Maybe its just the sad fact that bad news tends to travel more widely but I have yet to hear (on UK news) of a situation were an honest law abiding citizen has stopped a tragedy. I realize that their very intervention may have stopped a tragedy, making it not news worthy but I'm sure there should be more instances to justify that argument.
Well in the UK law-abiding citizens can't arm themselves so you'll never hear that story. The law in the UK even goes so far as to prohibit citizens from carrying an 'offensive weapon' without a good reason.
So if you happened to be walking down the street with a knife and you were not a chef on the way to work, you could be arrested.
Even using "more force" than the assailant is illegal. Even if both are examples of deadly force, e.g gun v. knife. Done by the courts in the '50s, the Parliament in the '60s, so even the habits of self-defense are a distant memory.
There are a LOT of would-be mass murders which were cut short because someone was armed and stopped the attacker either before killing started or after just 2-3 deaths. They don't enter the mass murder statistics precisely because they didn't happen despite intention thereto. The info you want is easily found on the web.
It happens an estimated 2.25 million times a year in the US. Needless to say, the vast majority of these involve neither the gun being fired or publicity.
Someone recently stopped a bank robbery in Michigan. I'm actually not sure whether intervention was wise, but the outcome was good - no one injured, thief arrested.
Maybe its just the sad fact that bad news tends to travel more widely but I have yet to hear (on UK news) of a situation were an honest law abiding citizen has stopped a tragedy. I realize that their very intervention may have stopped a tragedy, making it not news worthy but I'm sure there should be more instances to justify that argument.