“It is stated that the perp was wearing full body armor - head to toe - if you happened to have a Desert Eagle .50 somehow concealed, then you may have been able to get his attention. Anything less would have not stopped him, IMHO. This lunatic set up a kill box, executed his plan, and walked out of the theater.
Perhaps someone could have rushed him during a magazine change...but with the smoke and the bodies on the floor and the aisles crowded with people... A professional may have been able to take him down, if he was close enough - <10 feet. Still, there are just some times when there is no way to win.”
Wrong. An at least medium power pistol round hitting body armor, is like getting punched really hard, even with standard and especially “soft” body armor (i.e. non-metal/ceramic armor plates). Giving someone the opportunity to jump him.
Yes, I understand the energy of the round has to go somewhere. Consider the possibility that this man was either completely full-on adrenaline, drugged, and or insane. How many reports do we see of 9mm FMJ emptied into a perp with no immediate effect? This guy was not stupid. He planned this out to the nth degree. I would assume he wore a garment to help dissipate the punch from the deformation of the back back plate on his armor.
At any rate, it was a completely chaotic scene, and I sure as hell would have been very hesitant to pull a subcompact .40SW and try to hit him in the dark unless I was fairly close and absolutely certain that I had a clear shot and no one in the backstop if I missed.
From what I have read he emptied a model 870 into the front rows and then opened up with the .223...
It was a crap situation. All we can do is become more and more vigilant, without becoming fearful.