[NarcSgt]

If you are going to get one of the sporting goods guns (which I don’t think is a bad idea) you better keep in mind that if a police team does an unknown entry to the back door or something you better be ready to drop that gun quick and lay prone, or they might shoot you on accident. Remember that the Police might not have a description of the guy; all they know is that he is killing civilians.

It would be hard for me not to want to do something. This is not some robber that is there to steal, he is there to kill. I think there is something in side most of us that do not like our life styles threatened by maniacs like this. If you are just Joe Citizen, you have no duty to act, but there is that part of us that will want this guy stopped now, not ten fifteen or twenty minutes from now. But if you do not act, you flee instead or just stay hunkered down and call 911 to give the best information you can that is darn good too. One thing Police will need at a time like this is not vigilantes but information, the more the better.

But in the scenario given if our guys hands are shaking to pull the knife then getting a gun is a bad idea making a bad situation worse. Like deguello said should have pulled the cell before the knife.