Month: April 2013

Survey of 15,000 Law Enforcement on Gun Control

The survey, which was conducted in early March 2013, received 15,000 responses from law enforcement professionals. It found that the overall attitude of law enforcement is strongly anti-gun legislation and pro-gun rights, with the belief that an armed citizenry is effective in stopping crime. Response percentages varied only slightly when analyzed by rank and department size. Among the results:

  • 86 percent feel the currently proposed legislation would have no effect or a negative effect on improving officer safety
  • Similarly, 92 percent feel that banning semi-automatic firearms, or “assault weapons,” would have no effect or a negative effect on reducing violent crime
  • Demonstrating the opinion that the best way to combat gun crime is through harsher punishment, 91 percent said the use of a firearm while perpetrating a crime should lead to a stiff, mandatory sentence with no plea bargains. Likewise, 59 percent believe increasing punishment severity for unlicensed dealers would reduce crime
  • Respondents were more split on background checks, with 31 percent agreeing that mental health background checks in all gun sales would help reduce mass shootings, while 45 percent disagreed
  • 71 percent support law enforcement leaders who have publicly refused to enforce more restrictive gun laws within their jurisdictions
  • 82 percent believe gun buyback or turn-in programs are ineffective in reducing the level of gun violence
  • 91 percent support the concealed carry of firearms by civilians who have not been convicted of a felony and/or have not been deemed psychologically incapable
  • Likewise, 80 percent feel that legally-armed citizens would likely have reduced the number of casualties in recent mass shooting incidents
  • 38 percent believe the biggest cause of gun violence in the United States is the “decline in parenting and family values”. This was trailed by “overly lax parole and short sentencing standards” at 15 percent and “pop culture influence” (e.g., violent movies and video games) at 14 percent.

via: Business Wire / PoliceOne.com

This is incredible.  Don’t plan on seeing this in the MSM.

Defend Yourself from Crazy People

This is blatantly lifted from Second City Cop.  No need to correct perfection.

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Here’s some brilliant freaking idea coming out of a “police executive” group. Confronting an attacker leads to less casualties:
  • The speed and deadliness of recent high-profile shootings have prompted police departments to recommend fleeing, hiding or fighting in the event of a mass attack, instead of remaining passive and waiting for help.The shift represents a “sea change,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which recently held a meeting in Washington to discuss shootings like those in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo

    The traditional advice to the public has been “don’t get involved, call 911,” Mr. Wexler said, adding, “There’s a recognition in these ‘active shooter’ situations that there may be a need for citizens to act in a way that perhaps they haven’t been trained for or equipped to deal with.”

This is just coming to national consciousness now, but police departments across the country, including Chicago, rewrote these policies years ago for active shooter scenarios when it was determined that a response, no matter how disorganized, disjointed or small, almost inevitably led to the shooter surrendering or suiciding himself.The NRA has been advocating this for years and been roundly castigated for daring to say it. The issue isn’t guns, it’s people and the unwillingness to confront easily predictable and obvious signs of instability that lead to mass shootings. Columbine and Virginia Tech, the two most often cited examples, were both 100% preventable if the warning signs were recognized and acted upon. So was Newtown. So was Aurora. In fact, records unsealed late last week revealed a shocking fact:

  • A University of Colorado psychiatrist told campus police a month before the Aurora movie theater attack that James Holmes had homicidal thoughts and was a public danger, according to records unsealed Thursday.Lynne Fenton, a psychiatrist at the Denver campus, told police that Holmes had also “threatened and harassed her via email/text messages” in June 2012. He is standing trial for the July 20 shooting rampage that killed 12 and injured 70 during a midnight premiere of the latest Batman movie.
Colorado, which just passed some of the more draconian gun restrictions in the nation, based their anti-gun arguments on the theory that the Aurora Theater shooting could have happened anywhere and been perpetrated by anyone. But the fact is that the theater is the only one in a 20 minute radius with a specific “no guns” rule in effect and authorities were warned by a mental health professional a month in advance of the killer’s threats and violent tendencies and they did nothing to stop him. Everything that could have been done, wasn’t. And gun grabbers are using it to deprive everyone of the Right to self defense, a Right now condoned by police executives.
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This is — for those that read my blog — old news.  I shared the Alabama Dept. of Homeland Security video in January.
In a comment on Facebook I wrote that the critical factor in savings lives in any active shooter situation is the time to engagement by an armed good guy.  Once any armed good guy shows up the carnage always stops within 60 seconds.  Always.