There's this meme that in a mass shooting, if everyone had been armed, the gunman would have been stopped by bystanders.
Here's the truth, from the shooting yesterday outside the Empire State building:
All nine people injured in Friday's shooting in front of the Empire State Building were wounded by police gunfire, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters Saturday.
The officers unloaded a total of 16 rounds at a disgruntled former apparel designer, killing him after he shot and killed a co-worker and engaged in a gunbattle with police, authorities have said.
Police said an investigation is under way after one officer shot nine rounds while another shot seven. Three victims suffered gunshot wounds, while the remaining six were hit by fragments.
The gunman, who served in the U.S. Coast Guard in the late 1970s, had two rounds left in his .45-caliber pistol. It holds eight rounds, Kelly said.
And these were police, trained to use weapons.
I'm so tired of gun advocates pushing the "If someone had been armed..." meme. Now, can we finally lay that piece of arrant crap to rest?