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FPC Demands Police Training in the Wake of Another Unjustifiable Kill
AmmoLand ^ | October 22, 2019 | AmmoLand Editor Duncan Johnson

Posted on 10/22/2019 1:46:47 PM PDT by familyop

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Firearms Policy Coalition has issued the following statement in the wake of another killing of an armed and innocent person by police:

On October 12, in Fort Worth, Texas, Atatiana Koquice Jefferson’s neighbor called the police because he saw the door of her home left ajar. A Fort Worth police officer took the call. About 2:20 a.m., without announcing his presence, he began moving around outside Ms. Jefferson’s home, checking windows and making noise. Hearing alarming sounds from outside her home, Ms. Jefferson did what many responsible Americans would do: she went to investigate the sounds, prepared for the worst. Seconds later, she was shot and killed by the officer.

The tragic and unjustifiable killing of Ms. Jefferson underscores why law enforcement must be better trained to safely encounter people with guns and other constitutionally protected weapons. Especially with the ever-increasing number of individuals who keep and carry firearms for self-defense, the default assumption of law enforcement officers must be that someone armed is not a violent threat until that person proves otherwise. Assuming that every armed person poses a threat puts lives at risk and unnecessarily expands the class divide between government actors and the People they serve.

The Second Amendment codified the pre-existing right of self-defense, which includes the right to keep and bear instruments of force to repel unjust or unlawful force against them. Millions of people exercise this right every day by keeping and carrying guns for self-defense.

Effective self-defense sometimes requires responding, armed with a gun, to an alarming noise at one’s home. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in its landmark D.C. v. Heller (2008) decision that the Second Amendment “surely elevates above all other interests the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home.” Thus, law enforcement officers cannot use deadly force where it would otherwise be unjustified merely because the homeowner is believed to own a firearm.

Law enforcement agencies and officers must embrace the reality that the mere presence of a firearm does not, and cannot, make its possessor a target for deadly pre-emptive force. In its recent Hicks v. Commonwealth (2019) decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted the arguments presented in our coalition brief supporting Mr. Hicks, explaining: “We find no justification for the notion that a police officer may infer criminal activity merely from an individual’s possession of a concealed firearm in public. . . . Unless a police officer has prior knowledge that a specific individual is not permitted to carry a concealed firearm, and absent articulable facts supporting reasonable suspicion that a firearm is being used or intended to be used in a criminal manner, there simply is no justification for the conclusion that the mere possession of a firearm, where it lawfully may be carried, is alone suggestive of criminal activity.”

Mr. Hicks was seized in public. Ms. Jefferson, by contrast, was in her home. And the U.S. Supreme Court said in Heller that “the need for defense of self, family, and property is most acute” at one’s home. Ms. Jefferson was therefore exercising a core Second Amendment right by responding to an alarming noise outside her home by retrieving her firearm to protect herself and her loved ones.

Law enforcement policies and practices that ignore or discount the right to be armed (such as by perceiving all people with guns as threats to pre-emptively shoot or kill), the militarization of our police forces, the absurdly expansive and dangerous qualified immunity doctrine, the senselessly frequent hostile police encounters, and casual use of deadly force are all incredibly concerning and demand serious reform.

FPC demands that federal, state, and local law enforcement throughout the United States immediately engage in substantive training programs that acknowledge the Second and Fourth Amendment rights of armed people, and adequately address the growing number of unjustifiable and tragic killings of armed and innocent people. FPC looks forward to supporting and promoting legal and policy reforms that put human rights and liberty first.

About Firearms Policy Coalition

Firearms Policy Coalition (www.firearmspolicy.org) is a 501(c)4 grassroots nonprofit organization. FPC’s mission is to defend the People’s rights—especially the fundamental, individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms—advance individual liberty, and restore freedom.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; police
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A non-confrontational, non-manipulative, logical approach to discussion would be the best direction towards improvements in policies.
1 posted on 10/22/2019 1:46:47 PM PDT by familyop
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To: familyop

How about waiting for an INVESTIGATION and a TRIAL???? I have faith that the TRUTH will win out......


2 posted on 10/22/2019 1:50:09 PM PDT by Dawgreg
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AmmoLand is a great site for keeping up with Second Amendment and firearms news.

https://www.ammoland.com/

This article was a good one, too.

Speaking With Sheriff Chris Brown About His Refusal To Enforce Red Flag Laws
https://www.ammoland.com/2019/10/speaking-with-sheriff-chris-brown-about-his-refusal-to-enforce-red-flag-laws/


3 posted on 10/22/2019 1:50:47 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: familyop

i remember when elliott ness and the untouchables were on that gmen didn’t shoot unless shot at...

now adays there is too much preemptive shooting... and no knock warrants.


4 posted on 10/22/2019 1:52:22 PM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world.)
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To: Dawgreg

In this case the officer’s body camera video has been released. The officer broke several laws, never identified himself and skulked around the property. Then shot the resident, who was legally allowed to be there and to be armed, quite dead. Again, without ever identifying himself. The officer acted like he was serving a no-knock warrant on a drug den when he had been tasked to perform a simple welfare check.


5 posted on 10/22/2019 2:21:00 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr

And I agree with everything you said.....it sounds like to me a “cluster” you know what. He did wrong, I just hate to see some officer tried and convicted in the press. That’s all I was trying to say.......


6 posted on 10/22/2019 2:26:42 PM PDT by Dawgreg
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To: familyop

I just had an awful premonition.
Police will “request”, for your own safety, that you tell (register with) your local precinct that you have guns in the house. That way a responding officer may not immediately freak out and kill you.


7 posted on 10/22/2019 2:28:25 PM PDT by Do_Tar (I wish I was kidding.)
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To: Dawgreg

But what about the thesis of the article and the topic at hand: the proposal for policy and training changes? Should armed private residents be generally perceived as deadly threats?


8 posted on 10/22/2019 2:50:29 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: Dawgreg

This is a potential downside of bodycams, yes.

Thing is, though, in the past, when some officer was being ‘tried in the press’ it was with less than perfect evidence. Witness statements, circumstantial evidence, etc. When you have a bodycam, there’s usually no way to argue against what it recorded (if it could see what happened).

With that in mind, is it *really* someone being tried and convicted in the press? Or is it just simple reporting of what the bodycam recorded?


9 posted on 10/22/2019 2:51:16 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: familyop

How much of the problems, not just in policing, but in every aspect of our lives, has been degraded by Affirmative Action? One can’t help but suspect that police just aren’t as qualified, trained, or in tune with their communities as is necessary to accomplish their jobs.


10 posted on 10/22/2019 2:53:08 PM PDT by grania ("We're all just pawns in their game")
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To: grania

The officer was white. Affirmative Action had nothing to do with his poor behavior.


11 posted on 10/22/2019 3:01:54 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Do_Tar

And when the dispatcher states to the officer there are arms in the house, he’ll be more likely to shoot.


12 posted on 10/22/2019 3:47:13 PM PDT by Redcitizen (Tagline not secure.)
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To: Spktyr
The officer was white. Affirmative Action had nothing to do with his poor behavior.

Affirmative Action has EVERYTHING to do with not just a decline in policing, but in all aspects of our lives. When less qualified candidates are accepted, training and expectations are lowered to meet the now reduced expectations.

It's just like on college campuses. Everybody suffers while intellectual deficients are catered to.

13 posted on 10/22/2019 4:08:30 PM PDT by grania ("We're all just pawns in their game")
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To: familyop

re: “Firearms Policy Coalition”

Is this another one-man, one-room with a fax machine “watchdog” operation?


14 posted on 10/22/2019 4:11:05 PM PDT by _Jim (Save babies)
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To: Dawgreg

“ How about waiting for an INVESTIGATION and a TRIAL???? I have faith that the TRUTH will win out......”

The truth is that in Ft. Worth a police officer shot an innocent woman to death without any legal justification whatsoever. He failed to announce his presence, failed to announce that he was a Police Officer, and he fired the fatal shot as she was looking out her window.

He deserves a very, very long prison sentence.

L


15 posted on 10/22/2019 4:14:46 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: _Jim

Go do your own research.

Novel idea, eh?

L


16 posted on 10/22/2019 4:16:09 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Lurker

re: “Go do your own research.”

Go fish.


17 posted on 10/22/2019 4:18:54 PM PDT by _Jim (Save babies)
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To: _Jim

“Go fish.”

Arrogance, laziness, and rudeness all in a single package. How very efficient of you.

L


18 posted on 10/22/2019 4:20:08 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Lurker

re: “Arrogance, laziness, and rudeness all in a single package”

I took you to be playing a game of “Old Maid.”

I ain’t got any, the answer therefore is still “Go fish.”


19 posted on 10/22/2019 4:24:26 PM PDT by _Jim (Save babies)
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To: _Jim

“I took you to be playing a game of “Old Maid.”

Dull, too. Very, very efficient.

L


20 posted on 10/22/2019 4:28:20 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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