Problem is that this seems to be your strongest point. One that you keep repeating. You shoot because why not. Nothing else to do. Not the most solid of reasons.
I have to say I don’t think you’ve thought the reality through well enough. I was thinking about the various issues regarding my own experience and I don’t think I could pull it off under the best of circumstances.
For the purposes of process, we’ll assume that things go right for me personally. I’ve got a handgun, some training, somehow manage to not go all brown trousers at the opening salvo, and grab for my gun.
Moving from there. I normally sit at the end of an aisle. Shooter opens fire and my best chance is to get behind a seat for a bit of cover. Problem is that the crowd is heading in the opposite direction for the aisle and the exit. I’ll likely get trampled if I get low. Stay high and I’m fighting the tide and a bigger target. Even if I just stand and draw I’m going to get hit half a dozen times assuming I stay on my feet.
Say I decide to stay seated. I like to sit at the top of the theater, so I’d have a fair shot. Good visibility. Maybe the tear gas doesn’t even reach me for a second so my eyes are clear. Just draw and aim. Problem again becomes the crowd. Theater rows aren’t very wide, and the gun would be bumped far too often for a clear shot if not knocked out of my hand outright. What if they decide not to stick to the row system and just come crawling right over my seat? No shot at best. Might lose my gun. Worst case is I shoot some poor panicked soul.
Even in the best chance with me in the middle of the theater and the crowd somehow going left and right and not touching me a bit, I’ve still got half a second to find a shot through a screaming crowd before I become a massive still target for a guy armed and prepared for resistance. If I duck behind seats for cover and try to aim through the cracks for a set shot (no spray and pray here buddy), I’m down low and back into the teeming crowd of various shapes and sizes waiting for them to part and give me a clear shot.
I don’t like it a bit. I personally think that there are far too many environmental factors for such action. If you’ve got a scenario that you think gives a clear shot and a real chance, lay it on me.
Not necessarily. If you’re dealing with a shooter firing into the crowd from a distance, shooting back is idiotic and you’re better off not doing it. However, in a situation where the guy starts going row to row to finish off people (which is not what happened here) and you’re going to be up close without an obstruction, having a handgun would be better than not.
That said, I just can’t get into the mindset of people who would feel the need to bring a gun to the movies “just in case”, unless being armed is part of their job anyway.
Being armed is part of my life and many in the silent majority of gun owners who observe reality from a more or less objective point of view. This stance is fundamentally opposed to the victim-oriented armchair quarterbacks whose fertile imaginations reveal every conceivable way to deal with a deadly shooting scenario except the one and only possible means of mitigating the outcome more in favor of the victims - stop the shooter. It must be somehow too simple for the irrationally fixated anti-gun people to comprehend.
I can’t predict the future. But I have to live in this society that forms an environment where fucked up whackos can effectively accomplish this type of nightmarish atrocity at will. There’s not much you can do when a heavily armed shooter opens up on room full of people. I’ll just agree to disagree with the majority opinion here as far as what my response would be. A perfectly aimed head shot is of course unlikely, but even with all the protective gear he wore, a close range hit with a large caliber handgun would be enough to daze him at least momentarily, possibly even knock him down or injure him enough in some way as to stop him from continued shooting. I like those odds.
Shit happens. Sometime people get hurt. You do what you gotta do. I’m not going to be the victim there unless he hits me first. The rest of you can take your chances with the psychopath.
Most LEOs and active or inactive military have never been in a firefight. Anyone who thinks they know how they will react when faced with real violence (without having seen it before) is merely indulging a self deluded masturbatory fantasy.
This is perfect for America. The smoke canisters would provide an awesome reflective cloud for dozens of lasers. The shooting would end as quickly as it started when 100 heat-packing citizens became mesmerized by the impromptu laser show.
I’m pretty sure I’d panic and freeze; my best hope would be having the self-control to hide. Don’t you dare call me self-deluded!
Kwimby, on the other hand: dude, pay attention to what other gun-owners are telling you. I’m not a gun owner or much of a fan of gun ownership, but other folks in this thread are coming across as sane, responsible gun-owners. You’re the gun-owner equivalent of the crazy dude on campus shouting “Slut!” at every girl in a short skirt, the dude who makes all the other Christians look bad.
If you’d like to respond to me by telling me once more how brave you are, what a crack shot you are, and how I’m a cowardly sheep or whatever, you’re more than welcome to do so; it will, of course, say a great deal about your personality and nothing at all about me or about your competence.
What “silent majority” is that? The gun lobby is the second largest citizens’ interest group in Washington after the AARP. In any event, I’m pretty sure the majority of gun owners think you give them a bad name.
As far as your “objective point of view”, I think your claim about taking down crims with well placed head shots pretty much speaks for itself.
Armchair quarterbacks, you say? Here, hold this clipboard.
I don’t know Lefty (can I call you Lefty?) I suspect most heroes never thought they had it in them beforehand.
In all seriousness, I will say it again, anyone who thinks they know how they will react without having faced violence beforehand is showing they know nothing about it. If anyone wants a real insight into what it is like to see violence and a clue as to how they might respond to it should read any of the works of Sgt. Rory Miller, someone who has the experience and street cred to know what they are talking about.
You do realize you have more than one post, right? And that on the internet, you can’t selectively remember your own words?
I’ll grant that you didn’t explicitly claim you’d go for a head shot, but you did explicitly state it would be “easy”, which is definitely not the case.
Masturbatory hero fantasies are best enjoyed in the privacy of your own room, you pervert. This is a family board. We don’t need to be exposed to that kind of crap.
In case, you didn’t remember, your first turd of a post stated outright that a headshot would be simple and the most effective way to disable Holmes. Now you’re saying that a head shot would obviously be unlikely? Tell you what, why don’t you do some studying and when you figure out what your position is, come back and we’ll tell you why it’s moronic, because it will be.