Things go bang, bang, ... and you duck, bang, bang, and you got no implement equal to counter...you duck, cover, you are in survival mode, yours. Come on and get real.
But soldiers are taught to counterattack in ambushes. It’s been that way for decades. In fact, that sort of training is given to even the support units these days. In an Army filled with combat vets (from wars where ambushes are, after IED’s, the preferred mode of enemy attack), it is a bit surprising that he wasn’t rushed by the soldiers under attack. Kip Kinkel’s school attack didn’t become a Columbine exactly because several of the students did rush him, despite being unarmed.
No matter, I’m sure we’ll learn more eventually about the timeline and physical aspects of the attack. And how good a shot the traitor was.
So why didn't it work that way at the high school cafeteria that Kip Kinkel started shooting up? I've never been in a situation like this so I'm not comparing how the soldiers responded to how I would like to imagine I would respong. I'm comparing their response to the response of the high school kids who took down Kinkel. Kinkel didn't get a chance to reload because he got tackled the second he started trying to.