| RolStoppable said: I've thought about this idea of arming more people in order to prevent mass shootings or end them faster if they begin to occur. This is a point that may require doing some extensive research, but actually, it doesn't require it at all. Because if there had ever been an American hero who pulled his gun and killed a nutjob who was about to go on a killing spree, then all the republicans wouldn't be able to stop talking about him and would cite that incident every time the debate concerning gun laws comes back into the focus of national attention. |
I'm not advocating for randomly arming people as the solution, but want to point out that Republicans and the pro-gun right-wing do bring up examples like this all of the time when the discussion moves in that direction.
This is an example Texans, for example, might mention.
"Wilson is a member of the church’s volunteer security team. The team noticed the shooter when he first entered the building wearing a long, three-quarter length coat, fake beard, wig and a toboggan.
It was just moments later that Wilson fired his gun, striking the man in the head.
“By that time, when I got over there to cover him, there was five, maybe six other individuals on the security team that already had their guns out, drawn on him too,” says Wilson. “The individual did not make any attempt to get up because of his head wound. He didn’t make any… it was just quivering and that was it.”
It is important to note though that article, when they looked at the data, generally, says:
"According to the data, citizens stopped shooters 50 times in the 316 attacks. But in only 10 out of those 50 incidents did citizens actually stop the shooter by using a gun. The other 40 times, it was with their hands or another weapon"
That is probably why it isn't brought up by them aggressively. That's only 3% of potential or successful shootings being prevented and only 20% of those that were prevented by persons stopping the shooter, being stopped with the use of guns.
But yeah, among their circles and peers this is a common narrative. They don't need to convince people who don't already vote Republican so they don't bring it up in general discourse, but they do bring up stories like this to convince other Republicans to keep their position.
