionally join with the bad students so that they can pass vital information to the teachers regarding their ongoing activities.
(D) Students threaten Xian Sheng with parangs.
Xian Sheng discussed the information that he heard from the news concerning the Columbine High School massacre. He stated that some of the students must surely have overheard that the two boys were interested in explosives and building bombs such as pipe bombs. The news revealed that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had been bragging about their cache of weapons. Xian Sheng questioned why no one investigated the situation when the two boys openly bragged about their weapons.
Eric Harris had made explicit threats against another student, and within his personal journals, he repeatedly expressed a profound sense of personal superiority. He considered himself to be intellectually far above others, viewing himself as an elite figure while believing that ordinary people were completely incomparable to him, and regularly expressed a deep hatred toward humanity in general. This extreme arrogance carried over into the massacre itself, during which the two boys made taunting and contemptuous remarks while brandishing their firearms immediately before shooting at their victims.
Xian Sheng then questioned whether the two boys had been mocked, belittled, and bullied in the past, which ultimately caused them to behave in such a destructive manner. He stated that all of these elements must be closely investigated by the authorities, as these negative experiences have severe consequences on a person’s mental attitude. Furthermore, he noted that there seems to be a significant lack of school discipline within the United States educational system.
However, Xian Sheng stated frankly that a lack of discipline is also found in Malaysian schools. There are a large number of gangsters within schools, and teachers are deeply afraid of them. He recalled that during his tenure as a school teacher, his teaching colleagues were also afraid of their students. This seemed to be a common problem shared all over the world, and not just within America.
While students in the United States have ready access to firearms, students in other parts of the world have direct access to machetes or parangs from their homes. Xian Sheng mentioned that there were students who explicitly stated that they would go home to get their parangs to threaten him.
Xian Sheng highlighted a critical psychological truth. If Xian Sheng had shown fear regarding the threat to his life, the students would have probably attacked him with their parangs; however, because Xian Sheng showed absolutely no fear, they were forced to hesitate and clearly abandoned their threat.
(E) It takes bravery and sacrifice to save lives.
Referencing the Columbine High School massacre, Xian Sheng described an active counter-strategy he believed could neutralise the attack by the two rogue students. The technique initially requires two fearless individuals who would rush forward to seize their firearms, followed immediately by multiple individuals to subvert the assault. He explained that the shooters cannot fire repeatedly without interruption because the shotguns only hold two cartridges and require manual reloading after two shots.
The Savage-Springfield 67H, a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun used by Harris, and the Stevens 311D, a 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun used by Klebold, were both illegally sawn-off. The barrels were intentionally sawn-off to make the firearms significantly easier to conceal beneath their long trench coats.
Xian Sheng stated frankly that the first two individuals might die, but their bravery would allow the subsequent individuals to finish the job and neutralise the threat. He explained that the shooters would be physically unable to reload their firearms in time because the subsequent individuals would already be in such close proximity to them.
Xian Sheng mentioned that there was a distinct opportunity for the other individuals to spring forward and disarm the shooters when they were holding their firearms to threaten the female students, who were begging for their lives. The two female students involved in this ordeal were Valeen Schnurr and Bree Pasquale, both of whom survived the attack.
(F) Daring people own the day.
Regardless of the scenario, the same active counter-strategy is applicable to prevent belligerent perpetrators from massacring more innocent lives. Xian Sheng quoted the May 13, 1969 tragedy, recalling that one platoon of men was deployed to the Jinjang community hall while another platoon of men was deployed at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). Xian Sheng explained that a platoon in this context consisted of 36 men who were heavily armed with hand grenades, machine guns, and submachine guns.
Xian Sheng questioned what 36 personnel with firearms could achieve when compared to the total population of Jinjang at that time, which consisted mainly of ethnic Chinese and was estimated at 200,000 people. Xian Sheng asked the followers to imagine a scenario where the local residents prepared themselves to dash a distance of 100 metres to intercept and overcome the 36 personnel. He then systematically reduced the hypothetical number of daring locals from 200,000 to 100,000, then to 50,000, and finally to 10,000 brave individuals.
If these 10,000 brave individuals were to make a sprinting dash simultaneously toward the 36 personnel, the perpetrators could possibly fire five shots each with their automatic weapons before being completely overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the local residents. The frontline sprinters would drop dead from the initial shooting, but with each local resident falling, the advancing crowd would move a step closer to overrunning the armed unit.
Xian Sheng estimated that the slowest time the local residents would need to sprint 100 metres toward the perpetrators was 20 seconds. He then began counting aloud, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.” He noted that this sequence represented the total duration required for the local residents to be on top of the opposing force.
If the locals were organised and daring, and did not fear death, they would have been able to acquire the entire platoon’s weapons to further defend themselves. Nevertheless, this entire strategy hinges completely on the fact that the population needed to be daring and brave.
(G) Fight or beg for life.
Xian Sheng returned to the topic of the Columbine High School massacre and stated that if the individuals present, including the teachers, staff, and students, had been daring enough, they could have prevented more deaths from occurring.
They could have used chairs and even tables to whack the shooters from behind. The shooters were shooting wildly and would not have been aware of their immediate surroundings, particularly their backs. Nevertheless, the students and staff would have had to organise themselves to rush forward with chairs to overwhelm the perpetrators.
Fewer people would have died if they had not panicked and lost the ability to think rationally. They hesitated and asked what was happening when it was completely obvious what would happen after hearing gunshots and seeing individuals with firearms entering the cafeteria. Some begged for their lives instead of rushing forward to seize the firearms, and they were still shot by the perpetrators.
(H) If the police attack you, you must fight back one-on-one.
Xian Sheng recalled that prior to the mass arrest by the police at the Salak South Holy Hall during the Sixth Anniversary Dinner on 2 October 1982, Xian Sheng preemptively instructed the followers to stay calm, act peacefully, remain quiet, and comply with the instructions of the police. However, he maintained that if the police attacked any follower without provocation, that individual must fight back on a one-on-one basis, regardless of whether the assailant was a police officer. Xian Sheng clarified that one-on-one in this context meant that the follower who was attacked by the police must fight back alone, and the rest of the followers were required to refrain completely from joining in to offer assistance.
Xian Sheng then proceeded to ask if anyone knew how to defend against an Alsatian dog, also known as a German Shepherd, and how to launch a counter-attack. A follower replied that the critical weak spot was the nose of the dog. Xian Sheng then expanded upon this statement, explaining that an individual would have to punch the dog directly on the nose, grab its snout, squeeze it hard, and then slam the dog forcefully to the ground. He noted that this action would incapacitate the animal to the extent of even killing it. However, Xian Sheng stated that one would have to be exceptionally fast and accurate to strike the dog on the nose as it lunged straight forward.
(I) One must not kill, except for self-defence.
Xian Sheng stated that the followers must know the foundational Baitiangong principle: that an individual does not kill, except when acting purely in self-defence.
Xian Sheng clarified that when individuals chose to rush directly towards armed assailants to seize their weapons, this action was fully recognised as an act of self-defence. He noted that the individuals had to perform this action to bring the two shooters down to prevent more deaths from occurring, using all available means.
As long as there are brave individuals present, they can bring these shooters down. Xian Sheng shared another method to bring down a lone shooter who had shot a person dead. If five or six individuals were daring enough to rush towards the lone shooter, they could succeed, as the shooter would not be highly accurate under pressure. If all of them were to run in a zig-zag manner towards the shooter, that action would confuse him because he could not focus on whom to aim at. The precious time that the shooter lost due to indecision meant that the individuals could reach him without the shooter shooting any of them.
Another method involves brave individuals rushing towards the shooter from all sides. If ten people were to rush at the shooter, with some advancing from the front, some from the back, and others from his sides, the shooter could only kill one individual. The remaining nine people would jump on him to bring him down.
Nevertheless, regardless of the method deployed, people naturally fear death, which is why mass killings continue to happen. Xian Sheng explained that if individuals only knew that death is something beautiful, they would not need to fear death at all.
Xian Sheng concluded by stating that if an individual had to bring down a person who was a killer, that action was considered an act of self-defence and they should do it without hesitation.