Surprise assault by trained and well-armed gunmen IS almost impossible to resist.
How many businesses have greater force ready and waiting? Even if they do, surprise is a force multiplier.
Absent good intelligence, the attacker always has the element of surprise on his side.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume all the victims at Charlie Hebdo had been packing.
It is reasonable to assume some significant number, perhaps five or six, would be shot before anybody really is aware they’re under attack. The remaining 10 could fire back, but they will by definition be disoriented and confused, and therefore much likely to return fire effectively than the attackers, who’ve spent days pcyching themselves up.
The attackers also apparently were wearing body armor, a huge advantage against pistol-armed opponents. And they were carrying much more effective weapons.
I’m all for fighting back, but I think it’s the height of irresponsibility to claim some magical ability of guns to compensate to superior force launched in a surprise attack.
I was thinking along the lines of denying them entrance to the building. Surprise is only effective if you have access to the target(s). Its not that difficult...