Guns aren't magic after all

[c0rbin]

Takes away the element of surprise, I suppose, but I have never felt comfortable leaving a round or shell in any chamber of any firearm. Providing the poor bastard made it past my dogs, the surprise would be mostly gone by that time, anyway.

For any rational person the very sound of a shot-gun shell being pumped into the ready should be enough deterence.

 

[Luke T.]

It's the most dangerous situation for an officer to enter, and generally, at least one of the following happens:

1) "nothing happened here. No, I don't want my S.O. arrested" so there's not much of a case

2) They both gang up on the officer

3) The reporting member encourages the police to haul the other one off to jail, then refuses to cooperate in an investigation, and lets the offender come right back home

4) Repeat same call at same house sometime in the near future, with same result

Sometimes, they get both. It's actually rare that police show up for a domestic, make an arrest, press charges, and have their S.O. show up for court and testify against them.

That is exactly what happened every time I responded to a domestic abuse call with base police as the Officer of the Day when I was in the Navy. Every time.

It was always the same couples. Over and over.

I can't remember who, but someone explained to me after I was complaining about this that you can graph a domestic abuse situation. You have a buildup, followed by a sharp spike (the incident that prompts the call), followed immediately by a deep trough of remorse on the part of both parties. (edited to add: it is during the trough period that the police show up and why things go the way they do in Khonshu's description). I found that the abused and the abusers were in some weird symbiotic, twisted relationship.

 

[Troll]

No, but he was clearly insane. He hacked his wife to death with a samurai sword and yelled "I'm God! I'm immortal".

Like Ian Osborne, your first post in this thread made perfect sense to me, until I noticed the word "control". If a veteran on the police force can shoot her partner twice in a stressful situation, what does that tell us if the gun is in the hand of an untrained civilian instead?

Not all civilians are untrained. Most that buy their guns legally have quite a bit of experience (military service, hunting since childhood, retired cops and security guards etc.), so I guess you're real question is about guns in the hands of irresponsible or negligent morons. Unfortuantely we have no control over them. Just like Darwin surmised, we just gotta let them weed themselves out through time.

And as shanek proved, obviously not all cops are the best shots in the world, there's roughly 90 million gun owners out there that have more experience because they shoot more often than cops do either for recreation or hunting and many have been around them all their lives. So we can't expect cops that take so long to get there and sometimes miss the target to be our first line of defense when we are being attacked. I'd much rather have myself shooting at someone in my home than a cop or anyone else. I'm more familiar with who is supposed to be there and who isn't, and I know my abilities and limitations with my guns.

 

[Dancing David]

That is exactly what happened every time I responded to a domestic abuse call with base police as the Officer of the Day when I was in the Navy. Every time.

It was always the same couples. Over and over.

I can't remember who, but someone explained to me after I was complaining about this that you can graph a domestic abuse situation. You have a buildup, followed by a sharp spike (the incident that prompts the call), followed immediately by a deep trough of remorse on the part of both parties. (edited to add: it is during the trough period that the police show up and why things go the way they do in Khonshu's description). I found that the abused and the abusers were in some weird symbiotic, twisted relationship.

sad but true, I work with victims so I will make the plea for sympathy,
-somebody else calls the police, they know that if thier perpetrator gets arrested they are in really deep crap
-victims are very much brainwashed, if there has been an ongoing cycle of violence, they beleive all the crap the perp says
-perps are very good cons, they con the victim as well
-victims often do try to leave but return for a wide variety of reasons

The two do ofetn have that wierd symbiotic thing going, it is wierd that perps are cointrolling but very dependant.

That is why the point I was going to make is that
SHOOTING is just one of many skills that officers must have, most of the skills are the same ones that social workers use, poor officers. They want to stop crime but end up doing social work!

 

[Michael Redman]

A misanthrope could use the same story in the opening post to say women shouldn't be cops...

That's insane. No one today could think that women shouldn't be cops.

It's just that women shouldn't have guns.

 

[Aoidoi]

Hey, my +2 magic submachine gun of vampire slaying says different!

I don't think that extremely short range vs. a sword is really the optimal circumstances for accuracy, and frankly I'm not inclined to argue marksmenship in a case like this. A police sniper or swat team sure, but a regular cop attacked with a sword gets a lot of leeway from me. Even well trained and experienced people can make mistakes, and aside from the poor accuracy is anyone even complaining about her reaction? And what if she hadn't been armed with a gun? Do you think she could have taken the guy with pepper spray and a night stick (billy club)? Personally I think she and her partner would be dead, along with "god."

Should there be more firearm training? Probably. But I think that's true for almost everything.

 

[Luke T.]

That's insane. No one today could think that women shouldn't be cops.

It's just that women shouldn't have guns.

Especially Suezoled.

 

[peptoabysmal]

For any rational person the very sound of a shot-gun shell being pumped into the ready should be enough deterence.

It scares the hell out of quail, too.