Saturday, August 25, 2012

Updated at bottom

Disgruntled gunman kills one. Cops kill him and wound nine others.

Makes you wonder why Bloomberg thinks it's law abiding citizens who can't be trusted with guns.

And it's predictable how the media played that down. Most of the injuries were minor. Yeah, ok. Shot is shot.

Now, had an armed civilian taken down the gunman and wounded nine others in the process,well, the hue and cry would have been unbearable. This is what happens when we let untrained civilians have guns. Only trained law enforcement should have guns. Only they know how and when to use them properly. The injuries may be minor but they will have long possibly lifetime effects on the person who was shot.

But this is Mayor Bloomberg's New York. Where it is nigh unto impossible for a law abiding citizen to legally carry a firearm except in the most extreme of circumstances.

And I would hope there would be one hell of an investigation as to what went wrong here.

Yes, absolutely, something went very wrong.

Wade Page, intent on doing so, killed six and wounded four before cops took him down. Eleven total dead or injured.

Jeffrey Johnson killed one before cops accidentally wounded nine before killing him. Eleven total dead or injured.

Mayhem and pandemonium and an adrenaline dump can only account for so much. It cannot, to my mind, explain how two supposedly well trained "anti-terrorism" cops trying to subdue one man who was no longer an active shooter until he was confronted by them managed to wound nine innocent bystanders in the process. It would seem from reports thus far that Johnson's intent was only to kill the man he did (bad enough), not to create an Aurora or Wisconsin or Va. Tech type situation. He was no longer active until confronted. Is this what could happen with a doctrine of last shot fired? Is it acceptable if so?

Maybe they could have handled it differently maybe not. I wasn't there I don't know and I am not laying blame but it should be looked into.

But this is Barack Obama's America so even if it is don't expect to hear anything about it, especially if it doesn't go well for the police.

I am a legally armed American asking these questions because there is no way the pols nor the media would let us off as easily if we had stopped the shooter.

I am a legally armed American saying that if you are (rightly) going to hold me to a higher standard then you damn well should be holding your law enforcement officials to a higher standard than having "police bullets sprayed across a crowded street during Friday's morning rush."

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UPDATE:

Seems I'm not the only one thinking this way.

If you watch the video the cops may not be firing randomly but pretty damn close to it AND they are firing at Johnson with bystanders in very close proximity.

This is inexcusable. He was no longer shooting. They could have followed him and nabbed him later, when there was far less danger to others around. The construction workers were apparently doing just that before the cops intervened.

Eight feet is little more than contact distance. There is no reason the cop should have missed to begin with and scant reason, given the circumstances, that he should have fired in the first place.

Askia described the scene when officers caught up with Johnson. He said the gunman stopped six feet away from him, with two officers about eight feet in the other direction. "All of a sudden the guy stopped, and he was facing a cop who was following him," Asika said.

"He just reached in his suit and took out the gun, and I saw him pull it [towards] the cops. I'm like, is this guy for real? One of the cops was trying to shoot back at him and one of them shot me while the other one shot the guy."


4 comments:

Pastorius said...

Good point. I had not even thought of this angle. Great post, dude.

midnight rider said...

Thank you kind sir.

Tim said...

As a cop who trains frequently, and has been involved in a couple of shootings, I can tell you these guys don't train at all. They may shoot twice a year to qualify per the departments policy and no more. What a shame. I'm glad they killed the bad guy, but you have to know HOW to shoot as well.

midnight rider said...

Exactly what I thought as a ccw holder, Tim. As the cops approached him, nearly running at him, he turns with the gun but doesn't seem to be firing. They certainly aren't moving like he's firing. Both had reasonable cover they could have used to shoot from if it was really necessary (those big cement potted plants) but they didn't. From my non-cop perspective it almost seems like they were more intent on being Harry Callahan or John McClane.