Rest in peace, brother.
When I was a state trooper trainee in Colorado in 1980, the instructors had me pegged for a closet liberal. In the class on Response, the teacher asked me what I would do if I was walking up on a 7-11 and a man burst forth out the door with an automatic rifle.
I said, I'd shoot him immediately with my pistol, if I could. Before he leveled his rapid-fire weapon at me and blew me away.
Then I equivocated when the instructor gave me a shocked (Shocked!) stare and said, I'd yell, Drop it! and give him a nano-second to comply. Then I'd shoot him dead.
Ah come on, the teacher said, you wouldn't order him to drop his weapon, draw down on him and wait for him to comply?
No, I said, I'd shoot him. I'd kill him.
This would be a mismatch, rifle versus pistol. If he killed me first, an armed, uniformed authority figure, there'd be no protection for anyone around. I'd kill him quickly if I could.
We had a saying in the state patrol, Better to be judged by 12 (the jury) than carried by 6 (the pall bearers).
The teacher acted disappointed in me, because of my reputation for upholding individual rights. But it was the right answer from the wrong person. He said, Yeah, you waste this guy.
Today where I live, at a place where I sometimes run (down the footpath alongside the Halocaust Museum), a lunatic, a racist Holocaust denier, walked into the museum with a rifle and opened fire. From what I have heard, the security officers inside immediately shot him down.
He killed a guard before he was shot down, a young man named Stephen Johns. God bless you officer Johns. And thank you, fellow officers for immediately acting to subdue this 88 year old American nut job.
Anne Frank would have been 80 if the Nazis hadn't killed her when she was a teenager.
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7 comments:
Such sad, depressing news. I can't really get my head around holocaust deniers. Now even less.
I just saw it on the news. It was nice of you to recognize Johns on your blog. Ironically, I had just finished watching the Hallmark special I had recorded in April about the Polish woman who saved Jewish children by placing them in Christian homes during the Nazi occupation. Yes, the man was a lunatic. I'd blame his age, but it sounds like he was mental for years. Thankfully more people weren't harmed.
what a sad sad day. thank god the other guards reacted as quickly as they did.
yeah, our gun laws are way too harsh.
I heard about this yesterday on the radio on my way home. It's so sad. I'm just glad that more people didn't get hurt. It's a shame someone had to die though.
I also just saw this in the news. Very sad to hear about his death - it was so senseless.
Oh so horrible.. so sad.
Interesting note about Anne Frank.
Glad you are staying out of the line of fine.
I can only hope the 88 year old nut cases remaining time in prison will be incredibly painful...
Though, no matter how painful, it still won't make up for Stephen Johns.
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