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Lessons Learned From Vegas

Any jihadist or home-grown terrorist of any race or religion here in the USA can buy three items to make it really easy to rack up a huge casualty count when firing into a densely packed crowd:



1-- A semi-auto firearm of the AR or AK platform.
2-- A high capacity magazine or three, or even drum magazines (75 to 120 round capacity).
3-- A bump fire stock, binary trigger, tri-burst trigger, HellFire trigger, BMF activator trigger crank, etc.

That's about it. Any citizen or green hard holder (permanent resident) in the USA can buy these things legally at age 18. If the person can't pass the background check to buy a gun from an FFL dealer, that person can buy in a private-party sale. A person living in some state with its own state-level assault weapons ban can drive to another state and (illegally, but probably successfully) buy these items from some other private party sellers in that state that doesn't have such strict gun laws.

Imagine such a gunman, if alone, positioned himself where he could not be flanked or attacked from the rear. He only has contact with the world from in front of him, and that's his area of fire. He doesn't have to be 32 stories up and 500 yards away. He could be 25 yards away, firing from a window of a room he's rented, or just burglarized for the occasion. It could be a ground floor room, or second story. No need to be high up.

Or, imagine TWO gunmen (like the 2 guys in the Los Angeles / North Hollywood bank robbery / shootout in 1997.
Imagine the bad guys were body armor, class IIIA or IV. (stops incoming rifle rounds form police carbines).
Or, imagine they conceal their weapons (could be AK or AR pistols with 9" barrels), mix in with the crowd, and then, at the right moment, pull their guns and go back-to-back, shooting everybody around them (back-to-back means no good Samaritan is likely to be able to approach them unobserved).

Yeah, it could happen again, with a bad guy just spraying the crowd with bullets rather than aiming at individual people (all other mass shootings that I know of involved the bad guys choosing particular people to aim at, at least for much of the time of the shooting.)


WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

Nothing we can reasonably do is very likely to let us intervene successfully and quickly. We aren't going to be walking around in public with Class 4 body armor and carrying scoped .30 battle rifles ourselves, are we?

But, in general, here's what I think:

1-- Avoid being part of a big crowd that is enclosed in what would be an effective "kill box" unless there is good security screening in and around such a venue.

2-- Carry a full sized handgun and be prepared to hit a bad guy from 100 yards away, or take a 25-yard head shot on an adversary who is behind cover or has body armor. For me, this would mean packing something like my Springfield XD9 with its 5" barrel and using 16-round mags, not my little .38 snubby that holds 5 rounds and gives me Frisbee sized groups.

3-- Know where hard cover is, and know where concealment is, everywhere you go.
Remember what is "cover" against handgun bullets may only be "concealment" that won't stop a rifle bullet if the bad guy sends some your way.

4-- Get right with the Lord, and acknowledge that here on Earth things are only temporary under the best of circumstances. Eternity is the big picture.


Excellent post!
 
Yeah it was.

I try to not go to any events that disallow concealed carry or have ways to check each person.
I like to level the playing field plus with the damn health insurance monthly extortion bill our family don’t go out much these days.
Thank you a hole politicians and turn coat Supreme Court justice Roberts.
 
-Crowds are targets of opportunity.
-Don't put yourself into a position where you are beyond a reasonable reach of a long gun.
-always have a tourniquet.
-Situational awareness. Look at vantage points with suspect. Identify cover. Look for exits and position yourself near them.
-Have a very powerful tactical light that can be set up to deny sight picture of long distance shooters. (Don't be around when shooters try to take out light).

But this is all humble Monday morning quarterbacking.
 
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