“You say concealed carry I say Trayvon Martin. Police officers make mistakes all the time. We spend six months in the police academy, six months of field training and ongoing training on a regular basis and the fact is once in a while we’re going to shoot someone with a cellphone; we’re going to shoot somebody with a flashlight and none of that is okay. But now you take John Q. Civilian, you give them six weeks or 10 weeks of training and you say ‘have at it?’ The fact is more guns are not the solution to the firearm gun violence problem in this country. Less guns and reasonable gun laws are. And just because it’s 49 states to one doesn’t mean the state of Illinois is wrong on that one.”
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy brings us this wonderful quote. That’s right 49 to 1. Funny thing is none of those other 49 have a city that is even close to the number of deaths as their Chicago, but that isn’t the topic today. I brought you that quote today mainly for the argument that police are not better trained or safer when it comes to owning, possessing, and carrying firearms over the average concealed carrying civilians. This misleading notion is used by the Civilian Disarmament movement on a pretty regular basis when the subject of arming teachers comes up and it down right pisses me off. Don’t get me wrong, police have to deal with a level of shit on a daily basis that I could never have the patience for and I admire them for their service, but even with their “extensive training” they don’t handle firearms any safer or better than most non-police. In fact I have a few stories today to prove it.
In a Lodi elementary school a child was able to walk up to a police officer and pull the trigger on his holstered gun. SayWhat? His Glock 35 with a flashlight mounted was supposedly in his holster but according to the police department, the light somehow made the trigger more accessible.
Officer’s gun
I’m sorry for being skeptical but what kind of cheap holster was this gun in? Oh, my bad it was a thigh rig. Well don’t let me question this swat officer’s operator judgment but I am going to ask if this particular holster was even designed to hold the gun with a light on it? A real life SWAT officer of 5 years with all the extra training. You would think he would be above the lowly citizen in at least choosing a proper holster for his firearm right? Or atleast have it bolstered properly? How about his situational awareness? Not noticing a student poking at your holster is the ultimate fail. He paid for it with a gun shot wound to the leg from a child at a reading promotion event. It is a good thing it wasn’t some average citizen carrying a concealed gun on school grounds something horrible could have happened like a negligent discharge or something.
Next, we visit another school, this time it is York Comprehensive High School. An officer again has a little holster problem when he managed to some how ram his keys into his holster and defying all physics was able to press the trigger upwards and discharged his Glock 22 into the ground. The report says he was retrieving his gym bag from his cruiser and the officer can be seen on the video shoving his keys into the pocket of his bag as the gun goes off. I am not sure if should be referred to as a “Bag Pop” or not. The department has also said that there are a few other holsters identical to this one and are in the process of being replaced. The Truth About Guns breaks it down in great fashion as usual and is also skeptical of the claim that it was a key that set off the firearm. Don’t worry and think that the kids went unprotected while this officer was on paid leave, no sir, the police department replaced this expert with another uniformed officer with high levels of gun safety training.
Now I know there are good officers out there that are very safe and professional. It just turns out the next two guys we are going to talk about are neither of those. Dejay Barber, 44, and Matthew Rincon, 24 both Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies fired shots into the air at a campground over a loud music dispute. A spokesperson from the sheriff’s office stated that both officers displayed their guns towards each other in a threatening manner and discharged their guns into the air. Don’t worry, the punishment was swift and just. Both deputies were relieved of duty with pay. I cannot even describe how bad my neck hurts from shaking my head when I read that they got extra paid vacations for getting drunk and escalating a situation to the point where both are firing guns into the air at a public camp ground. But according to the LA Times this isn’t the first embarrassing blunder this department has had to deal with. Here is a short list of recent events reported by the La times:
In 2009, a sergeant was accused of pointing a gun at the head of a fellow sergeant inside the Compton sheriff’s station and mouthing, “I’m gonna kill you.”
In 2010, a group of jail deputies brawled with two of their colleagues at a department Christmas party. At one point, a female deputy was punched in the face.
And last year, a deputy was accused of kicking another deputy in the groin without provocation. That came after she had been arrested the year before over suspicion of assaulting fellow deputies during an early-morning brawl at a La Mirada park where she and two colleagues were found bloodied and apparently drunk.
Well I feel better knowing that in California the average people have a hard time even possessing guns and are protected by these fine upstanding officers.
When I heard the quote that we started the blog out with today it really got me going. The Anti-gun side touts the training officers go through as the end all be all and that makes them more qualified to carry guns on a daily basis over the rest of us lowly “wanna-be cops”. I have always said that as responsible gun owners we need to seek more training. That means taking a refresher class every year and getting out and shooting often. You can only be as good as you make yourself, and talking about how good you are doesn’t make you any better. Just like talking about how safe cops are when it comes to handling firearms doesn’t make it true.
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