If some guy is thinking about crashing into your house, stealing all your stuff, and raping your daughter, he is more likely to think twice (and maybe not do it) if he knows there's a pretty good chance you have a gun.
Same deal if he's thinking about shooting up the local shopping mall, or office building, or school.
Notice that the guys who do this, usually pick places where guns are banned. That's WHY the places where mass shootings occur, are post offices, schools, workplaces etc. - they guy knows no one will be shooting back.
The insane ones (are any of them not insane?) aren't afraid of dying. Many of them do their thing and then turn the gun on themselves. But they all want to kill as many people as possible first, and "go out with a bang", making the greatest, most horrible splash possible. And if someone stops them before they have a chance to shoot more than one or two people, they won't accomplish what they want.
The most important reason for ALL law-abiding people to have the right to own and carry a gun, is not the chance to shoot a bad guy. It's blaDETERRENCE. When everybody CAN carry, even if most don't, the bad guy knows there will probably be one or two people in the crowd who can stop him... and he doesn't know which one(s). Or where the bullet will come from.
It's enough to make a self-respecting murderer worry. And sometimes even change jobs.
And that's why law-abiding people have the right to own and carry a gun. There's never a cop around when you need one - the murderer plans his crimes to make sure of it. But there's usually a regular citizen or twenty around. THEY are the main line of defense, and the bad guys know it... except where government prevents it.
"Gun control laws are the criminal's OSHA. They provide him a safe working environment."
