It is my opinion that those criminals only advantage was surprise, considering they were probably inept in the most effective use of firearms
The body counts would tend to disagree with you there.
When I go to Walmart, Costco, or the local grocery store I can tell you that I am not scanning each and every aisle for potential bad guys. I make note of the sketchy looking folks that both plainclothes loss prevention as well as uniformed rent-a-security personnel are tailing thru the store. But the main area I do keep a scan of is when I am in the checkout lane. That's about the only time my head is on a swivel.
If I am out at 1am, well nowadays that just doesn't happen, but ok, 10-15 years ago when I would be going out on a weekend night, if I was getting my drink on, I definitely wasn't always situationally aware. The 12 years I spent working bar security, being pretty much the only group of the bars employees that were NOT under the influence, that's different. Our job was to be situationally aware.
But lets delve into this a little bit, see what we are really dealing with.
Show of hands, how many of you out there with your semi-automatic rifles can get rapid hits on paper at less than 25 yards? Out to 50 yards? I don't mean taking aimed shots, I mean just doing a mag dump. Nearly every time I go to the range, I see fellow shooters that are proud of their marksmanship, dumping a mag into the target stand, 24 inches high, 18 inches wide. that's 432 square inches. Whats the ongoing joke we make at the range? "Close enough for government work"? A person may not be cutting cute little clover leafs, but that doesn't mean they are 'inept'. And their ineptness still puts peoples lives at risk.
What does the guncontrol lobby tell us about the features of these semiautomatic rifles? If it has that pistol grip, "it makes it easy to spray fire from the hip, because its deadlier that way". If it has that collapsible shoulder stock, "it makes it easy to shoot aimed fire comfortably from the shoulder, because aimed fire is deadlier". Those are literal quotes by the way.
Could I have stopped it? I do not carry a gun because I believe myself to be some superhero or crime fighter. I carry to protect myself and my loved ones. If the gunshots are going off, my first instinct will not be 'engage', it will be 'seek cover, get my family safe'.
I wish I never have to find out what I would do in such a situation.