Yeah, I get your point: America, you've no one to blame but yourselves...courtesy of your lax gun laws.
That also assumes that those good-for-nothing bums (yes, good-for-nothing bums) would've done something in the absence of any perceived gun risk. I respectfully disagree. Those pos are the same type of slugs that would impassively see an elderly woman struggling to get out of a cab with her arms filled with parcels (or the stupid stiff of a cabbie) and just sit on their idle hands. "Ain't my problem..."
No, that wasn't my assumption. I'm just saying that if you create a culture in which helping your fellow human carries a risk of massive adverse response, it shouldn't be surprising if people are discouraged from helping.
The same situation exists in Canada and the UK where no one is concerned about someone else pulling a gun, people will still react in all sorts of unpredictable ways. Again, people react differently in extreme circumstances - I've a couple of times been in situations (not like this, but one where instinctive responses were required that could potentially put me in significant danger) and I'm extremely proud of how I responded to one, and quite ashamed of how I responded to the other.
The point is that we don't know how we're going to react unless we are specifically trained for and experienced in such an environment, so I'm really reluctant to judge others for their responses. We can't help how we're wired, and unless we train to rewire ourselves then instinct will always take over.