jkh@jade.UUCP (03/31/87)
The questions and response indeed were thought-provoking. Let me reply with a few observations from my own perspective. I've basically decided that I must have minimal proficiency in firearms because my wife intends to become a cop, and because as a red-blooded chauvinist I do not intend to cower behind her in an incident, even if that would be the smart thing to do. Let's compare the situation of a civilian with a police officer. A cop has one year of training in self defense without the use of firearms, shooting, the legal use of force, patrol training from an experienced training officer. On duty, a cop has a partner, a radio to bring reinforcements and a bullet-resistant vest. Off-duty, a cop is more similar to a civilian from a tactical standpoint, except (and this is a big exception) from the training and on-duty experience. Now many well-trained cops freeze up in their first real incident (as they do in other professions; a Marine shooting instructor told me a funny story of two spy assasins shooting at point-blank range and missing due to nervousness). But still, I think the odds are better for a trained professional to survive an incident than an amateur who's gone shooting a few times and thinks himself capable. And then there is the issue of legal sanctions. As jkh points out, unless you're a friend of the police chief's, you cannot legally carry a concealed weapon in most areas. If you use that weapon on the street, you're a vigilante. At least if you're a cop, you'll probably have the police union sticking up for you. Now for the final statistic. Has anyone heard of a cop being killed? Here in San Diego, it used to be a regular occurence. Now suppose you're an untrained civilian who insists in injecting yourself into dangerous situations while armed (instead of using caution and the recommended pair of sneakers.) Simple logic suggests that you're decreasing your chances of knowing your grandchildren. I keep a well-hidden, accessible unloaded pistol near my pillow. (an automatic is perfect, since it can be easily loaded in the dark.) Otherwise, I show the same caution about where I go and what I do as I did before I learned about guns.