What the Colorado shooting says to me.

[cjjtulsa]

It's easy to second guess what others should have done when you weren't the one in a smoke-filled theater, with round after round of .223 ammo being shot all over hell and half of Georgia. I can't say that I wouldn't be in a fetal with a huge brown stain in the back of my shorts.

Then again, I might have tried to play Chuck Norris, jumped and disarmed the dude, beat him to death with his ballistic helmet (can't do that with plastic pistols and rifles), and then grabbed some popcorn and Mike & Ike's and finished the show. Better money would be on the fetal.

 

[bulletbiter]

There are many people wishing you were there that night as their hero to stop this heinous crime.

This person planned out this attack. As a PHD student, was probably very logical in developing this plan.

From my understanding, only three exits (up top, behind, and emergency exit which he was blocking). He supposedly purposely made people gang up at the exits so that he can be more effective with his shots and shoot throughs.

He used confusion, chaos, panic, fear, and surprise within seconds...all to his definition of success.

Have you ever tried to do anything while being blinded and gagged by CS type gas, let alone rush an active shooter with an AR15 and 100 round mag while dozens of panicked people are pushing you the opposite way and with bodies dropping left and right? Many people had loved ones that were on the top of their minds right next to the natural thought of survival.

As to having a CCW, it would have required miraculous luck to have hit the attacker in a disabling location, i.e. face, because he had on a ballistic helmet, gas mask, ballistic vest with neck and groin guard, and leg protection. While waiting for this luck and firing away at him while your eyes are watering and you are coughing, sighting through smoke in a dimly lit room with people bumping you in their panicked escape, you are now a target for the shooter with your muzzle flash. Even though it is very difficult to shoot accurately with a mask, you, as the hero, are now making everyone behind you a target while he tries to kill you.

On that plane, the real heroes had time to coordinate a rush against guys with box cutters. Not a good comparison for trying to call anyone in the theatre a coward.

While I hopefully understand the jist of what you are trying to say, it has come across as an unfair evaluation of ordinary people trying to enjoy a movie only to be scarred for life or shot to death.

Deepest condolences to the people and families involved in this tragedy.

 

[ronny]

Last I heard, the vest was a load bearing vest for carrying stuff (magazines), not armor.

I would like to think I would have shot him. I know I would have tried. But, this wasn't the movies (well, it was, but you get my point), so I'm guessing with the lighting, smoke, screaming and yelling and innocents running every which way, it would have been hard to draw a bead.

 

[bulletbiter]

Last I heard, the vest was a load bearing vest for carrying stuff (magazines), not armor.

Story probably changes...what I heard the Police Chief say in a briefing yesterday was, load-bearing and bullet "resistant".

 

[gunnut]

To say there were no heroes present in that theater is rather blatant. Those who took bullets to save others is pretty damn heroic to me.

 

[jcarpenter]

There were way too many variables on the attackers' favor to just get up and bum rush him.

Several testemonies of people saying they "froze" in fear, which is not uncommon.

I have also said to myself if I had been there I wish I would've been able to help, but the truth is I would've shielding my family as well.

Its a shame that one would sit behind a computer screen and lecture on what should've happened.

It was a horrific event and all we can do, as somone not invloved, is to say our prayers for the familys of the event.

 

[Lurker66]

10,

Maybe you should have said, " I wish someone with a CCP would have killed the SOB, they might have saved lives".

IMO there were no cowards in that theatre, only victims of a horrible tragedy.

 

[ronny]

About the only reasonable way a person could have done anything about what went on would have been to have violated the law and entered that theater with a concealed weapon. Even then, it would have been problematic.

I've heard it referenced on another site that "loose" Colorado gun laws led to the massacre. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

[Billybob]

Dad leaves 4 month son and family behind in Colorado theater shooting

[Patricia suffered a minor bullet wound, but both children and Jamie were unharmed – Jamie due in part to the fact that he bolted from the theater, leaving Patricia to fend for herself and their two children.

Meanwhile, a 19-year-old named Jarell Brooks was helping his Jamie’s family escape, and he got shot in the leg in the process. Jarell told ABC News “At the end of the aisle, I ran into a woman. She yelled, ‘My kids!’ and I saw she had two young kids with her. I made sure they got in the aisle and pushed behind her to make sure she got out of there.]

http://starcasm.net/archives/166784

'Dark Knight Rises' Shooting Victim Stopped to Help Young Mother

http://abcnews.go.com/US/dark-knigh...pped-young-mom/story?id=16822336#.UAr3NkR1ZJP

 

[gsarg]

Geez, some of your Monday morning QB'ing is full of douche. Nobody knows what they would do, armed or unarmed, in the same situation. It was a dark auditorium, full of chaos, in a death tunnel scenario, while under gunfire and tear gas attack, etc. Has anyone ever tried to exit a theatre row when it is completely sold out? You're not getting anywhere quick. Add in the chaos factor with everyone trying to save their own skin. Good luck with trying to do ANYTHING effective unless you're in the first row of the theatre. Some of you would probably be faced down and pissing yourself. To automatically "know" that you would have jumped up and been Billy Badass, is both ignorance and interweb gun forum commando talk. We lost 12 innocents in this tragedy (along with dozens injured), with several of them being our nation's warriors. Show some respect and wait for all the facts to come out before shooting off your mouth about how badass you would have been, and how cowardly these victims were.