Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Do you think as a side-armed citizen, you could have thwarted the El Paso shooter?

I mean look at the serious weight of the LE response:

https://images.app.goo.gl/MHBZzPfbFuzx3aTF7

How many cooks does it take to spoil a broth?

Me personally, Probably not. I suck with hand guns. Give me a long gun, not likely I understand in that environment - and in less than a heart beat yes.

Maybe... maybe not. I would have made him seek cover and keep his head down instead of mowing through unarmed and innocent people. If I was close enough, I'd have taken him out.

Yes but they would have to be dang careful they didn't get shot by LEO responding mistaking them for the bad guy.

It's impossible to answer because of the variables. Possibly yes if a CHL was close enough and not initially targeted.

This right here. I've had local cops say that question comes up in training and the instructors never have a good answer.

Fight (engage, shoot) if you have no choice, if there's a choice run?

The brutal truth is that you have no duty to protect or save anyone but yourself and your own family. Escape if you can, engage if you cannot.

That may be true, but if I was there, and armed, I just don't believe that I could bring myself to just run away without at least attempting to stop the carnage. At the very least I could school the crazy person that shooting fish in a barrel isn't nearly as much fun when they shoot back.

Too many variables in too short of a time frame. Handgun vs Long Gun is not normally a winning scenario. Surprise, cover, concealment and movement are always factors that can tip the balance.

People will do one of three things: Fight, Flight, or Freeze.

In a street fight, use everything and anything available. Avoid if possible, flee if you can, fight if you must. Don't fight fair.

I don't carry, but given the right circumstances, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a crazed attacker.

What would Scot Peterson do??

I was nursing a sore face after a teenage scuffle when my Father told me something I have never forgot and has served me well since. He said the first thing I needed to remember was the best way to avoid a fight and getting hurt was just don't be there in the first place. Also sometimes a good run is way better than a bad stand. How many times have you seen someone stand for the right reason and wind up in jail for it?

I don't know the answer to your original question, but I hope that I would have had the courage to try.

Not if I could find an exit.

The picture of the LE response shows a picture of heavily geared-up guys striding onto the scene after the fact. Good PR photo but that's about it. No matter how good their reponse time might be, it's not quick enough to prevent the emptying of a couple of magazines. If anyone engaged the shooter, his actions would be, at least, influenced and he might even be stopped. The truth is, any response is better than none. Of course, response is just that and is, by it's nature, too late. GD

You post a picture of a SWAT team, then ask a stupid question?

That fits your M.O.

You are a total dumbass.

If I am ever walking out of Walmart and see some jackass walking in with a rifle and wearing ear pro, he will have less than 2 seconds to figure out what’s coming and shoot me. I can hit an index card in less than that drawing from a hands up position. Masking the initial move with my shopping bag in the left hand will give him even less time.

Around here, inside the store, if I hear or see gunfire, I am on the floor. Be too many guns blazing away, most of them in the hands of people who carry but don’t train. Shooter comes near me, they get blasted from concealment, problem solved.

No way I could stand by while folks are being killed. But my gun will be out of sight the instant I am done with it, and I would probably initially leave the scene with the rest of the folks. Let the lawyer make contact with the cops later. Too hairy a situation to start telling cops you shot anybody, if you can help it.

Once you've accepted that you are about to die, nothing in the world ever scares you again. I've run towards gunfire before, so after making sure my family was headed in the right direction, I'd do whatever I could to stop the bad guy.

Texas lawmen don't screw around, especially the ones near the border.

If a good man with a handgun had been there AND been close to the shooter AND not been targeted AND been able to engage him within the first few seconds of the event, then he MIGHT have been able to influence the outcome.

But the odds of a good guy getting shot by first responders if he has to hunt the bad guy are off the charts, and they get worse the longer it takes to find and engage the bad guy. Just look at the Dayton shooting--the police killed the shooter in less than 30 seconds. I'm betting that anyone else who pulled a pistol in that time would have been killed, too. Plenty of thoughts and prayers for the good guy afterwards, but that's little consolation.


Okie John

+1

The guy is a coward and didnt want to die. Most likely any shot fired his way would have had him running away.