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Oh, forgot to mention in my other post- I go over this exact sort of thing when my department does it’s bi-annual Active Shooter training.

Is there any reason you can think of why you wouldn’t be responsible if you shoot and kill a bystander by accident? That’s the very definition of “Manslaughter,” NDCC 12.1-06-02, or, if you get a particularly liberal prosecutor, “Negligent Homicide,” NDCC 12.1-06-03.

And one more time, just for the record- Dark. Tear gas. He has a gas mask and a rifle. You have a pistol. He’s looking to kill anything moving. You’re looking to kill him specifically. Good luck hitting him.

Remember when I said Devil’s Advocate earlier? Again, who the hell knows what would have happened. I’ve saved lives before. I know when to press forward and fight, and when to fall back.

From my understanding of the situation, to do anything but run would be suicide. I would have been unprepared, alone, blind, and outgunned. I can’t save anyone else if I’m among the dead.

And is it really my fault for finding this place while looking up the shooting the other day?

My point exactly.

Fair enough. I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate here anyway. I wasn’t there, so I can’t say one way or the other what I would have done. I like to think I would have tried to get the civilians to safety by laying down suppression-fire, then disappear between the seats and try to sneak around behind him for a contact shot to the head. But who knows? I may have been the first one shot anyway. Or (Due to all my training, I doubt it, but still, Devil’s Advocate) curled up and shit my pants quietly.

Right. My bad. I meant CodeToad. Wasn’t paying attention.

CodeToad: What else would you do? You’re criminally responsible if you hit a single other person.

Here’s a game you can play- go into a dark area, for instance, a garage and turn on a TV with “The Dark Knight” playing on it. Put on sunglasses, and sprint 100 yards to simulate the tear gas. Have one of your friends stand on one side of the garage, armed with an airsoft rifle, and you stand on the other side with an airsoft pistol. Have at LEAST 10 more of your friends running in between you two. He hits you anywhere, or you hit one of the runners, you’re out. You hit him in the arm, leg, head, or groin, he’s out.

Now, win 100 times in a row. If you can do that, I’ll believe that the situation would have been different if people in the audience were armed.

I’m a Police Officer in North Dakota. I carry off-duty every day. Do I believe in gun control? To an extent, yes. Do I believe that people should still be allowed to purchase and carry concealed firearms? Yes. Do I believe that it would have changed the outcome of this at all? No.

In a dark theater, I doubt even I would be able to pinpoint who the shooter was, what with all the panicked people running around me, trying to get out. If I did return fire, with people everywhere, I’m just as likely to hit a civilian as I am the shooter. I would have drawn my firearm, but I wouldn’t have tried to shoot back, save for a contact shot if he came close enough for me to do so. I would have run for the exit with everyone else, and tried to push as many people out as I could.

Now, lets add tear gas, which our shooter also used, to this mess. I’ve been tear gassed before. It sucks. You go blind, and you start choking almost immediately. I could barely say my name or date of birth, and that was after 10 seconds of exposure. It took 20 minutes for me to recover. While choking on that shit, I guarantee I wouldn’t have been able to locate any one person in particular in a crowd.

Ruy Dias de Bivar mentioned that if you shot him in the “head, neck, legs, crotch, arms...” it would have stopped him. Picture this:

It’s in a dark theater. The only light present is that from the projector. It’s a midnight showing of a major movie, so the theater is packed with people. Now, they’re all running around, trying to escape someone shooting. The room is full of gas that’s causing you to choke, and your eyes to burn. He has a rifle. You have a pistol. You have to hit him in small, highly mobile areas such as the head, neck, or arms (possibly groin, depending on the type of body armor he had). What are your chances of hitting him in one of those highly specific areas, and not hit a single civilian?

Not odds I’d like to take.