I'm middle of the road.
I think Zack's idea is much to extreme.
People are morons in general and arming the populace does not sound like a good idea. I see more innocent people being hurt rather then less as a result. Simple reason being that like I said people are morons. Responsible gun owners understand that a firearm is something to be respected and that you are responsible for every single bullet that leaves the chamber of your firearm.
I doubt if the majority of the general populace were armed that they would take into consideration the ramifications of what they are doing every time they fired their gun. They wouldn't think about things like ricochets, or worrying about distance a bullet can travel, or making sure there is a safe backstop behind the target.
In the end I see more innocent people being hurt as a result of more people not thinking about what they are doing before they fire their gun.
My main point is this:
NOTHING will stop distributed and psychotic people for committing these terrible acts, and arming the general populace I think would have raised the death toll from people caught in the cross fire not lowered it, and gun control would not have inhibited these people from obtaining firearms or carrying out this attack in other ways. End of the day shitty things happen, and while we want to try and assign blame, the only person to blame are the people responsible, not the guns they used or their parents for not hugging them enough, but solely the individuals who carried out the action.