I love me some tactical shotguns. They’re as close to a one-stop shot as you can get in a firearm. They’re perfect for making solid objects disappear in an explosion of bits. Don’t try that at home. Or in a police patrol car. OK, Austin, Texas police officers Shelly Holmstrom and Vincent Giles didn’t try to blow the bejesus out of their squad cars with their department-issued scatterguns, but by God they managed it. The video above features a rather confused performance in terms of preparing a shotgun for police duty. To be clear, a “cruiser ready” shotgun has a full magazine, an empty chamber and the safety on. “Call ready” means a full mag, chamber loaded, safety on. And “Shoot Ready” means a full magazine magazine with the chamber loaded and safety off. As always, a finger never goes on the trigger until it’s time to shoot. All that said, a one-day suspension for the officers and some TTAG IGOTD hardware ought to prevent future APD mishaps. Or not . . .
They should be forced to apologize to Austin taxpayers.
Wouldn’t be the first time, I’ll wager, and it won’t be the last.
Shit happens. Cops are only human after all, despite whatever nutbar claims to the contrary.
Nobody is arguing that officers are human and that mistakes happen.
The argument is how the same incident is treated depending if you are officer or Joe Citizen.
An officer gets a 1 day suspension and it is done. Joe Citizen, depending on the state, country or town/city and the whim of the DA, can loose his permit, get fined, go to jail and sometimes all 3 for the same mistake.
We are all human, we all make mistakes, but because they are LEO the consequences or those mistakes is treated differently — that is the one and only issue.
When people who work for the government are treated differently, how are they equally citizens?
As a simple case, when Malloy was elected governor in CT, a month or so later his wife was caught speeding. It was NOT until some reporter made a big stink that she was “forced” to pay the ticket to stave off any more public embarrassment. Either was all make the mistake of speeding and pay the fine, or nobody does — being the wife of the governor should NOT exclude you from getting the ticket or paying the fine — it is that type of unequal treatment which burns people.
So, yes, mistakes happen — but if a regular citizen has to pay a fine or go to jail, then the officer should to.
If the suspensions were longer, union reps would scream bloody murder. Public employees should never be allowed unionization as it removes accountability.
Here is and idea, any LEO that has a ND (is there such thing as an AD?), the following happens.
1. LEO is suspended for at least 1 week
2. LEO turns in duty firearm(s)
2. During that week, the LEO is required to sign up for firearm safety course for at least the for the type of firearm that they had an ND, out of their own pocket.
3. LEO is required to successfully pass a firearms safety course for handgun, rifle, shotgun (all three out of their own pocket) before their duty are returned to them.
4. If courses are not completed after 1 week, the LEO has a desk job until all courses are successfully passed, and is unable to be issued any firearm.
It’s a perfect solution to the problem of negligent discharges and it forces the person to be more aware of their responsibilities and their actions. That’s why the unions will never allow anything like this to be implemented.
1. LEO is suspended for at least 1 week without pay
FIFY.
Also, requiring the negligent officer to pay personally for repairs would go a VERY long way toward preventing NDs.
Are officers paid during suspensions?
I am so sick of seeing pictures of “evil black military assault-style weapons” in pictures every day in the news, along with the media foaming at the mouth. These guns still represent a small percentage of firearms that are owned and cherished by Americans for centuries. Yes, the “black rifle” has been popularized for decades now, and has been available to the general public for use since the 60’s. It’s here to stay for many reasons. How is it so evil?
And what is the penalty for a non-leo (AD/ND) shooting his own POV?
But remember ladies n gents, only cops should have guns because they’re properly trained.
ROTFLMFAO! 6 cops in 2 years! Wow. Just WOW!
Good Rule of Thumb: You can’t go calling Mother Jones and Gawker the sensationalist sites and in that same paragraph say that reddit’s own Gun Control Advocacy subreddit “dances with joy every time there’s a mass murder” while expecting people to take you seriously.
I’m fine with the coverage, but I think there’d be greater value if you broke down and debunked their arguments too. Point out and name the logical fallacies, cite correct factual numbers, stuff of that nature, that helps our cause when we point others to read articles here who may not already be in the know.
It’s called a lack of proper training. And only LEOs should have access to firearms, right?
I have a MUCH more sensitive, NATURAL [even organic!] way to control the deer population – re-introduce wolves, bears, and mountain lions to Long Island! Hey, the FedGov and greenies decided that Idaho needed Canadian wolves, so we got a bunch of them re-introduced here. They are now decimating our elk populations. And if the re-introduced predators eat a few Long Islanders, that’s just part of natural Darwinian selection, right? I mean, those folks keep voting for anti-gun politicians, right?
“Hey Vinnie, is the safety engaged on that shotgun”?
“I don’t know Shelly, let me check”
“Crap!, I guess not”
“What?, I can’t hear you Vinnie, I got a ringing in my ears.”
two things:
1) Robert clearly is making friends with the Austin PD and working on getting out of those speeding tixs as a professional courtesy
2) Austin is a liberal hippie enclave in Texas and the people are not paying enough in taxes if they can have 6 ND’s in 2 yrs on vehicles and no one (ie, training officer) gets fired. . . . .
I believe both of these to be untrue. But especially number 2. Austin has grown into San Francisco. We, as a city, are no longer hippies but now up tight, self absorbent, hipsters. Just look at our City Council. Unfortunately, we are becoming a small breeding ground for little Shannon Wattses, Watts’s, Watts’…Hell you know what I mean.
It’s not just Austin. When was the last time ANY cop was fired for negligent firearms handling that didn’t result in a death? This kind of thing happens all the time, everywhere, and nobody is ever really punished. There is almost no accountability at all levels in most police departments in this country.
Some states do consider a stripped AR lower an assault weapon. As of Oct 1, 2013 you cannot buy a stripped lower in Maryland. Since it can be built into a now banned “assault rifle” configuration they are banned. Stupid, but that’s the way it is.
Actually, that opinion was issued by a Federal Court, specifically the Eastern District of New York of the United States District Court. As a result, the opinion has no force of law in other jurisdictions, including Onondaga County, New York, which is in the Western District of New York.
Further, I don’t think any New York State Court has struck down the seven-round limit. It’s important to note that New York’s highest court is called the New York Court of Appeals, not the “Supreme Court.” Instead, New York’s trial and intermediate courts are called the “Supreme Court,” even though their opinions are not binding on the entire state. Only opinions issued by the New York Court of Appeal are binding on the entire state of New York.
Who’s gonna stop him?
Eric Holder?
Hahaha.
Besides, this is nothing new for New York State.They’ve been ignoring the FOPA since the Regean administration.Remember this next time some starry eyed idealist yaps about “National Reciprocity”. Even if the Feds passed such a law, the anti gun governments will ignore it.
Leftists/liberals will ALWAYS find a way to violate the law, your civil rights and your constitutional rights…if you give them an inch, they’ll stretch that out to eternity…
The anticipated “exposes” probably won’t tell you that the Guns Are Cool subreddit was founded by “violentacrez”, a/k/a Michael Brutsch, who’s mostly famous for being exposed (by Gawker) as the driving force behind a number of subreddits featuring, in Gawker’s words, “scantily-clad underage girls . . . of racism, porn, gore, misogyny, incest, and exotic abominations yet unnamed”, the last of those exotic abominations being an especially sarcastic and condescending flavor of gun control advocacy.
http://gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web
Its this kind of A$$hat that kinda makes me yearn for the days where a statist POS like this would be forcibly removed post haste, by the people whose rights they were attempting to suppress.
Notguiltfree will have Homeland Security knocking on his door (with a battering ram) in …3…2…1…
Well done sirs well done.
So the propaganda machine is working, anyone who isn’t wearing a uniform is now a criminal according to the uneducated public. I love how that lady’s story kept evolving, “oh, it’s a green jacket”….. just sad we have lost/losing the PR war with people who have no ****ing clue, most of America.
He’s right… to a point. And the sooner someone arrests someone in that district, the sooner it’ll get overturned there.
There were actually pictures I saw online that the woman took that were VERY clear, unlike the one used above. There’s been talk that this case is being hushed up and/or not worked properly. Take that as you will.
I fully agree that this is the type of incident that warrants DGU.
I admit to being an FNH fanboi. 😉
I’ll definitely consider picking up an FN-15.
I had no idea that there was an armslist section of reddit, and I think that is fantastic! Imagine if there was a gun classifeds section of the New York Times?
So the most read article in 2013 was one published on 12/23/2011…. that’s jacked up.
I actually knew Fitzpatrick when I lived in Syracuse. He was a pretty nice guy when he was running for DA. Didn’t think he’d turn out to be an asshole. Sad.
While it may take Chuck a while to get someone to answer for this mess, it WILL happen. I believe he has a bit of a hard on for Holder, so just be patient. This subject was brought up @ one of his last Town Hall meetings and he is still pissed. Stay tuned.
I’d store them somewhere else, or bury the magazines in the back yard, disassemble the rifle, and bury the lower receiver.
So this is what a herd of lemmings looks like? Who knew.
I think it’s easy for us to sit in our homes in TX, WY, SC and other free states and say “hell no, I wouldn’t comply!”
I wonder how many people in CT said that before last year.
And yet, there they stand.
I think I’m in the camp of people who’d minimally comply with the law or store most of my guns with family out of state until I could get the hell out.
In Washington, all handguns are registered upon purchase from the dealer so most of our handguns are well documented. Would expect long arms will soon follow.
thinking caching should become a common art form
Ironically when I worked as a bike messenger CCW wasn’t at all practical. Another irony I wouldn’t buy that bag now that I can CCW. I’d rather deal with someone like Dank Bags out of Seattle, it would cost three times as much at least but besides having the gun stuff set up to order it would have room for a case of beer and/or ammo and last for years.