Block is a California-based firearms safety trainer, certified by multiple branches of the federal government, with 29 years of experience. I called him because I'd just written about the differences between the Aurora shootings and other incidents, cited by Rep. Louie Gohmert, where armed civilians took out killers. The question I didn't really answer: How would an armed, trained person take out a gunman like James Holmes? Block was wondering the same thing. "All you need is one person there with a gun," he said. "If this went down in Texas or Arizona, he would have died quick."
There were members of the military in the theater, and possibly more people with training. There were, however, no guns, even though Colorado is a concealed-carry state because the Century theater where this took place was a "gun-free zone."
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According to police, though, James Holmes had a series of tactical advantages. He was wearing body armor, and depending on what it was made from, it could have stopped most of the bullets fired by handguns. A ceramic plate, said Block, could stop a rifle round. "If he has a vest, you do a head shot. Body shots don't kill, headshots do." What could Holmes's riot gear helmet have stopped? "Not a darn thing. If I make a head shot I'm gonna go for soft tissue." Failing that, "I'll go for the pelvic girdle. You put three or four rounds in the pelvic girdle, you have fixed the problem".
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