> (I’m not implying that a revolver is only “better than nothing”. I mean that a revolver plus no practice or training is better than nothing. I love revolvers! I carry one for defense and I have a safe full of semi-autos at home. I stopped a knife-wielding mugger with a revolver.)
Before I emigrated to New Zealand, I owned a few guns. I preferred revolvers to semiautomatics because I was much more accurate with them, usually. I could work the hammer with my left thumb and the trigger with my right forefinger and never flinch. I felt less in control with a semiautomatic, even tho’ shooting them was “easier”. And I was way less accurate and I did flinch.
I believe it is a really big assumption that having a room full of armed people would stop an armed perpetrator from racking up a large bodycount. I’m not saying it would or it wouldn’t — but I am saying it is an untested assumption. I do not know whether your odds are better if armed or unarmed. It is an untested assumption that your odds are better armed.
But what if you are armed and get mistaken for the Perpetrator, the Shooter? Suddenly you have a dozen-or-so bullets to dodge from the other armed citizens — REAL FAST. Your chances of survival just dropped a fair bit. As they say in the Army, “friendly fire isn’t.”
And what about all the bullets that are likely to be flying around, while everyone is trying to hit the Shooter? It would be nice if they all found their target accurately, and stopped in the Shooter’s body. But we all know that doesn’t happen in real life. And in an enclosed room, what is the likelihood of there being lead flying all over the place?
I’m not sure that it wouldn’t be safer finding cover somewhere and getting down real low — snake-height or lower — and leaving the firefight to those who want it.
I don’t know: it’s all an untested assumption. That is why the ABC’s show would be interesting to watch. Like I said, I wish we could receive it here in NZ. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who does watch it, see how it all turns out.
If you ignore the gunfight part of the “docudrama”, woulnt you agree that you’d rather see a mall full of housewives hiding behind counters with arms drawn in case the shooter decides it’s their turn?
I think most women would be able to maintain enough control to keep their arms outstretched, and pull the trigger if they needed too.
DieHard, none of that changes the fact that your chances are ZERO if the goblin has a gun and you don’t.
You are never going to have a large percentage of the population carrying guns. They get heavy after a while and most people start making excuses to not carry. So, the “room full of shooters” scenario is unlikely unless you are in a gun store or cop bar.
Likewise, no one is going to draw their gun and hunt down the shooter. That’s great in movies, but in real life, you tend to focus on you and the people around you. Being mistaken for the shooter as you hunt the real shooter, Bruce Willis style, is unlikely.
When (If?) the cops come in, you can drop your gun and raise your hands because that’s what they’ll be ordering very loudly as they enter.
Staying low, hiding under desks, crawling into a closet to hide are excellent ideas. No one wants to be in a gunfight. But if you can hide, draw your handgun, and wait; you are better off than just hiding. Sometimes, these office shooters look under desks and then your hiding place just became a trap.
But we all know that doesn’t happen in real life.
There you go again trying to have it two ways. Is it an untested assumption or do we all know? FWIW I think history has tested the assumption that unarmed people have a better chance than armed people. Tested it again and again and again.
abc has an anti-gun agenda period. Any BS that they portray has one motive, to demonize a tool and those who own them.
You can formulate all the different scenarios that you want where a handgun in the hands of someone inexperienced would be ineffictive in a mass shooting and disregard all the shootings that were stopped by a weapon in the hands of someone who knew what they are doing and you have an abc special.
Here in America I think most of those who carry a weapon would rather be responsible for their own safety than to cower, cry and wait for the police to come and draw a chalk outline around your corpse.
The behavior of an armed citizen will be CLEARLY different from a maniacal sociopath walking around a school, church, mall, office, or wherever spraying bullets. Seeking cover, calling 9-1-1, maintaining quiet alertness, and not shooting at others would be clear indicators of who is a "good guy" and who is a "bad guy" in that kind of scenario.