Careful Out There

Tam relays a story about a homeowner shot by police, and draws a few lessons, the first of which is if you called the cops, don’t then go running around outside your house with a gun. Seems sensible enough. The second one is the money quote though:

If you are on the playing field when they show up and you hear “Drop the gun!” then you need to drop the gun. Seriously. Like it just turned white-hot. (This is a good reason to carry drop-safe pistols, BTW. I realize that carrying that 1904 Ruritanian army surplus Schnellblitzenselbstlader in 8.3mm semi-rimmed is really cool, but aren’t you going to feel funny getting shot twice when you drop it: Once in the junk by your own gun when it hits the ground ass-end first, and again in the gut by the responding officer because he’s startled by the gunshot?)

RTWT, as always, with apologizes to those who love their Schnellblitzenselbstladers.

15 thoughts on “Careful Out There”

  1. The most important question of course is whether or not the 8.3mm semi rimmed with penetrate a vest.

  2. I did seem to remember reading about a CCW guy wearing a holstered pistol. Someone saw the gun and called the cops. When told to “drop the gun” moved his hand towards the holstered pistol to do just that and was shot dead by the cops.

    1. But it’s his fault, of course. The police can do no wrong in our society.

      1. “But it’s his fault, of course. The police can do no wrong in our society.”

        Hyperbole much? Especially in response to such a vague story.

        “There was this guy once. And he did a thing. And then the police shot him.”
        “Yeah, yeah, but of course everybody thinks the police never do anything wrong!”

        Show me on the Binky doll where the bad policeman touched you with the speeding ticket…

        1. It was worse than a speeding ticket. And it’s happened a few times. To me, personally. Also to most of my immediate family. And I’d rather not talk about it. However, to some degree (although I disagree with many of their methods), I think BLM has a valid point. We aren’t minorities or white trash, we don’t live in a bad area, we don’t do drugs, and we keep to ourselves but that doesn’t seem to factor in much beyond (possibly) being reasons why none of us have been shot yet.

          1. “It was worse than a speeding ticket.”

            Amen. I could tell stories too.

            My observation growing into adulthood and relative affluence from a very money-poor beginning was, that when cops perceive you as economically or socially powerless, you are raw meat to them. Officer Friendly didn’t show up until I started driving late-model cars and wearing neckties instead of driving last-legs old trucks and wearing Korean War vintage field jackets.

            I am therefor inclined to grant credibility to blacks who complain of their treatment by cops. It may not be their race, pe se, so much as the cop’s perception of their race is, most likely they are poor and powerless, and so, raw meat.

            1. I don’t tend to get pulled over with any regularity, but I can recall being lit up at least three times in my present vehicle: Once for an expired registration sticker, once when I pulled over to check google maps because my Garmin thought I was in the middle of a field, and once for allegedly doing ~83 in a 55.

              In all instances the officers (my local PD for the first, commonwealth PD for the second, the PD from one municipality over for the third) were polite and professional. The third was the only one that resulted in any sort of written citation.

              TLDR: I have never had anything approaching a “late-model” car (In fact, if trends continue my next car will be older than I am), I don’t tend to wear ties or shirts with buttons, and so far every police interaction I’ve had has been with “officer friendly.”

              1. No motor vehicles involved, sorry. Come back when your mother is afraid to walk outside her yard because of repeated harassment.

  3. The homeowner is black and the BLM crew was starting to make some noise until it came out that the shooting officer also is black.

    1. As Tam alluded to above, isn’t it a bit early to make any such pronouncements? I mean, I see minimal evidence that “BLM was starting to make some noise,” much less that they had, and then decided to back off.

      Ideologically, I can’t understand why BLM would make any distinctions regarding the race of the cop.

      1. “Ideologically, I can’t understand why BLM would make any distinctions regarding the race of the cop.”

        Are you saying that you don’t think they care, or that you don’t think they should?

  4. I have been trying to find the story I referred to about the man shot with the holstered pistol. There was a big stink about it on the internet a few years ago, maybe someone else remembers it. As best I recall it was this:

    A man was shopping in a store with his girlfriend. He had a holstered pistol and a CCW license. An employee saw the gun when he accidentally revealed it, and panicked. The police were called. Lots of cops rushed to the store, and they arrived as he was leaving. They were started yelling at him, and apparently “drop the gun” was said. So, he was supposed to have moved his hand towards then gun, and multiple cops opened fire.

    Does anyone else remember this?

    So the moral is, if the gun is in your holster, don’t touch it, no matter what the cops say- just stick your hands up.

    1. Sounds like a telephone-game version of the shooting outside a big-box store in or around Las Vegas. There was no Memorex, only Memory. The cops’ story was they shot him after he both drew and strated to aim, of course.

      The moral of your story is correct, of course; hands up and open, and don’t move. It’s contradictory to the instructions the cops are shouting, alas. Adrenaline sucks when fine control is necessary.

      http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/costco-shooting-victims-family-drops-lawsuit-against-las-vegas-police

      Note the chain of events, and the confusion surrounding the shooting.

      1. Yeah, when the instructions are contradictory like that the only course of action is to keep your hands up, open, and empty. When they continue to demand contradictory things, make clear your desire to avoid being shot, and point out the conflict inherent in their instructions.

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