John Lott was interviewed for a news story in the New York Daily News:
“Even just the threat of somebody pointing a gun will get them to stop the attacks,” Lott said. “Without having to fire a gun, you could distract a killer, who may have to go and look for cover himself.”
Military police often can’t respond to an attack instantly, and those few minutes could mean the difference in how many people survive, Lott said.
The gun-free policy also makes military facilities bigger targets, he said.
“It’s explicit these attackers go and pick places where victims aren’t able to go and defend themselves,” Lott said. . . .
It apperas that two servicemen with guns engaged the shooter. According to a Navy Times report:
“A Navy officer and a Marine fired their sidearms hoping to kill or subdue the gunman.”
NYT says some Marines saved a bunch of lives by diverting the attention of the shooter from a larger group of people:
“This could have been a lot worse,” said the official, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation. “It could have been a horrible, horrible massacre — so much worse.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/us/chattanooga-tennessee-shooting-investigation-mohammod-abdulazeez.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news