Quote:
Originally Posted by T_igger_cs_30
I fully agree GF, that citizens nowadays face more threats than ever from the criminal element.
My main concern is not with people carrying guns, but with people who carry them being fully trained and rationale.
Those that break the law will always be there, so that is a mute point.
Lets say you get the law approved to carry your guns, and a bad guy now uses an illegal gun in a hold up, the victim pulls his legal gun, a shot is fired, now 5,6,7,,8 or more people in the vicinity pull there legal guns to protect themselves, a policeman or two show up, how do they identify the bad guy in the heat of the firefight that surely will be going on.
And what will be the public reaction when a Police officer makes a bad decision and shoots the wrong man?
|
I think it would be great if one criminal were confronted by a whole bunch of honest, armed citizens. Criminals would quickly get the idea that this is not a good place to practice their trade. But, that is not likely to happen. I get similar questions a lot from students, and I tell them what happens when this type of situation happens for real. Let me add that where I live its easy and inexpensive to get a concealed carry license, and no training is required, or, you can just carry openly without any license at all. Bars are not off-limits.
Early last year in the city where I live, a couple of sketchy characters were tossed out of a bar. Being typical criminals, one of them came back to the bar and opened fire on the bouncers, with a .45 fortunately not hitting anyone at close range. One bar patron drew his own gun (legally owned and carried .380), and fired three shots, two of which struck the bad guy shooter. He dropped his gun, and the two criminals ran away, leaving a trail of blood. They were caught and arrested. Both are wanted fugitives, both in the country illegally, and their gun was stolen. The good guy was cleared of any wrongdoing in less than a day. His gun was temporarily held as evidence, but some people took up a collection and bought him a new, better pistol later that week. The person that returned fire was not the only lawfully armed patron in the bar that night; there were at least two others.
But, not everyone feels the urge to charge into the middle of every situation just because they are armed. That is more the job of LEOs. The job of armed, non-sworn private citizens is to defend themselves and those they are lawfully empowered to protect (i.e. family), and to be a good witness should their testimony be necessary.
Here is one of my stories: A few years ago, I was driving down the street in winter, and noticed two guys jawing with each other on the side of the street, between two cars that were parked to the side of the driving lane, probably having some sort of traffic disagreement. Suddenly, the short guy reached up and whacked the tall guy on the head with a tire iron. I pulled over and parked and observed. Some other passers-by grabbed both men and pulled them apart, held them, while I wrote down their license plates and descriptions. The police arrived and did a very professional job of investigation, then took the short guy into custody, while the tall guy was loaded into an ambulance. Most witnesses had drifted away by then, but I stayed until I could approach an officer and offer what I saw and recorded. The point is, I was armed and could have intervened (and I might have were the assault more serious), but I did not, as I am not a LEO.
Just two recent, real-world instances from the same city of bad guys using deadly force, witnessed by armed citizens, where there was no firefight and the police had no trouble handling it.