How Hard is it to Stop Mass Murder?

It made the news today. A mass murderer opened fire in a food-court. The murderer was armed with a rifle. He killed three people before he was stopped by a 22-year-old who was carrying a handgun. All this took place in a mall south of Indianapolis, Indiana. Those are the facts, but most people don’t know what the facts mean. Was a young man stopping a mass murderer a matter of luck or was it the expected outcome that experts anticipated? Let’s look at the things you might want to know to make sense of the outcome.

Two-sided combat is a nightmare no matter how you are armed. A plastic sign at the mall said no weapons allowed. That sign gives the police authority to arrest gang members when the gangs gather at the mall. A plastic sign does not stop a mass murderer. The murderer failed the victim-selection process when the armed defender recognized what was happening and decided to intervene.

Mass murderers go to “gun free” zones so they can engage in one-sided combat. They will kill about 14 people if we wait for the police to arrive and stop the attack.

If there is an armed citizen there, then the murderer is stopped after he has killed 2 to 3 people. Armed citizens who intervene are almost always successful in stopping the attack. The reason is obvious when you think about it.

We don’t have eyes in the back of our head. That means we are always vulnerable to being attacked from behind. .....