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when guns are outlawed, only lawmen will have guns

webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
"All nine people injured in Friday's shooting in front of the Empire State Building were wounded by police gunfire, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters Saturday."

CNN
“It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)


Comments

  • TheedgeTheedge Posts: 316
    There aren't many shooting around where I live. But the last few I've heard of, good lord, the number of bullets the police dispense to hit a person. I understand stress and all of that, but come on....
  • phobicsquirrelphobicsquirrel Posts: 7,347 ✭✭✭
    webmost:
    "All nine people injured in Friday's shooting in front of the Empire State Building were wounded by police gunfire, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters Saturday."

    CNN
    wow, what a bunch of morons. All the shooting they do you think they would be better at it. So if a cop shoots a innocent no issues, but if a perp does, OMG!
  • fla-gypsyfla-gypsy Posts: 3,023 ✭✭
    I am a Law and Order guy but when you shoot 9 bystanders before killing the bad guy you either need to improve your marksmanship or change your procedures on when it is OK to shoot, this should not happen!
  • RainRain Posts: 8,958 ✭✭✭
    They need to work on Positive Identification. In the military, we're drilled over and over on it. Not that you would know if you watch the news, but still. You HAVE to know what you're shooting at.
  • JDHJDH Posts: 2,107
    It seems to me that the United States is turning into the Wild West with deadly shoot-outs breaking out into routine instances of deadly gun violence so often that they are becoming commonplace. From the Associated Press:

    http://www.latimes.com/la-empire-state-building-shooting-victims-hit-by-police-gunfire-nypd-says-20120825,0,7650743.story

    August 25, 2012, 11:09 a.m.

    NEW YORK — All nine people wounded during a dramatic confrontation between police and a gunman outside the Empire State Building were struck by bullets fired by the two officers, police said Saturday, citing ballistics evidence.

    The veteran patrolmen who opened fire on the suit-wearing gunman, Jeffrey Johnson, had only an instant to react when he whirled and pointed a .45-caliber pistol as they approached him from behind on a busy sidewalk.

    Officer Craig Matthews shot seven times. Officer Robert Sinishtaj fired nine times, police said. Neither had ever fired their weapons before on a patrol.

    The volley of gunfire felled Johnson in just a few seconds and left nine other people bleeding on the sidewalk.

    In the initial chaos Friday, it wasn't clear whether Johnson or the officers were responsible for the trail of wounded, but based on ballistic and other evidence, "it appears that all nine of the victims were struck either by fragments or by bullets fired by police," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters on Saturday at a community event in Harlem.

    He reiterated that the officers appeared to have no choice but to shoot Johnson, whose body had 10 bullets wounds in the chest, arms and legs.

    "I believe it was handled well," Kelly said.
  • JDHJDH Posts: 2,107
    16 shots total fired by the police officers.

    Johnson had 10 bullet wounds., nine bystanders wounded. 6 shots missed their intended target, so at least three of the wounded must have been injured by spent or fragmented rounds.

    Personally, I find it hard to second-guess the Officers. Who among us, even the best trained marksmen, knows how they would have reacted if, on a crowded street, you were faced with the instantaneous decision to defend yourself, or to take cover. My sense is that all the training would be to instinctively defend yourself, and that's what the Officers did.

    But it really is like a scene out of an old cowboy movie.
  • RainRain Posts: 8,958 ✭✭✭
    They shot 16 rounds? There is really no excuse for that. I can give them the fact the a pistol is not the most accurate weapon in the world, but you CAN still aim it. Was 16 rounds needed, or were these guys so scared they just pointed and kept pulling the trigger?
  • RBeckomRBeckom Posts: 2,191 ✭✭✭
    I do not judge the officers involved in the shooting, I judge the policies that allow trigger happy men to wear guns!
    All officers should undergo rigorous psych evaluations before carrying anything more lethal than stun guns.
    My opinion only, but when does it stop?
  • YankeeManYankeeMan Posts: 2,654 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not to be too sensitive here, but I assume none of you have been shot at in anger at close range. Some of those shots the cops fired at the gunman at that range could have hit their target and gone through and hit someone else.

    Ordinarily, an officer would not take a shot with bystanders behind the target, but when the target is continuing to fire, you can only do what you can to stop that gunfire. Yes, we would all like to be crack shots, and many of us are on the range, but the price of poker goes up when someone is shooting at you at close range.

    We would all like to be perfect, but we hire from the human race. As long as we continue to do that and not hire robots, cops will continue to be human and make the occasional mistake. Yes, sometimes those mistakes are costly. If those officers held thier fire, how many more, including themselves might have been killed?

  • wwesternwwestern Posts: 1,397 ✭✭✭
    YankeeMan:
    Not to be too sensitive here, but I assume none of you have been shot at in anger at close range. Some of those shots the cops fired at the gunman at that range could have hit their target and gone through and hit someone else.

    Ordinarily, an officer would not take a shot with bystanders behind the target, but when the target is continuing to fire, you can only do what you can to stop that gunfire. Yes, we would all like to be crack shots, and many of us are on the range, but the price of poker goes up when someone is shooting at you at close range.

    We would all like to be perfect, but we hire from the human race. As long as we continue to do that and not hire robots, cops will continue to be human and make the occasional mistake. Yes, sometimes those mistakes are costly. If those officers held thier fire, how many more, including themselves might have been killed?

    I strongly suggest you watch IROBOT.
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