"Good guys" with guns cause panic, delay investigation into Walmart shooting

And yet no one was hurt by the CCW guys. The police themselves said they weren’t put in danger. I find it weird that this community is as skeptical as it is about the police as they are, unless it’s about guns, in which case only the police can be trusted. I know, jlw, you are and I are completely at odds about guns – I’m Waltzian in my view of guns-as-deterrence – but absolutely nothing bad happened because of individuals with CCWs, except that the police were slightly inconvenienced.

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The guy had five hours to run. That he didn’t is only proof he isn’t a reasonable man.

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Actually, in other news reports, it was stated that the police released a statement that reviewing the video to separate out the people who drew guns did NOT slow down their response.

Somebody’s blowing smoke in this anti-gun-slanted article.

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One for the gun, one for the ammo belt.

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Like this guy?

Or this guy?
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/public/2013/08/12/concealed-carry-accidental-shooting.html

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So the armed bystanders “posed no physical hazard” to the police but people like this do?

Nowhere in this article does it say the people with guns helped anything or scared the guy off. Having guns doesn’t help things it only gives people the opportunity to shoot other people.

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I assume most American cops are under-trained. I also believe that “inadequate training” beats “no training at all.”

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Thanks for joining!

FTFY!

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I am not as worried about good guns, as I am about bad bullets.

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It seems like if someone was shot in aisle 3, you start with the footage from aisle 3, then track the shooter as he enters the view of other cameras in the store. Analyzing footage from other cameras seems like a secondary priority.

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I like your out of the box thinking. Make all guns free to own and carry. Absolutely ban every form of ammunition.

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I found this video a bit of an eye opener. Not being an American I missed the original story and it might have been a big thing over there at the time.

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If carrying a gun makes you feel more secure, then this story is not going to change your mind.

If you are one of those people who don’t want or need a gun to be out in public, no spin on this story is going to change your mind.

It’s as if the facts don’t matter, they never will. Two types of human beings out there, one of them trying not to get shot, the other looking for someone to shoot.

This is why I rarely go outside any more.

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@euansmith Thanks for posting a link to that vid. I’ve never heard of that incident and the resulting lawsuits. In the end, he says his case against the NYPD lost because there is no implied promise that the cops are there to protect you. But I wonder, What if such a phrase is stamped on the cop car door? In the late 60s, there was a TV show called Adam-12, and I distinctly remember that on the door of their vehicle, it said to protect and to serve. Here they are now:

Well, that was NY, and the TV show was based in LA. Maybe too many lawyers in NY or too many chickensht NY cops who were scared to help a guy being attacked by a knife. At least those two seemed to be.

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The police are allowed to lie to you in the course of an investigation. With that kind of legal cover, a clever lawyer could make the case that the logo on the car is not a legally binding promise.

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Although authorities said “a few” individuals drew handguns, they posed no physical hazard to officers. But their presence “absolutely” slowed the process of determining who, and how many, suspects were involved in the shootings, said Thornton police spokesman Victor Avila.

  1. They didn’t say how long it took to ID the shooter. I would imagine that would be fairly quick as multiple witnesses would have told them exactly when and where he was. This this shouldn’t have hindered IDing the shooter initially.

  2. It did seem to cause them to take time to insure there wasn’t a 2nd shooter and review all the footage. In which case: sorry law abiding citizens caused you more work. Though honestly, wouldn’t want want to review ALL the footage and camera angles just in case anyway? 5hrs doesn’t seem that long to review it all. And they would be able to go after the main suspect while others reviewed it for a possible 2nd suspect.

I bet they would also like protestors to register their ID and finger prints and refrain from covering their face as well.

  1. Despite the lovable Yosemite Sam gif in the article, multiple people drew but didn’t fire Showing maybe the caricature of the average CCW holder as a Walter Mitty/Rambo wannabe ready to wantonly blast bad guys at a moments notice and mowing down bystanders in a crisscross of fire isn’t accurate. They carry for defense.
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I’m just guessing here, but from the sounds of it, all those gun carrying bystanders were white.

All this noise about everyone carrying a gun, doesn’t seem to apply if it even looks like a black person is armed.

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Yes, while the 2nd Amendment and other rights apply to everyone, many minorities and their rights are suppressed. That doesn’t make the right bad, it makes authority and society and the inequality they perpetuate bad. People like Colion Noir have been very vocal about how gun rights apply to him and other minorities as well.

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Yup. The Black Panthers took to open carrying long guns to protect citizens against racist police. Basically escorting people around as a deterrant.

Bam. All of a sudden, guns are bad and we have gun control laws.

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The motto isn’t false. You just have to remember to ask this question:

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