Posted on 05/26/2008 9:38:09 PM PDT by moderatewolverine
“Killing an Unarmed Man.” That is how the front-page headline in the New York Times characterized an incident in which a man tried to run over a policeman with his car and was shot by three policemen on the scene, including his intended victim.
An automobile is a deadly weapon. If you are killed by an automobile, you are just as dead as if you had been shot through the heart.
A phrase like “an unarmed man” makes a talking point— as if matters of life and death should be discussed in terms of how you can spin a talking point.
The biggest and most common talking point when the police fire at someone is counting how many bullets they fired. There are politicians, media people and— above all— community activists who can work themselves into a rage over how many bullets were fired.
If we stop and think— which of course the demagogues hope we will never do— it is hard to see any moral difference between killing someone with one bullet or with dozens of bullets.
People who have never fired a gun in their lives say that they cannot understand why the police fired so many bullets. If it is something that they have never experienced, there is of course no reason why they should be expected to understand.
But, even after confessing their ignorance, such people often proceed to spout off, just as if they knew what they were talking about.
It is very easy for a pistol shot to miss, even in the safety and calm of a firing range, much less in a desperate situation where a decision must be made in a split second that can cost you your life or end someone else’s life.
(Excerpt) Read more at primetimepolitics.com ...
No and I hope that I revert to my civilian training if I do have that unfortunate experience.
Let me explain something. The police departments are hiring ex-military. The military spends a lot of money and time teaching how to shoot. They spend much more than police departments. Unfortunately, I believe a lot of these new officers are reverting back to their military training that teaches suppression fire. The police departments are not spending enough time in reteaching these officers how to shoot in the civilian world.
It’s perfectly acceptable to shoot magazine after magazine in a war zone. It is not under any circumstances to do the same in your neighborhood.
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