Flipper
Campaign Veteran
Tax dollars at work restricting rights.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...tnership-to-fight-gun-violence-105694743.html
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...tnership-to-fight-gun-violence-105694743.html
Representatives of the founding organizations were on hand to speak to the devastating impact of firearms, which kill and injure 100,000 Americans each year.
One of the few things I retained from a higher education was in regards to statistics. Actually, it was two things. One, statistics don't lie. Two, statisticians do.
"In 2008, 34 officers were killed in the line of duty with firearms. So far this year, we've lost 43 officers to firearms," said Chief Katherine Perez, president of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives. "The trend is worsening, and we need to take immediate action."
Fatality #1: Officer Tommy Bishop succumbed to complications of a gunshot wound sustained 16 years earlier while responding to a domestic disturbance.
Fatality #6 of 2010: Sergeant Noel Cordero-Guzmán was shot and killed with his own weapon after intervening in a disturbance while off duty.
He was at a local fast food restaurant with friends when he observed a group of people creating a disturbance. Sergeant Cordero-Guzmán had a previous encounter with one of the men causing the disturbance.
Fatality #8: Sergeant Ira Essoe succumbed to complications of gunshot wounds sustained on November 6, 1980.
Fatality #10: Officer Bob Heinle succumbed to complications from a gunshot wound suffered 11 years earlier, on October 21, 1998.
Fatality #12 : Officer Chris Upton was shot and killed by a hunter who mistook him for game at the Ocmulgee Bluff Equestrian Recreation Area in Jasper County, Georgia.
He was on patrol at 11:00 pm when he was struck by a shot fired by the hunter. The shooter was in a two-person hunting party hunting coyotes with a high-powered rifle equipped with night vision. After realizing they had shot an officer, the hunters called 911 and reported the incident.
Fatality #23: Officer Thomas Wortham was shot and killed after identifying himself as a police officer when four subjects attempted to rob him while he was off duty at 11:25 pm.
Officer Wortham was visiting his parents' home to show them pictures from the previous week's Police Week activities that he attended in Washington. As he was leaving, four men approached and attempted to rob him of his motorcycle.
Fatality #26: Officer Jimmy Johnson succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained almost 30 years earlier as he and two other officers questioned an armed man, November 11, 1980.
Fatality #28: Trooper Wesley Brown was shot and killed at approximately 12:40 am while working an off duty security detail at a bar in Forestville, Maryland.
Earlier in the evening Trooper Brown had escorted a patron out of the bar who had refused to pay a bill. Trooper Brown was standing in the parking lot talking on his cell phone when the man returned and fatally shot him.
Fatality #33: Officer Thor Soderberg was shot and killed in an apparent robbery attempt at about 3:45 pm near 61st Street and Racine Avenue.
Officer Soderberg was returning to his vehicle at the end of his shift when he struggled with a male subject who approached from behind and was able to gain control of his service weapon.
Fatality #34: Officer Michael Bailey was shot and killed while in front of his South Side home at approximately 6:20 am.
Officer Bailey had just returned home from his shift on a mayoral protection detail, when as many as three male subjects approached and attempted to rob him of his vehicle.
Fatality #37: Police Officer Carlos Ledesma was shot and killed while conducting an undercover 'reverse' bust operation in Phoenix.
Officer Ledesma was working an undercover operation with two other officers. They were attempting to sell 500 pounds of marijuana. They had just arrived to complete the deal when the suspects came out firing at them.
Not to trivialize any loss of life, but to bring proper perspective to the statistics given, eleven of those officers lost were shot years prior to 2010, shot off duty, or under situations where violence was expected. Darwin does not exempt blue uniforms.
Tax dollars at work restricting rights.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...tnership-to-fight-gun-violence-105694743.html
I did not look up 2008 to see whether a large number were off duty and accidents. I did read all of 2009 on the FBI LEOKA report. In 2009, it appears that 4 officers were killed while off duty. Three in WA in a coffee shop getting ready for work and one in PA when he went, on his way home from work, to assist other officers who had been shot at a domestic disturbnace. "well done, it doesnt sound scarry" Really, the hate that some of the open carry proponents express for law enforcement is disturbing. Some people choose to OC, some do not, but you do not choose to go to domestic incidents, shootings, and serve high risk warrants. To say the deaths of officers "doesn't sound scarry" is about as disturbed as I can imagine a person to be.
Just armed citizens is estimated to be 2.5 million times a year.Now the kicker would be to put up the opposing statistics. How many lives were saved or injuries minimized by the proper use of a firearm. How many rapes, robberies and assaults were averted by having a firearm available or in use. And my personal favorite which is immeasurable, how many crimes were abandoned by the criminal when in the preparation or casing of the job they found the risk too high because the proposed victim was armed. I would reckon that it would be at least a hundred to 1. If you just counted officers alone that used their weapons to save a life I think it would still be a hundred to one. The only thing you might be able to count is the measurable drop in homicides in a place that previously had a ban on weapons like D.C.