Americans Shoot Back

By now you’ve probably heard the story of the Philadelphia Police officer who was shot and wounded by a dude who claimed to be acting “in the name of islam.” and pledged his allegiance to ISIS. The injured officer didn’t give up the fight:

Despite being seriously wounded, Hartnett got out of his car, chased the suspect and returned fire, wounding his attacker in the buttocks, police said. Other officers chased Archer and apprehended him.

Hopefully the officer will make a speedy recovery. Now, this guy looks like a lone wolf, but I’m hoping incidents like this send a clear message to ISIS leadership: “Americans shoot back.” The best response to this kind of diffused threat is a diffused defense, and that includes police officers. But that defense also has to include the ability and willingness to prevail, as happened here.

A lot of Americans deride aggressive policing techniques, and while I acknowledge from there are legitimate problems, I don’t want to see our cops neutered like they are in Europe. I’d like to see the cops stop sending SWAT teams to because they can’t tell the difference between hippies growing tomato plants and growing weed. I’d like to see police departments give some more heed to public safety and not just officer safety. But when somedood pulls a deadly weapon, or gets his jihad on, I don’t want the police hesitating, wondering whether their superiors and the public will support their use of deadly force. “He pulls a knife, you pull a gun.” I’m fine with that credo.

The death toll in San Bernardino was a lot lower than it had the potential to be, based on their plans, but it was not to be because the police response was swift and aggressive, and they quickly gave sent our jihadists off to take a dirt nap. The death toll in at the Texas Art Gallery was exactly two, both of them the shooters. Again, an aggressive response by police.

I’m happy to drive the meme with ISIS that Americans shoot back. I don’t think that will be lost on them, and it might dampen their enthusiasm for Mumbai or Paris style attacks here.

11 thoughts on “Americans Shoot Back”

  1. I would like to clarify that the Garland attack was thwarted by private security – yes he was an off duty police officer but acting in his capacity as a private citizen hired by Gellar. “The police” weren’t there, instantly responding.

    I like to make this distinction so people don’t have the opportunity to say “see? you don’t need a gun, the police can handle it.”

  2. I tried to make this point with the Paris shooting. Over a 100 dead because there was no one there to shoot back. This liberal just didn’t understand. I’m about to give up on them.

  3. Unfortunately our political class is signaling that we’re going to roll over without a fight. The mayor of Philadelphia stated “Islam had nothing to do with what happened.” Despite the shooter being muslim and stating it was religiously motivated attack. What’s (un)surprising is that this same guy has no problem calling the NRA, made up of productive law abiding citizen, “traitorous”. If someone can diagram the mental gymnastics necessary to hold both those views, they deserve a prize.

    1. “If someone can diagram the mental gymnastics necessary to hold both those views, they deserve a prize.”

      I’m pretty sure that’s been done. The artist’s name was M.C. Escher.

  4. Roger Wilson and Sprocket both notice the liberal mindset which is populated by fairies and unicorns.

    They cannot see obvious evil like muslim terrorism and they attack that which is good, namely the five million fellow Americans who look at the Constitution and the Second Amendment and understand that it means what it says.

    So, since they are driven by emotion, bias, and their hoplophobia, and not by logic, of course they are going to offer silly responses.

    They want more background checks when they clearly do not identify or deter bad guys, gun free zones which merely enable mass murder, and magazine limits which handicaps a good guy with a gun rushing into a desperate fight.

    They will not enforce the laws that will put SOBs away such as for filing a 4473 illegally (look at the pathetic prosecution rate for the current DOJ). They instead target SS and VA recipients.

    The Democrats are unAmerican, hate the Constitution and are an enemy to the republic. When you attack the Constitution you give up your claim to be an American. So Democrats are the traitors. The ignorant, evil mayor of Philly can go pound sand.

    Remember, only your enemy wants you disarmed.

  5. Way to bury the lede, this headline just about writes itself:

    Cop Caps ISIS Crazy in Keister

  6. When police shoot back it teaches the bad guys to focus instead on the softer targets. If they can’t make their point by going after politicians and their armed security or law enforcement their only other option are the soft targets. The real tragedy is that next time it will probably be a mom and kids at walmart. Stay sharp and carry everywhere.

  7. The European police are only telling half the story. They have no Posse Commitatos act and will call the military when things go sideways.

    1. Indeed. Here in France military patrols have been the norm for years now.

      First you had a cop+.mil mixed groups but these days you have pure .mil groups patrolling the streets.

  8. “I’m happy to drive the meme with ISIS that Americans shoot back. I don’t think that will be lost on them, and it might dampen their enthusiasm for Mumbai or Paris style attacks here.”

    I have to respectfully disagree. I believe that in the viewpoint of terrorists, even the failed attacks such as these are viewed as successes by them. Especially attacks featuring American Citizens as the attackers. While yes, they probably wish for a nice fat body count, but even failures that only end in dead terrorists with no Americans harmed can be viewed by them as a success, because they successfully caused shots to be fired on American soil. They’ve showed that they have REACH.

    Don’t get me wrong, I want as much as any other American for the terrorists to leave us alone, and I cheer every time an American (citizen or LEO) kills or stops a terrorist asshole before he manages to hurt anyone. I just don’t have the delusion that doing so will have any effect upon the next terrorist asshole.

    1. I would argue they are also looking for media coverage, and if they can get that by stacking more bodies and getting more cameras in other countries, they’ll prefer that.

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