Response to Critics
No One Saw: Inattention Blindness
At the time of the explosive head shot, two rifle shots had already been fired that originated from the Texas School Book Depository. At the time of the third shot, everyone’s eyes were most likely on either Kennedy or the Texas School Book Depository, or they were worried for their own safety and trying to get out of harm’s way. With their attention thus focused, no one would likely see Hickey accidentally firing even if there had been no flash suppressor. It’s a phenomenon called “inattention blindness.” The brain can’t possibly take in everything in one’s environment. Instead, it “spotlights” certain information to the exclusion of other pieces of information. It’s the sort of mental focus demonstrated so clearly by various episodes of the television show Brain Games in which audience attention is so drawn to one thing that they do not see something else that should appear obvious, for example, realize that a sales clerk becomes an entirely different person—perhaps even of a different race or of the opposite gender—in the middle of a transaction.
Watch this YouTube excerpt of Brain Games (“Brain Games Double Dutch”) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiEzf3J4iFk for an example of inattention blindness, which takes place in a situation not nearly as stressful as that of Dealey Plaza during the assassination. You will see what I’m talking about. And just for fun, do your own YouTube search for “inattention blindness.” Some of the results are quite entertaining.