The question of whether an armed populace would be a deterrent to mass shootings is common back and forth speculation in the gun debate, but the mass shooting in a Waco, Texas restaurant in the early 90's was part of the initiative to legalize concealed carry in Texas, and I think also in the USA. There were people in the restaurant who'd left their guns in their cars, and so on. That's the kind of speculation that goes on.
Back to Willeford and Sutherland Springs. In Texas, it's illegal to carry in a church. The shooter was returning to his vehicle, where he had additional weapons and ammo and, although there was another church a mile away, and there were survivors to whom he could have returned with fresh ammo inside the church where he'd just murdered 26 people, it is speculation whether he would have attempted to shoot more people when Willeford began firing at him, and hit him twice, then chased him to his death. I suppose Willeford should have asked the shooter his preferred pronouns and gotten a written declaration of intent before firing on him in order to help us argue more conclusively about it later
So you can not claim I am wrong or that more armed citizens would not prevent mass shootings, both points are speculative, and neither of which are especially relevant to my view on gun control. Like Steve said, I don't think banning AR's or similar weapons would prevent mass shooting or mass killings, and because of their unpredictable and spurious nature, I don't think whether a mass shooting were stopped once by an armed vigilante would be meaningful unless there was a clear pattern involved.
How about my point that one death does not make up for 26 slain?
You are making a counter-point to something that I did not argue. I said someone who engages an active shooter in live fire, one who's murdered 26 people and shot 20 others, hits him twice while under fire, and then pursues him when he only has two rounds left for his gun, is a hero compared to someone on youtube who illegally saws the barrel of his AR because of his bleeding heart.
Can you start over with what you want to discuss now that things have been cleared up?
Last edited by Michael on Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:23 am, edited 1 time in total.