A cop comes across a crime in progress and sees someone with a gun. The cop immediately assumes the guy with the gun is a Bad Guy. He yells at the ‘perp’ to drop the weapon and when the ‘perp’ turns towards him (possibly to show his badge, or tell him ‘I’m on the job’!) he has to assume he’s about to take fire and shoots. Then, tragically, he finds out that the ‘perp’ in this situation was an off-duty law enforcement officer. This is the sort of story the antis really don’t like to talk about: “A retired Nassau County cop fired the shot that killed an off-duty ATF agent [John Capano, above] who was trying to stop a pill-popping ex-con from robbing a Long Island pharmacy.” To be honest, I don’t like talking about it either. But unlike the antis my reluctance stems from compassion for everyone involved, not from underlying guilt. Yes I said guilt . . .
Regardless of whether they admit it or not, the antis ultimate goal is that only cops and the military be armed. In some cities their goal is within reach. In D.C., or New York City, or San Francisco or Chicago, most cops (not unreasonably) assume that anyone they see with a gun out is a BG which can lead to an unacknowledged but very real and deadly side effect of strict gun laws; cops shooting other cops, believing they are perps.
Fortunately such incidents are still vanishingly rare, but if the antis manage to swing the civil rights pendulum back in their preferred direction I fear that we will start seeing more of these tragedies.
