Conversations in context

A friend who is a Law Enforcement Officer took a bit of offense to my notions that police in general are a bunch of pencil-pushing report writing doughnut-munching control freaks...

Too damn bad.
To paraphrase the words of the commie-pinko-bastard Dan Rather-
If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck...it's probably local cop.

Seriously, though... The cops are as divided on gun control as the rest of the us...
Some think it's good, some would rather the civilian population be unarmed.

The problem illustrated to me last night was in regard to the reports of a gun incident at the "riot" in Jax Beach on Tuesday...

Specific points from the article that we discussed were important to his point...

First:
"“There were about 500 to 600 kids out here. The boardwalk was full, the pier lot was full. You couldn’t even get across the overwalk,” he said. “We responded when fights started breaking out.”"

Second:
"Jacksonville Beach resident David Smith, who lives near the pier, said he observed hundreds of students in the pier parking lot when trouble broke out.

“The lot was full. Most of the kids were sitting on or hanging out of their cars,” he said. “Apparently there was a dispute with some of the groups that were out there.”

At one point, Smith estimated that 30 students surrounded one officer during a particularly hostile moment."

and Third:

"“When a fight happens everyone runs in to watch. Then a few watchers become participants,” he said. When officers go in to break it up, you never know who is going to come up and hit you in the back of the head or pull a gun or a knife.”

Bingham said one gun call was reported on 1st Street North but when officers arrived there was no one in the area."

The endgame of the Jax Beach post-FCAT Riot?
"There were reports of fights, but no reports of injury were filed. In addition, there were three 18-year-olds arrested on misdemeanor charges of battery and breach of peace."

We got off relatively easy- considering 500-600 teenagers from several different high schools can be a volatile mix...

My friend made this point...
Suppose you have a concealed carry permit, and you have your weapon.
If you see this action starting up, the lone policeman surrounded by a group of 30 youths, in proximity to a much larger group with flashpoint potential, at what point do you pull out your piece and charge in to the rescue?

The obvious answer is that if you have Concealed Carry training and good sense, you know that you DON'T go in guns a-blazing... That is the job of the law enforcement officials.
There will be cases where a person with a Concealed Carry permit would be be justified in "coming to the rescue" - School shootings, Shopping mall rampages, etc. - but to pull your weapon and join in helping the police in a standoff situation? No way.

You have to weigh your options in situation carefully...
It has long been said that a hero is nothing but a sandwich.
I have a better definition.
As Zoe, a character in the movie "Serenity" said:
"Do you know what the definition of a hero is? Someone who gets other people killed."

Everyone needs to exercise a little caution...

Scenario:
You're at the mall with your CC and your weapon... Gunfire breaks out.
Any cops around? No... Not even a security guard.
You see a man with a shotgun in The Gap- there is a wounded person on the ground and the armed man is yelling at a woman.
You take a position to cover the outside of the store, training your weapon on the man with the boomstick, intending to shoot if it looks like he is going to shoot the woman or someone else.

Imagine what the rent-a-cop or police officer sees upon arrival: You, pointing a weapon into a store.

Remember: Split-second decisions are the difference between life and death, and the cop has no idea of what is going on, other than reports of gunfire and seeing you with a gun pointed as to inflict violence. How does he know not to shoot you?

There is a reason that the Law Enforcement types wear those windbreakers with the lettering on them..."FBI" "POLICE" etc... It's so they can tell the good guys from the bad guys.

It seems like a new favorite way to commit suicide is to take a rifle into a crowded area and start firing until the SWAT team ends it. As it happens more and more, the chances that an armed Concealed Carry citizen will be involved becomes likely...
I hope that the right decisions are made.

Fortunately for the instance on Tuesday, there wasn't an incident... But there sure as hell could have been.

As for Gun Control advocates - They don't seem to get it... if you take all the guns off the street you still will have a crime problem, whereas if you take the criminals off the street you cannot have a gun problem.

Taking the criminals off the street is a much bigger problem... It involves education, parental guidance, law enforcement, prosecution, judgment of crime- not technicalities, incarceration and punishment.

TBG- off my soapbox