1. Odd someone was carrying there ?? I'd say pretty slim. Very few people w/ handgun permits actually carry.

2. Odds someone was armed and didn't return fire ? (You'll notice I didn't say "... and didn't do anything"). Exiting the theater with your family is "doing something." And depending on where they were sitting relative to the shooter, it was likely their best option.

3. Very few of the folks who pass through my CCW classes could hit a shooter from 40-60 rows away. Very few cops could make that shot, given the stress levels that a responder would be under. (BTW the average hit rate for cops, in gunfights, nationwide varies from 19-21%)

4. Some have stated that it a private citizen responder couldn't possibly make things any worse in a situation like that. I guess I have to disagree.

If one of us were to shoot a 5 year old kid while trying to shoot the perpetrator, it would be worse. (Maybe we shot the kid because we were nervous, maybe because we got jostled by people running amok, maybe because the child ran into the line of fire, maybe because we were too lazy and/or egotistical to seek out training and to practice). But most of us would need a long time to recover from shooting a child.

5. Taking out an active shooter in a crowded environment is a lot harder than some would might believe. I would never walk into a theater w/o a handgun (ask my wife what I told her to do when she headed to the theater with two grandkids last week). But even if armed, we have to know our limitations.

The shot we can make "on demand," under stress, "cold" (w/o warming up) is probably gonna be way different from what we can do at the range shooting at a well-lighted, stationary piece of paper.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by AUTimbo

Member since Sep 2011

2866 posts

Posted on 7/24/15 at 7:16 pm to dawg23

1. Odd someone was carrying there ?? I'd say pretty slim. Very few people w/ handgun permits actually carry.

2. Odds someone was armed and didn't return fire ? (You'll notice I didn't say "... and didn't do anything"). Exiting the theater with your family is "doing something." And depending on where they were sitting relative to the shooter, it was likely their best option.

3. Very few of the folks who pass through my CCW classes could hit a shooter from 40-60 rows away. Very few cops could make that shot, given the stress levels that a responder would be under. (BTW the average hit rate for cops, in gunfights, nationwide varies from 19-21%)

4. Some have stated that it a private citizen responder couldn't possibly make things any worse in a situation like that. I guess I have to disagree.

If one of us were to shoot a 5 year old kid while trying to shoot the perpetrator, it would be worse. (Maybe we shot the kid because we were nervous, maybe because we got jostled by people running amok, maybe because the child ran into the line of fire, maybe because we were too lazy and/or egotistical to seek out training and to practice). But most of us would need a long time to recover from shooting a child.

5. Taking out an active shooter in a crowded environment is a lot harder than some would might believe. I would never walk into a theater w/o a handgun (ask my wife what I told her to do when she headed to the theater with two grandkids last week). But even if armed, we have to know our limitations.

The shot we can make "on demand," under stress, "cold" (w/o warming up) is probably gonna be way different from what we can do at the range shooting at a well-lighted, stationary piece of paper.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All very valid points.

Just saw that the nutcase was actually from my hometown. (Across the river anyway) I knew Phenix City had some nuts but never thought anyone crazy enough to pull that kind of chit.