There is a point where rate of fire increases beyond what would normally be needed for self-protection. I could even see limited situations in which assault weapons could be sold, but only with a special permit that would be DAMN hard to get.

It's clear that this guy, while having a "clean" history, was unstable. Looking at his high school presentation on temporal illusions, he was jittery as all hell and clearly a little unbalanced.

The anti-gun control group does also have a point, though I'm not sure I entirely agree, that if everyone in the theater had guns the guy wouldn't have gotten too far. The problem with that argument is that, while in some cases it can make people more polite, in general it just increases the danger for everyone in a broad set of circumstances, and not just when a maniac comes into a theater (which is very rare).

Of course, there was an armed robbery of a convenience store about a week ago where a 75-year-old guy pulled out a handgun (he had a legal conceal and carry permit) and shot the robber, injuring him severely and allowing the police to apprehend him...

I guess I'm saying I generally support the right to armed self-defense, but I think we need to be reasonable about things like conceal and carry permits, who can get more powerful weapons and things like that.