Ask some of those ppl who were in that movie theater when it got shot up if they wish they were armed. Bet you'd get an almost resounding yes.

And if several of them were, would they just start shooting in the general direction of the muzzle flashes in the dark and smoke filled room? Seems like an especially poor example of when private citizens with guns would actually be helpful rather than increasing the relative danger.

I support the right of citizens to be armed, but I don't see it as being terribly viable for self defense in many circumstances. There is often great potential danger to innocent bystanders. Where there are no other people around, there's a fair chance the criminal will use the element of surprise. The gun toter comes out ahead in those situations in the movies, but not so often in real life. There are a host of other scenarios where the concept just falls flat. Such as the group of menacing thugs 'talking' to you on the street corner. You're scared because they're trying to scare you. But is that all they're doing? You don't actually have legitimate cause to use force when you're merely being intimidated and such situations can turn from intimidation (when you can't even legally pull the weapon) to assault so quickly that when you're surrounded you may have no chance to get your piece out before being knocked out from behind. Or the situation never turns to assault - the thugs just wanted to get their jollies by intimidating someone. That's an extremely infuriating situation to be in, but it isn't justifiable cause for lethal force. Or even for brandishing the weapon.

The reality is that guns in private hands are not used to successfully thwart criminals very often. Sure, there are anecdotal cases, but the number of times where this really works is exceedingly small. As it is now, the number of people who legally carry concealed is not large. And licensing procedures tend to vet the carriers fairly well. But if it were to become commonplace, I would be much more worried about that than I am now about criminals.