Hunters, and others who want or need them, should be allowed to freely have them. However, you don't take your guns to town. Everyone who owns a gun should register it, just like a car.

Here's a great quote:

"Bystanders shouldn't pull their weapons unless they're members of law enforcement, or used to be, she said, because without training they can't properly assess the situation and could end up causing more deaths."

Right!

You hear gunshots - who's doing it? Maybe 1 person.

5 other shoppers (OK, let's say NRA shoppers!) pull their weapons and start into their "DEFENSE/POLICE RAID" mode.

NOW, who are you looking for?

Somebody wearing a mask? A black hat? A "foreign-looking" outfit?

Truly - where's the sanity in all of this?

If an armed person is former law enforcement?

ANYTHING!!!!!!

Damned if I want to be there while all of the "armed citizens" are making their decisions!

I could see a current law enforcement officer may have a badge that they would somehow be able to display but a former law enforcement would have no such identification and not appear different from any other person.

And that's my point!

Are all of the "good guys" wearing white hats & badges?

We don't know!!!!

scarier than a shopper that has a Gun in his Waistband that drops out and hits the floor. The sight and sound will never go away. Been there and done that. Watched the snub nosed 38 spin like a top.

I guess that's one way to put it.

Did the armed patrons hinder the police? Or, did their existence cause the shooter to turn and run instead of shooting more people? I understand that the more patrons who drew their guns, the more paperwork the officers have to fill out. Is this a measure of the goodness or badness of patrons with guns?

adds more confusion to a situation that requires a split-second response.

And I don't want to be there with people that have never been trained for such a situation!

I wouldn't know a shopper with a gun from a plain-clothes cop with a gun. I think I'd probably dive for cover, make myself small and invisible.

There's NO way to tell under such conditions, requiring split-second decisions - who's the "good guys" and who's the "enemy!"

Duck, hide, get small, and pray!!