Clockwise: Tina Griswold, Sgt.
Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens,
Greg Richards
Most of you will have heard by now about cop killer Maurice Clemmons and the slaying of four Seattle-area police officers this past Sunday as well as his violent end Tuesday following an alleged attempt at killing another police officer. If not, you can read what Dave Workman, Howard Nemerov, and John Longenecker have written.
To recap, Clemmons stormed into a Seattle-area coffee shop and shot and killed four police officers who were working on their paperwork. He was later confronted by officer Benjamin Kelly who approached his stolen car. When Clemmons allegedly refused to comply with Kelly's orders to stop and instead moved towards his gun Kelly shot and killed the suspect.
At least one anti-gun pundit is claiming this incident to claim that armed self-defense is a sham. Said Bill Mann in The Huffington Post:
This weekend's tragic murder of four Seattle-area police officers has blown away one of the NRA and gun nuts' major -- if ancient and tired -- arguments... The four Seattle-cops were armed, and it didn't stop them from being shot.
The "if-only everyone-were-armed" argument was crazy and reckless before this. Now it's been proven beyond a doubt to be absolutely ridiculous.
Mann apparently missed the fact that Clemmons was indeed shot by one of the police officers he attacked. He would have stood a much better chance of getting away with these slayings had not the officers been armed and able to fight back. It is certainly tragic that they were unable to survive the ambush, but Mann's logic is certainly flawed.
Even had Clemmons not been shot during the attack, a wound that very well may have eventually been fatal, claiming that one isolated incident proves self-defense is worthless is like saying if someone wearing a seat belt dies as the result of an automobile accident then we should give up on wearing seat belts at all.
Try telling the rest of the nation's law enforcement officers that they might as well turn in their guns because defensive arms didn't save these four. If the argument holds true for lawfully armed citizens then it holds true across the board.
Massad Ayyob summed it up nicely.
Brave when it came to murdering off-guard people by surprise or raping 12-year-old girls, he lost decisively and totally when he faced a single vigilant armed individual who knew what to do – and did it.
Examples of successful armed self-defense by not only police officers but also armed citizens abound. One isolated incident does not invalidate the millions of successes.
Comments
Very good observations, Dan. And BTW, folks, the millions of successes Dan refers to is 2.5 million every year.
Another point that Mann misses is that no sane person that advocates carrying for defense claims that a gun imparts a magical force field that guarantees safety. A gun gives you a chance, it improves the odds. If a lunatic wants to shoot you, they generally can. Would Mann suggest that armed defense is invalid because Hinckley was able to shoot President Reagan?
Mann gets it wrong right out of the gate.
These four officers were NOT from Seattle, they were from Lakewood, a community about 35 miles south of Seattle. The shooting occurred right on the Parkland-Lakewood border area.
This is not a "tragedy" as local media continue stating, it was an outrage.
Nicely done, as always, Daniel.
Let's just call him n, man seems to be missing in his make-up.
Regardless of how well prepared, well trained, and well armed one may be, there are no guarantees in life. Someone who is sufficiently determined to murder you can succeed.
Such people are very much an aberration, and most of them are incarcerated.
Whether we choose to leave them incarcerated, or engage in the fully discredited folly of restrictive gun laws, remains to be seen.
These officers were ambushed. They didn't have a chance to defend themselves. Clemmons didn't walk up to them and say "Give me your wallets or I'll kill you". He just walked in and started shooting. Now maybe if one of the other patrons or one of the employees had been armed, they might have been able to take Clemmons out before he killed all of the officers. Of course, this is anyones guess. Glad Clemmons got his just reward and I now hope that all those who helped him get theirs.
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