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

First it really doesn’t happen. Good guys know a good guy when they see one. Second- who cares? If a good guy gets shot by another good guy, and the good shooter still hears gunfire he can run to it and end it. Oh but what about the poor father of three that was mistakingly killed? His three kids will know thier father was a man and died doing something. Not look upon him with shame and contempt for running away.


Seriously, if your life is more important than attempting to end it.... you’re not a man.

Here’s what the BIBLE says :

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
‭‭John‬ ‭15:13‬ ‭KJV‬‬

A LeMat would have worked well. Shotgun if close, ball if far.

I spent a lot of years running in when everyone else was running out so I know what I’d do. I carry and I practice and train with it constantly. I have a range in my backyard so it makes doing so much easier.

I think God and I are good so I’d not hesitate so long as I didn’t bring fire down onto my family. THEY are my FIRST priority.....way above me and my self.

Does that include (assuming you’re a civilian, not an off-duty LEO) avoiding getting shot so you can survive to take care of them? Survival by declining to engage?




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What if, what if. Phcuk, just stay home and order on line.

Discretion is the better part of valor. Don't be a coward but don't die needlessly with no hope for success.

I believe this fits here. Remember it:


Or as reported by some as more accurate:

Yep.

[bleep] this, I am not going to whimper and cry while covering my head trying to keep myself alive while others die. I would have to feed myself a bullet if I did that.

[bleep] all this, " A cop might shoot you" or "Another CCW holder might shot you" You are correct, that might happen. [bleep] it, let it happen.

But I will not spend the rest of my days knowing that I could have done something but was a [bleep] worthless self interested coward.

So if I have to take a bullet to save your wife or your daughter or your child I will do it. I will not take one for you because you are a man and you should be fighting with me.

So if I'm close enough to engage then I engage. Otherwise I help others to safety. Potential consequences be damned.

My guess you miss and kill a kid.

No!

Nowhere is anybody saying they’d shoot in a crowd of kids.

But you are saying you’d stand by and watch kids get shot. Good job.

If a baby was crawling into a busy intersection would you risk causing an accident by going into traffic and grabbing them?

Apples to carrots

Personally, I think engaging a vested up, rifle armed shooter who already has the rifle up and is pulling off shots,...with a handgun,..is a creative way to commit suicide.

Can you hit him in the melon when he's putting 3 rounds a second through your chest?

Let's be real here.

Unlikely.

I cannot say how I'd react, but if I could pre-program myself right now I'd have me move towards the shooter and engage, as men it is our duty to protect others and oppose evil.

Especially at my time in life..... already had a family, already raised a kid, already lived to see a grandchild. My ridiculers-in-chief are absent at present so I can compare it to gang activity in the school hallways; what you want to do is insert yourself into the flow of events the perpetrators had planned and send it off in some other direction by your interference..

Right now in my 60's I still have the mobility to present a threat. Surprising the shooter from behind or to the side would be best, as someone here said if he's wearing a vest aim for the pelvis.

If I died in the attempt my term life is still in effect, I leave a good story for others to tell about me and get to take another good story with me to the other side, and all we get to keep when we check out of this world are our stories. As a bonus I'd get to increase my odds of making it into the Good Place.

We do know that these shooters do seem to get rattled when faced with determined opposition, even in the event of my death it is entirely possible lives could be saved by at least delaying the shooter.

That's how I'd like to think I'd react.

Well said.

Shots directed at him would at least change his thought process from murder to self preservation.

What a let-down! No nekid women pictures! I did not look here for a long time after it came up knowing it would soon be a wonderful browsing opportunity...

JMc walked over broken glass to take out a group of seasoned terrorists ready for a seek and destroy gunFight ..

...a cowardly wackjob who targets innocents mainly cause they are unarmed soft targets
might not take the same effort to thwart....

but yes, after the Broward event many here said how brave they would have been in the face of such fire,

but who really knows how many would prove that good at their cyberspace word.



Roger that , will get back with a thought-out response.

99% of the time, I'm shopping alone. As long as I know my family is safe, I'm under no obligation to help others. With the realities of a justifiable shooting potentially costing me and my family everything, I'm going to pick and choose my battles carefully.

To the O.P. question, If I'm in a position to ambush a bad guy- and I have to know it's not just a brand new, clueless gun owner bringing his recently purchased AR into Walmart to return it- but a legitimate bad guy, then yes, I'd take him out.

On the other hand, if I'm armed with my usual carry, a .38 snubby or a an LCP, and he's got an AR on the other side of the store and there are dozens if not hundreds of panicked people running right thru my line of my fire, I'm getting out of Dodge. I'm not going to chance: going to jail and being sued for accidentally shooting an innocent fleeing bystander, or getting shot by the responding cops who saw me with a gun stalking someone in Walmart, or getting mowed down by the bad guy for trying to help a bunch of ungrateful Democrats who are going use the occasion to ban guns while my family tries to put their life back together.

If I, or my family is in immediate danger, all bets are off. I will fight to the death of one or both of us.