You've probably read, by now, of the case where a fifteen year old kid with a pellet gun was shot to death by the police. The pellet gun looked like a Glock and when the kid pointed it at the cops, they shot him dead.
I've owned a pellet pistol that looked like a real gun. I've written about it.
Based on what has been written in the press, I'm siding with the cops. I don't believe that anyone, cop or not, should have to wait to see what kind of projectile comes out of the barrel of a piece before defending themselves.
Remember this video?
Those are Airsoft guns. They look like the real thing. If some clown was coming at you with a carbine, would you shoot him or wait to see if he was going to shoot you with 6.8mm bullets or plastic pellets? Are you going to bet your life on whether or not the gun being pointed at you is a toy?
And let's dispense with the "he was only a kid" crap. He was a kid with a gun. The juvenile prisons are stocked with kids who have shot and killed other people. Indeed, because of a lack of an ability to fully think through the consequences, a kid with a gun may be even more dangerous than an adult with a gun.
It is a sad thing that there is a family that is now grieving the loss of a child. But if there is blame to be handed out, it does not rest upon the officers who were defending both themselves and everyone else in the school.
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I just got a Ruger .177 pellet Rifle with scope. The composite stock and the general looks makes it in gun grabber parlance an evil black rifle. I'd also add from shooting it at wood blocks I'd not like to get shot by it! So if that air rifle leaves the property for a shooting match or air rifle hunting you can bet it will be in a proper locked gun case. For my safety and to avoid scaring others.
As to the shooting. The person I feel most strongly for is the officer. The officer had to shoot as the unknowns were too great and the risk presented was of mortal level. Can you imagine his/her shock to find the "gun" was a pellet pistol. I do hope that officer gets the support deserved in this case.
To the parents, suicide by cop is a horrific thing for the cop, and everyone else. As parents the question hangs on you, What were you doing while things lead up to this? We don't know. You own responsibility for yours.
The gun grabbers. I can hear them dance in the blood before it even stopped flowing. You cannot have prevented this by laws, at most it might have altered the means.
The facts are clear. He was armed.
He was menacing with a weapon, and he was intent on dying. That is a terrible thing that someone so young would arrive at that point.
Eck!
Take the cop out of the equation and substitute a legally armed, licensed and trained civilian. When confronted with this situation, I'd put a round into the center of mass in a heartbeat.
Whatcha think the uproar would sound like ??
Wasn't it Robert Heinlein that said, "An armed society is a polite society." .... but then again, he was a science fiction writer.
I feel sorry for the kid's family. But I am forced to agree that it should be some kind of standard child-rearing practice to teach kids: NEVER EVER point anything even vaguely realistically gun-like at a cop.
They can't take a chance. They are taught to aim for a kill-shot. It cannot end other than badly for the person with the realistic looking non-weapon.
I'm with you. I'm the last person in the world to defend the cops (and I live in Seattle, so I have reason) but you point anything gun-shaped at anyone, be it pellets, laser tag, or Gold Dots, and you run the risk of dying and you deserve what you get.
dbliss,
Hiya Neighbor, I am south of Seattle, not to far from Mt. Rainier. I used to go to Seattle frequently, but ever since the WTO mess, the SPD has been sliding crazy.
I now shop south....Olympia to Portland instead.
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