[John H K]

The ironic thing is, an armed citizenry IS cleary useful in deterring property crimes by criminals not interested in dying, sexual assaults on women, etc.

But the crimes that people here make laughable claims about an armed citizenry being a panacea for are politically-motivated suicide bombings, and things like the DC snipers.

Every citizen in the DC area could have been concealed-carrying a handgun and present at sniper every shooting scene and it wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference.

And an armed citizenry would be 99% useless in stopping a large scale suicide-bombing campaign in the US, requiring, as you note, bomber incompetence.

What HAS worked against suicide bombing in Israel and what has been successful in markedly reducing the rate of attack is destroying the infrastructure of the bomb vest making; and that's been basic government/military intel/police work.

Making an effective wearable suicide device is less trivial than it seems, and each bomber requires a "support staff" of about 20 people to pull it off.

[Calpernia]

>>>Every citizen in the DC area could have been concealed-carrying a handgun and present at sniper every shooting scene and it wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference.

That is because the MO was for a white van :)

(point well taken though)

[Calpernia]

>>>Making an effective wearable suicide device is less trivial than it seems, and each bomber requires a "support staff" of about 20 people to pull it off.

Explain? About the support staff.