A Texas gun rights group found that a single armed civilian wouldn’t have been able to stop the gunmen who killed 12 people at the offices of satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo after running simulations of the attack.
Twelve volunteers participated Tuesday in re-enactments of the attack hosted by The Truth About Guns at the Patriot Protection firearms training facility in Plano, Texas, according to local TV station KTVT.
Volunteers, one of whom would act in the role of an armed civilian in each simulation, sat at tables in a replica of the Charlie Hebdo offices as two employees of the training center barged inside in the role of the terrorists.
Only two of the 12 volunteers were able to take out one of the two gunmen in the simulations, according to KTVT. The only volunteer who survived the simulation ran away from the scene.
The owner of the training center, Tim Dodd, told the Dallas Morning News that the simulations weren’t meant to offend those affected by the Paris attack.
“We in no way, shape or form are looking to say they should have done it differently,” he told the newspaper.
The Truth About Guns’ publisher, Robert Farago, wrote in a blog post that the group would analyze the data from the simulations to determine what it learned from the experience.
“Suffice it to say, things did not go well for the faux victims when a single armed defender faced a two-person terrorist team armed with rifles,” Farago wrote.
