Gunman on Brooklyn Rooftop Kills Woman as She Tries to Shield Children

[alp227]

A mother picking up her child from school in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was shot to death outside a grocery store on Friday afternoon as she tried to protect several children from a gunman on a rooftop who opened fire on a group of rivals in the street, the police said.

An 11-year-old-girl was grazed in the cheek and another woman who was retrieving her child was hit the arm and chest as the man fired at least a dozen shots with an automatic pistol onto Watkins Street from his perch atop a five-story building on Pitkin Avenue, the police said. The second woman, 31, was in stable condition on Friday night at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/nyregion/rooftop-gunman-in-brooklyn-kills-woman-trying-to-shield-children.html

I get why people can use guns to defend from assaults or muggings or shootings on the same elevation. But what defense response exists in response to sniper shooters like this? Would you think if more people had guns they could've fired back?

[rrneck]

1. A handgun

is not a magic talisman. They are made to be effective to about twenty one feet. The best thing to do in this case is probably RLH or find cover.

[jmg257]

2. The defense response here is good cover...and quickly. nt

[ManiacJoe]

3. And if not cover, at least use concealment.

[saras]

4. There is no defense against a sniper attack. Nor against getting shot in the back.

Nor against an ignorant six-year-old who finds a gun. Nor a gang at your door with heavy armaments. Nor a rogue cop. Nor a drive-by shooting. Nor a poisoning, sabotage, or other premeditated murder plans. Nor a mugger or rapist who grabs you before you see them. Nor an assailant who simply overpowers you. Nor mace or pepper spray.

A gun will protect you against a crazy, if they give you enough warning. It will protect you against a big thug without a gun, usually. Or even more than one. It will protect you in any situations in which you draw your gun before the other guy, including ones in which you're the criminal.

If carrying leads you to walk more confidently, it has made you safer, in some situations. If you use that confidence to go places that aren't safe, you are throwing away your advantage. The situations in which you're safer because you can shoot an assailant are few and far between, though when they do happen, you may wish you had not a gun but torture devices.

In this case, if there had been a Tea Party rally nearby with a bunch of people with scoped rifles, perhaps someone could have shot him - but they only had seconds to do it in. A dozen shots from an automatic pistol happen as fast as you can pull the trigger.

Maybe if there were Big Brother drone helicopters hovering over every block with guns or other weapons in them, they could have gotten him fast enough, but it's getting pretty science fiction, and I suspect that any drone that fast with a gun is going to have a big pile of bodies beneath it.