General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A person capable of shooting a five year old eleven times is beyond gun control. [View all]Xithras
(16,191 posts)There are multiple examples, during previous shootings, where bystanders have charged shooters while they were reloading and simply ended up dead themselves. Why? Simple.
Stand up with a book. Hold that book out in front of your head. Let go of it. A skilled and practiced shooter can reload a gun in less time than it takes that book to hit the floor. Adam Lanza was a skilled shooter who practiced at the range regularly. Several of the victims, including the principal, were apparently killed when they tried to stop him. There have been many, many people killed in previous shootings who tried the exact same thing. "Charge the shooter" sounds good, but in practice it almost never works.
The Jared Loughner example is actually a bit of a rarity, and only worked because he was a novice who had almost NO experience with firearms and who actually DROPPED his magazine while attempting to reload. If he had been even slightly more skilled, it's overwhelmingly likely that the two people who tackled him would have simply been the next two victims.