patrick.net

One must exercise vigilance all the time. When I am walking around, I constantly evaluate the threats surrounding me. I also use fashion profiling.

People-reading may be important too.

But then I find many people suspicious, especially if they are dressed in anything less than business casual.

Vicente says

Confusion and paralysis and disbelief are more common reactions in these sorts of massacres.

This is true. It is difficult to judge chaos sitting on an armchair.

I think the more cogent argument reinforced by the situation in the link is that bad guys with guns require good guys with guns to stop them. In this case the good guy wasn't even a guy, but a police woman off duty but still carrying. If she hadnt been there, it sure looks like there would have been a repeat of Aurora.
The only way to refute this argument is with wishy washy dreaming about a society without guns or violence where crime never happens and everyone solves their differences by throwing unicorn shit.

Because that doesn't fit their agenda. Try to call NPR during their debates, they won't put you on if your point is too smart and goes against their sales pitch.

Ironically, the Theater was on Southwest Military Drive.
Also there is no indication in the article that there was a potential for "mass shooting". It indicated the shooter had one person in mind as a target, his co-worker.

You beat me to it, but just for emphasis, where in that article does it say it was a "mass shooting"? The title of this thread should be changed. Actually, come to think of it, there's really no point in this thread even existing.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

You need to have a big fucking gun, already drawn and ready, safety off, at eye level, elbows locked and ready to rock and roll for it to really be a deterrent.

That's why I prefer to carry one of these everywhere I go:

Moderate Infidel says

It indicated the shooter had one person in mind as a target, his co-worker.

Article fails to mention if the shooter worked at the post office.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

Exactly when concealed carry doesn't work.

When you don't know who your shooting at. Lets look at it this way. A criminal is firing a gun at police, two people carrying concealed weapons pull there weapons and fire on the criminal. Three other people father away, just see someone shooting at something else, with no idea whats going and pull there weapons and fire on the first two shooters. Some miss hitting bystanders, six people see three people shooting at two, hitting bystanders, They draw and fire, if the first two are still alive, they return fire at the other three and so on, until it's the OK corral. People firing on other people convinced they are protecting themselves and the public.

This is why people carrying concealed weapons can be bad.

Quigley says

If she hadnt been there, it sure looks like there would have been a repeat of Aurora.

Why do you assume that? Something erupted NEXT DOOR at some place called China Garden, and the theater was just along perp's escape path. Nothing in the story indicates a desire to massacre dozens of random strangers. Could as easily have ended with "shot to death in parking deck" or "apprehended hiding out in Mom's crawlspace" or something. At this point the might-haves are invention and fantasy.

Kevin says

I'm going to guess that its because no innocent people were murdered. A cop shooting a bad guy isn't news, its how things are supposed to work.

innocent people get shot by gangbangers, thieves and other criminals every day.

yet you dont hear much about that either ...

Boston, NYC, Chicago, SF/Oak.. all the other lefty dominated cities as well.

You don't hear about things that happen every day because they aren't news! Do you know what news is?

The day when a mass murder isn't news is the day we are all doomed.

Or maybe you don't NEED to hire thousands of armed rent-a-cops:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/11/justice/california-school-shooting-teachers/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

MMR says

The perp was shot by an off duty cop carrying a concealed weapon in a movie theater. One can only speculate as to why this didn't make more waves in the news.

American news is just about sensationalism. Unless there's blood or sex, dumb Americans don't watch. Now if the cop had been naked while shooting the other guy, it would be all over the news.

Stupid Americans means stupid news. Now if Americans actually watched news to become informed and educated instead of entertained, then we'd get better news, but this is the country where The Learning Channel was replaced by TLC and Honey Boo Boo.

zzyzzx says

Not nearly as useful during a zombie apocalypse as Hollywood would have you believe. Head shots are difficult to make. Ammunition runs out quickly. And the noise will attract more zombies than the gun kills. You're better off unarmed.

I'll take a lightsaber, a plasma rifle, a laser pistol, or an STG Scorpion any day over that.

thomaswong.1986 says

Kevin says

I'm going to guess that its because no innocent people were murdered. A cop shooting a bad guy isn't news, its how things are supposed to work.

innocent people get shot by gangbangers, thieves and other criminals every day.

yet you dont hear much about that either ...

Boston, NYC, Chicago, SF/Oak.. all the other lefty dominated cities as well.

You probably don't hear about it because you don't live in a community where that happens. If you lived in Detroit, Philly, LA etc. I'm sure you would be well aware of it.

From Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/sanantonio.asp

Looks like she definitely stopped him. He did enter the theater and shot someone there, and was pursuing other people to shoot at the time he was shot. Seems like this officer Lisa prevented additional shootings. Which is all I need to prove my point: good guy with gun stops bad guy with gun.

Dan8267 says

zzyzzx says

Not nearly as useful during a zombie apocalypse as Hollywood would have you believe. Head shots are difficult to make. Ammunition runs out quickly. And the noise will attract more zombies than the gun kills. You're better off unarmed.

I'll take a lightsaber, a plasma rifle, a laser pistol, or an STG Scorpion any day over that.

Am I the only one who has noticed that most to all of Dan's solutions to difficult problems involve technology that doesn't currently exist?

I think we're missing the obvious 'solution' suggested by this article. We need to underpay our public safety officers so they are forced to take a second job at movie theaters: an off duty Bexar County Sheriff officer who was working at the theater shot at him. Then again, maybe not such a hot idea as they may just take a 'second job' with the local drug cartel.

A finer point to be made is that a trained law enforcement officer is likely to react differently than a (relatively) untrained security guard or ordinary citizen.

Next up, DEPUTIZING THE CUSTODIANS!

Bonus: already know about mopping up blood.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2013/01/10/Montpelier-school-board-approves-carrying-of-handguns-by-custodial-staff.html

Those guys are pussies. They should be arming the children!