You're tripping over yourself implying things there.
How so? The suggestion was that a reasonable person wouldn't open fire on a group of people who could also be armed, thus implying these sorts of massacres would be less likely if more people carried guns. Was that not the implication?
Doesn't this tend to be desperate people that are criminals using illegal guns anyway? Not sure what this has to do with law abiding people carrying guns.
It was suggested that more people carrying guns would decrease the chances of massacres like these - the suicide by cop phenomenom shows that this isn't the case. I've never read anything to suggest that people choosing to commit suicide in this manner tend to be criminals using illegal guns.
Even a slightly mad person would be put off by the fact that the chance of achieving their goal is lower if they are taking on a room full of armed people. The guy who did it probably imagined a room full of helpless lambs he could gun down without any comeback, and that is exactly what happened by the sound of it.
Well, that depends on their goal. Still, I can't imagine someone trying to take on a whole cinema full of people without having a gun themselves, regardless of how the people in the cinema were armed. And then even if they did, it's unlikely they'd do anywhere near the sort of damage they're capable of with a gun.
I'm not suggesting that every man woman and child be issued an M-16. But law abiding people being allowed to carry registered firearms is surely better than everyone being helpless. With proper legislation, compulsory training and strict gun tracking it could and does work in parts of the US. Over here would likely be a different story as guns are cracked down so much already.
I think that the fewer people that have access to such a powerful life-ending tool, the better. Even the most level headed people will act irrationally at times of high emotion. Not to mention the fact that the prevalence of them in America leads to people who shouldn't have them having relatively easy access to them, whether it's a kid taking his Dad's gun into school or illegal sales. It seems far too easy for the wrong people to get hold of illegal firearms in America and I very much doubt putting more guns out there will help that.