Would you have felt capable?? POLL ADDED!!!

[CraigMo]

Under those circumstances no one knows for certain what they would have done other than follow their training.

What he said. In any case, having considered the situation or as many situations as you can prior to them arising, i.e. getting yourself and loved ones out of the line of fire, the serious risk of doing harm with stray bullets when a measured controlled response is not possible, or 2+2 if it is a viable option, thinking it through ahead of time puts you in a better position than the average citizen, and more likely to be among the ones that walk away rather than get carried away. Threads like these that run your mind through the "what-ifs" are a form of preparedness. As you're out in public, take a look around, be aware of your surroundings so that if the bad people come, or the kitchen in the restaurant catches fire, or there's a storm, or .... fill in the blank, you know your escape routes, how many rounds you have in your CC and the distance that you can put 2/2 in a 4" circle, and the other things that you can accomplish by an inquisitive attitude and solid observation skills. All of these will stand you in good stead regardless of the circumstances.

I'm CPR certified, and I also served my country for 20 years because of all the books I read growing up about our heritage and the results of action by citizen-soldiers that formed our country. If I see someone choking etc. I feel a duty to act. If the Flight 93, or Aurora, or or a Virginia Tech, etc. situation developed and I was CC, I would feel a similar duty to act. Life is precious, and worth protecting. First of all, do no harm.... By which I mean don't make the situation worse. If you can act to make it better, act with the least amount of force that will correct the situation, but act decisively.

We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training. --Archilocus, 650 B.C

 

[User170512]

Well I keep hearing it from all the LEO and military that the ordinary citizen would just crap his pants and cry in such a scenario.
No point in a regular Joe even giving it a shot, just run like the crowd.

Well, why is it we should carry?
Seriously?
What exactly is the scenario where we would even need our CCW if we're not LEO or military?

BS on all that.
You don't know me.

 

[captdave77]

For anyone who has doubt whether they would have recognized the threat & would have been able to take a shot had the opportunity been there, I would say that you may want to train more or improve the way you train.

Anyone who carries a firearm for self-defense in today's world may be put in a situation where you will need to use your firearm to save you or your loved ones lives.
The more you train, the better the odds that you will react properly & survive if you are training hard & often.

How much tear gas training do you do?

I have been exposed to CS gas a few times and can tell you it sucks. Trying to engage an enemy with superior firepower, with a pistol, while fighting the effects of CS, in a frenzied crowd, is a recipe for disaster.

No amount of paper punching will prepare you for a situation like this.

 

[captdave77]

Well I keep hearing it from all the LEO and military that the ordinary citizen would just crap his pants and cry in such a scenario.
No point in a regular Joe even giving it a shot, just run like the crowd.

Well, why is it we should carry?
Seriously?
What exactly is the scenario where we would even need our CCW if we're not LEO or military?

BS on all that.
You don't know me.

A flash-bang goes off BOOM! You are now blind and deaf. As you vision restores the gas hits you and your eyes tear up, then snot pours from your nose. Your lungs are burning and you cough like crazy.

From this disadvantage your plan is what exactly? Do you need a phone booth to change into Superman?

 

[mtdawg169]

Well, I'm glad that someone read the question and understands how difficult it would have been to pull off a shot with a handgun under the circumstances.

I'm guessing that some here have never tried shooting in semi-darkness. I'm also fairly certain that few have been exposed to tear gas; and fewer still have been on the wrong end of a rifle being fired in anger. All those factors coupled with a room full of innocent people scrambling in different directions would tend to make me seriously doubt my "capability" to take the shot.

I'm not necessarily saying that the guy didn't need shooting; but I am saying that it wouldn't be a walk in the park as some of the replies seem to suggest. Remember, the question in the OP was, "Would you feel capable?"

The Aurora shooting has caused me to conduct a serious gut check. My personal conclusions will probably not be very popular, but here goes. The reality is that in a dark, smoke filled theater with victims running everywhere, successfully engaging the shooter would have been difficult at best. Additionally, taking on an armored assailant carrying a long gun is generally a very bad idea with a handgun. Unless someone was well trained and knew how to execute a failure to stop drill, they would have likely lost that fight. Doing so under those circumstances would have been even more difficult. I'm not saying I wouldn't have tried, but the truth is I just don't know how I would have reacted. Putting aside all Internet bravado and armchair commando tendencies, it's hard to say what I would have done in that situation. We all like to think we would have been the hero in that situation, but the reality is that you would have probably been a dead hero. I've thought about it alot in the last couple of days and I honestly still don't know what I would have done. Considering that I would have at least had my wife with me at the theater, I think priority #1 would have been to try and get her out, with the backup plan being to engage him if he moved in our direction and hope for the best. It's a tragedy for sure. Too bad he didn't give the responding officers a good reason to take him down in the parking lot. Having a long drawn out court proceeding will only serve to glorify his horrific acts in his own twisted mind.

 

[jloneill17]

I would think the adrenaline rush would be nuts. Not to mention the smoke from the grenades, people screaming and running for cover, not to mention it is dark in the theater. I would try for a center mass shot in the chest area. Hopefully it would spook him enough and he runs away, or maybe knock him down where he can be disarmed or possibly shoot him again to stop the attack. There's so many variables in this situation, it's almost hard to realize it without being there. Night sights would be nice to have in this situation. I think it would be really hard to pull off a shot without maybe hitting an innocent person. for me, forget headshots, it's dark, people are scattering, I just want to try and put him on the floor, and with the adrenaline pumping that hard, holding the pistol and muscle memory, there will possibly be some confusion and correction going on. just my opinion though.

read some others posts... did he use tear gas also? I thought it was a smoke grenade he set off. I could be wrong.

 

[captdave77]

I would think the adrenaline rush would be nuts. Not to mention the smoke from the grenades, people screaming and running for cover, not to mention it is dark in the theater. I would try for a center mass shot in the chest area. Hopefully it would spook him enough and he runs away, or maybe knock him down where he can be disarmed or possibly shoot him again to stop the attack. There's so many variables in this situation, it's almost hard to realize it without being there. Night sights would be nice to have in this situation. I think it would be really hard to pull off a shot without maybe hitting an innocent person. for me, forget headshots, it's dark, people are scattering, I just want to try and put him on the floor, and with the adrenaline pumping that hard, holding the pistol and muscle memory, there will possibly be some confusion and correction going on. just my opinion though.

read some others posts... did he use tear gas also? I thought it was a smoke grenade he set off. I could be wrong.

Reports I am seeing say he tossed a tear gas canister.

Maybe not:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/dark-knight-rises-batman-massacre-shooter-tear-gas-16818935

 

[TacticalTaco]

17+1 all at his chest and head. Don't care if he has a vest on or not, he is either running away hurt, or going down. It's the last thing he would have expected. This is all given I am able to see him due to the gas/tear gas and such.

 

[sovietak474u]

Shooting w/ severely impaired vision/ breathing is extremely difficult & in many cases unwise.

Much less when someone is firing a high powered rifle in your exact or general direction.
While I know of no one who would have not been seeking cover or trying to move out of the danger zone I have trained w/ many warriors who would have instinctively drawn their light & gun & would have been ready to take the shot If they were not dead, severely wounded, or so visually impaired to make taking a shot unsafe or impossible. Of course their immediate second reaction would be to run like h**l away or to cover if available which there wouldnt have been against that firepower in any theater that I've ever been in.

Under those circumstances no one knows for certain what they would have done other than follow their training.
Touch situation.... has anyone reported whether he kept the gas mask on the whole time?

They took a picture of the gas mask outside, so my guess would be yes. He kept it on the whole time.

 

[chucklenut]

A flash-bang goes off BOOM! You are now blind and deaf. As you vision restores the gas hits you and your eyes tear up, then snot pours from your nose. Your lungs are burning and you cough like crazy.

From this disadvantage your plan is what exactly? Do you need a phone booth to change into Superman?

im pretty sure the media hyped up the effects of said tear gas and explosive to be fair, but no one here will know for sure because it happened in a hippie town that doesnt allow conceal carry