A half or two-thirds empty movie theater, a loud action movie, and I'll bet a determined individual could kill 12 people without raising an alarm. So a victim kicks... as long as it's not directly into an occupied seat's back, nobody will bother to turn around. And half the time not even then!
Is it as easy as simply walking in with a rifle or handgun and spraying bullets or a shotgun and spraying pellets? No. Can it be done? Yes.
Somewhere in Asia recently there was a guy that killed I believe 7 people with a kitchen knife simply by going berserk in a crowd on a subway platform or someplace similar.
But let's get to brass tacks here. The opinions expressed on DU seem to be that NOBODY should have access to a gun that can be used to commit mass murder. So then many people on DU seem to be willing to go to extremes to stop a low-probability event from occurring. Remember, we're a nation of 310 million people, of which a handful per year go off the deep and and commit mass murder.
The problem is that the country is full of guns, pretty much all of which can be used to commit mass murder (defined as 5 or more killed in a single incident). So, what to do? Outlaw everything except single-breech muzzleloading guns?
Obviously not feasible.
I have no easy solution for mass killings; these are extremely low-probability events to the point that each one is unique.
On the hand, our homicide rate has plummeted the last 20 years, despite more and better guns, better aiming systems, and better (deadlier) ammunition. Despite a very slight increase in mass murders, far fewer people are being killed per year. Is that an acceptable tradeoff?
As you can see in this chart, single-victim homicides account for between 98 and 95% of homicides regardless of the number of homicides per year. So are things even worse, or are they just more senseless?
Something else which worries me is that unstable mass-murders might begin playing with home-made explosives instead of buying guns. Not only are explosives more deadly (witness Oklahoma City), but when bomb-makers are experimenting with their deadly devices, they often times blow themselves and their families and neighbors into little tiny pieces.
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