People are wrong about it being easy for the average person to kill. Mechanically, yes, shooting someone is not difficult. But psychologically, we have documented difficulty killing each other... unless psychological conditioning techniques are used. During World War II, American soldiers had a fire rate of 20%. After behavioral conditioning techniques wre added to military training, in the Vietnam War the American soldier's fire rate was 95%, despite World War II being a far mote justifiable conflict. This conditioning can occur through other ways as well: a religious extremist who has sacrificed their higher thought functions to holy schizophrenia can more easily kill, a person who has dehumanized and objectified their class of target can more easily kill, and a person who is filled with hatred can more easily kill. But the average civilian intrinsically does not want to kill, and that nervousness or hesitation means they will lose almost every gun fight up against organized terrorists - and most likely in panic cause heavy collateral damage. Armed civilians is not the answer.
This is a tragic situation, and my heart goes out to the French people who were so violently attacked by these terrorists.
