I wish I had a cite, but even in states with shall issue concealed carry, most people get their permits and either only carry in the car, or quit carrying after a short while. It’s inconvenient, a lot of your friends think you are nuts for doing so, many off-limits places that you might be in while you are out. So you eventually leave it at home thinking that nothing will happen. Sort of the excuse that people used to use for not wearing seat belts: It won’t happen to me.
But even if you are carrying, you just got your tub of popcorn and giant soda for $17.95 and are ready to watch Batman. You are taken wholly by surprise by a guy with a vest and armed to the teeth. Your concealed carry pistol is no match for this maniac.
Plus, most people haven’t been in combat. I haven’t. I would like to think that I would be the hero and calmly try to get a head shot on the guy, but it is equally if not more likely that I would be running, pissing myself, or lying under a seat crying. You never know until you are put in that situation. A civilian carrying a gun is more for a one on one encounter where you have an element of surprise, not for a mass shooting.
but the fact is plenty of ordinary armed citizens have shot attackers in stressful situations. Is a panicked movie theater mob scene more or less stressful than going solo against 1 or more felons after dark on an empty street or from behind a cash register?
Plus my understanding is the guy was wearing full body armor, so I don’t know how effective a handgun would have been against him anyway. Even if you were armed, cool headed and prepared to deal with him I don’t think you could’ve done more than hit him in the arms and legs. But that still would’ve been enough to stop him, or at least slow him down.
Wow. Granted I know nothing of this incident other than what you posted, but that has to be one of the dumber criminals. Picked about the only place where armed folks with good aim and lots of experience were SURE to be right there.
There is a difference between being adrenalized but controlled, and being panicked. Military men under fire very often don’t flee. Did you?
The other side of the “flight” instinct is “fight,” and both military men and “ordinary” citizens (a pool which naturally includes former military men, and others with a wide range of experiences) do fight. So I reckon it’s the idea that controlling oneself under fire is impossible that is a bit silly here.
To be perfectly frank, you’d be trying to hide while shitting yourself, just like pretty much everyone else. The people who can deal in that sort of situation are very highly trained, or very experienced, for the most part. It’s not just a matter of owning a few guns and having played Call of Duty 3.
Depends on the level of training and what they mean by body armor. If you are wearing what police normally wear its not like you can shrug off being hit by a hand gun. They are designed to save your life but you will be injured, maybe incapacitated. Even with better armor you are still getting hit with a lot of kinetic energy. Any one with any training would put two in the chest one in the head.
It’s worth pointing out that someone killing or disabling a rampaging psycho wouldn’t be reported as such simply because they will usually be stopped long before they achieve the level of massacre. Therefore, I feel safe in saying yes based simply on the odds.
Much more, I would think: smoke, tear gas, rapid fire from multiple weapons, people screaming, running, falling and dying. Behind a counter, you sort of expect that somebody might come in to attempt a robbery and have an idea about what action (if any) you would take in that situation. If I were on a dark, empty street and was carrying, I’d likely have my hand somewhere in the vicinity of my weapon. Any situation where someone has intervened in a mass shooting is an exception, not a rule. Overcoming the flight reflex is something that is learned through training and experience; it’s not instinctual. I can see where those kids mentioned above were able to go back into the scene once they were outside, able to think rationally and collect their weapons, however.
The big thing missing from that scene of general chaos is one guy alone with you (or maybe with accomplices), putting a weapon in your face, ready to kill you. I can’t think of anything scarier.
Or the face. A gas mask isn’t bullet-proof. The ability to deliver a well-aimed shot would also depend on how far away the shooters were from each other. 7 feet? 21 feet? 150 feet?
It happens fairly often in Israel - the Mercaz HaRav massacre for instance the gunman shot eight students before being shot dead himself by civilians. The perpetrator of the Jerusalem bulldozer attack in 2008 similarly killed three people before being shot dead by a civilian.
Personally I think a much more effective method of preventing deaths by rampaging gunmen is to prohibit possession of firearms, rather than to arm everyone to a man in the hopes that any attacker can be killed quickly, but I know that’s outside GQ.