Then call the police and report the crime -- and get laughed at.
It is also a crime to take the law into your own hands. A retired cop should know that.
Showing a firearm without justification is a crime just like throwing objects into somebody's face.
Ohhh so then it's better to shoot it then rather than just hold it??? Really!!!
Why do you describe the ex-cop as standing during the attack? Is that in the evidence?
I assume that he had to be in a standing position to take the gun out of his pocket -- unless he already had it out on his lap or in his hand.
Others have suggested that the tickets were sold with assigned seating. Was that the case?
Probably not in a theatre of 25 that holds 120+ in an afternoon matinee.
Why did the wife end up with a gunshot wound to her hand?
She might have seen the gun in the nutcase's hand and tried to protect her husband by trying to push it away while at the same time pulling him out of the way.
So if I throw popcorn at you in a theater, your only course of action is to leave? I can drive anybody out of a theater I wish by throwing stuff at them without consequences? How many throws do I get? What objects can I use?
Showing a gun without justification to use it is a CRIME. It is called "brandishing". Only recently have some jurisdictions begun to consider allowing the showing of a firearm as a means to ward off an attack.
If you get into a verbal confrontation with somebody at a theater, as described in this case, and respond by putting a gun in your lap that others can see, you're heading to jail. The cops won't be laughing as you claim when a physical assault takes place.
So, if you are wrong and it is possible to draw from a sitting position, would the fact that the shooter was seated when attacked change the situation? Was there a reasonable expectation on the shooter's part that he would not be attacked?
Great. Now, if you find out that the wife was, in fact, not responding to a gun but attempting to restrain her husband out of fear that he was about to attack the ex-cop, does that change anything?
Does it change anything if we find out that it was the action of the wife, pulling on the slide of the firearm, that made it fire? You've already suggested the idea of displaying the firearm. Could it be that the ex-cop reacted rather instinctively to the attack and that the panicked wife actually caused the gun to fire.