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

Let's say I'm in that situation. Hell, lets say I'm an off duty or plain clothes LEO. Understand that the responding uniform is looking for a target. Weapon on the ground hands behind the head with interlocking fingers the second I lay eyes on an LEO. No hesitation, right now.

It would just be plain stupid to pull a weapon when all the commotion is going on. You pull a weapon and you will be the next target..

Stupid to run around with it, true. But if the opportunity comes to attack the target, not stupid at all.

Unless of course you value your life above all else, I can see that, even though it doesn't apply to me.

You need to use it to defend yourself; being an "attacker" is pretty much grounds for the .gov cleanup crew to shoot your ass....after more cleanup, they may or may not know your motives. The odds of them giving a [bleep] are pretty low.

Sorry, but that's where we're at.

No obligation of course , but If one is in the right place at the right time early on when the perp is shooting and before LE arrive,

then why carry a weapon if you won't use it when you know in your mind and heart you should?

And people are going to forget about El Paso just as easily .

Most conservative people mind their own [bleep] business; of course thousands of babies get knocked off by "doctors" every year, even though its state sponsored murder.

Perhaps you should be thankful they aren't as emotional as you wish they were...

Every time someone posts a thread about a good citizen taking out a bad guy the CF cheers/praises the effort and outcome.

That means they would be somewhat disappointed had that good citizen decided to mind their own business instead.

regarding emotions, I prefer to see cool headed good citizens [and cops] draw their weapon when needed, their judgement and shooting
will typically be better than frantic emotional types.

Anyone who needs to be highly emotionally charged before they can bring themselves to shoot someone in self-defence is a worry.

Every time?

Seems they are isolated incidences of immediate self defense.

I'm disappointed in the many that think the government has any role fixing the very things it has created, not some Joe content to mind his business amidst the public funded societal collapse...

Every time I can remember, ...I certainly don't recall CF folks frowning on a good citizen stepping forward and taking out a genuine bad guy.

maybe some praise such efforts cause they don't know if they are capable themselves in such situations , I don't really know.

I wonder how many train their shooting skills on 'paper perpetrators' , ..but don't bother to train their minds?

Yes. As the Cheyenne Indians used to say, "It is a good day to die."

I would try to get behind the shooter and sneak up and shoot him in the back a few times. If you do well you save some lives.
If you screw up, well, at least you get your name in the paper. We all have to die some day.

If I’d been there with the wife and kids I’d haul ass and get them to safety alone I’d hunt that sum bitch down if I was cornered and either kill him or go out in a blaze of gun fire

Yup. I've been getting trained and paid to run toward the guns all my adult life. I'm pretty comfortable with that idea. I'm in my mid 50s now and I don't see that changing.

Death Before Dishonor
This We'll Defend
It's A Good Day To Die

These words mean something to some of us.

This is absolutely correct. Most people imagine what their physiology and mental make-up would be in a situation in which they might be seriously injured (or killed) by another person. But most people have not truly been tested.

Every time LEO in full blown tac units are called to show up, there aren't any lone warriors going around saving anyone's bacon, ever. At your home, isolated incidents, sure. No comparisons.

Train your mind to the fact a TAC unit is going to shoot your John Wayne ass as it arrives before that mental steel trap does....

I would have tried in every way possible, and maybe some that weren't. Most here would.

All I know is, if I had the shot, I'd take it.

Hopefully I would try. An anecdote from long ago...

I was in a 7-11 back in Ft. Lauderdale when I heard someone come in and announce "this is a robbery!". I was the only customer in the store at the time and back by the cooler getting a soft drink so he didn't see me. The primitive survival part of your mind does weird things as you picture a dozen scenarios in short order, one of which was the clerk and I being herded into a back cooler and shot. As it was, I grabbed the biggest, heaviest can of food within reach, my plan was to circle my way behind the aisle to try to come up directly behind the guy. Figured I could throw it and rush him or just cold cock him from behind if close enough. Maybe rash and even stupid on afterthought but your first thought is to do something, anything. Particularly when I was trapped and couldn't get out except by going right by the guy.

This all took about three seconds when the "perp", some young male in his late teens I guess, said "no! it's a joke, I'm just kidding". Apparently he thought it would be real funny to do that. I didn't see the clerk's reaction to the initial anouncement, it was a middle aged black guy I knew on a head nodding recognition basis, but he cussed this guy up and down and told him to get the hell out of his store. This was back in the late 70's before most people carried. I put the can of food back on the shelf and got my drink.

So to the original question, it all depends on the scenario. You don't know what you'll really do when confronted with an actual (or realistically perceived) life and death situation until it happens.



As a somewhat sad epilogue, that same clerk was shot in the face and killed a year or so later by a robber.

I think it would depend on the CC carriers location. View with a good shot without by-standers, from the side or rear of the person shooting.

Upon hearing gunfire, my first reaction would be to duck and assess where the fire was coming from and how far away it was and go from there. Could I have thwarted the shooter? I do not know for a certainty. Would I have? Yes, if I had the opportunity to actually do so. Who knows . . .

I carry 99% of the time I am out and about, except where I am not, by law, allowed to carry. In the years I have had my CCW, I have only come close to drawing it one time, but didn't need to or have to. It was a rush (not a good rush BTW) and did not involve gunfire from anywhere, which was a huge relief. A guy and his GF were being chased by 3 or 4 LEO vehicles and came up the main runway in front of the store, slammed on his brakes, jumped out and ran into the store. He ended up stopping his ride about 20 feet from my bride and me. This was, not surprisingly, in a Wal*Mart parking lot.