Cops gun deaths........

[russ1943]

Shooting deaths: 'None of it makes sense' April 26, 2009 - 4:24 PM
The events that led to the shooting deaths of two Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies Saturday began in a small top-floor apartment in Fort Walton Beach - with an argument over a tube of Clearasil.
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/cartwright_16963___article.html/elizabeth_deputies.html


A Surge in Cop Killings By Siobhan Morrissey/Miami Friday, Sep. 28, 2007
Not only are officer shootings up, but the number of multiple deaths is also on the rise this year, says memorial fund president Craig Floyd. In the first nine months of 2007 there were six cases of more than one officer gunned down during the same shooting spree, up from just one in all of last year.
In fact, two of the six multiple death shootings of officers in 2007 occurred in Texas.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1666750,00.html?xid=rss-nation

3 officers slain responding to call, Pittsburgh police chief says. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/04/pittsburgh.officers.shot/


Officers known to have been shot and killed on duty and date they died just in Florida since Sept 07. include;
Police Officer Alfred L. Gordon Sr. Orlando Police Department Florida Thursday, October 4, 2007
Deputy Sheriff Paul Rein Broward County Sheriff's Office Florida Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Detective James Merry Walker Miami Police Department Florida Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Police Officer Andrew Allen Widman Fort Myers Police Department Florida Friday, July 18, 2008
Deputy Sheriff Anthony E. Forgione Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office Florida Tuesday, July 22, 2008

(K9 Police Dog "Oozi" Broward County Sheriff's Office, Florida Thursday July 17, 2008 Age: 7-1/2)

Corrections Officer Mark Parker Orange County Sheriff's Office Florida Thursday, March 19, 2009 (succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained on January 10, 1984)

Of course that doesn’t include those officers injured and didn’t die on duty, nor officers killed by any other means.


So far in the
2000s, an average of 59 officers have died in shootings each year. A major reason for the
declining number of officers killed by firearms has been the increasing use of bullet resistant
vests, which have been credited with saving the lives of more than 3,000 officers
over the last 20 years, according to the IACP/DuPont Kevlar Survivors Club.


http://www.ais-sim.com/pdf/news/080106_officers_killed_by_guns.pdf

[russ1943]

1. Another one.

Deputy hurt in Headland shooting still critical
(Published April 26, 2009)
HEADLAND, Ala. — A man accused of shooting a police officer to death and wounding a Henry County sheriff's deputy before being killed in his back yard apparently had stopped taking anti-psychotic drugs, authorities said.

Fred Davis, 53, was shot and killed near his trailer as law officers swarmed to the scene in rural southeast Alabama on Friday afternoon following gunfire that killed Headland Police Officer Dexter Hammond and wounded Deputy Ted Yost.

http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/543401.html

[benEzra]

2. Some perspective:

Any officer death is a tragedy, but beware of those looking to sensationalize the issue to push their own pet agenda.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-09-police-deaths_N.htm

Police deaths plummet in first half of '08

WASHINGTON — Police officer deaths plunged to their lowest midyear total in 43 years after an unusually deadly year for law enforcement officers, says a report released today by a national police advocacy group. The review reflects declines in all major categories of officer fatalities, including traffic accidents and shootings, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found.

Overall deaths declined from 100 to 59 in the first six months of 2007 compared to the same period this year. The number of overall deaths is the lowest since 1965, when 55 officers were killed.

Midyear shooting deaths fell from 38 in 2007 to 21 this year, the lowest number since 1960, when 18 officers were killed by gunfire.

The FBI LEOKA data may be accessed via the FBI Uniform Crime Reports page www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm#leoka, and I'll link to the NLEOMF 2008 data below.

From the summaries from the press releases page:

2006: 46 gun-related murders (35 handgun, 8 rifle, 2 shotgun, 1 unknown type)

2007: 55 gun-related murders (38 handgun, 8 rifle, 9 shotgun, 0 unknown type)

Since practically all "assault weapons" would be in the rifle category, it is instructive that the 2006-to-2007 increases were all in in the handgun and shotgun categories; rifle murders didn't increase at all, despite the MSM hysteria in 2007, which they're repeating this year.

Link to the NLEOMF 2008 figures here (PDF file).

Preliminary 2009 data here: http://www.nleomf.com/TheMemorial/facts.htm

Rifle handgrips that stick out aren't the threat to police officers that some would like to portray them. It would be instructive to treat Brady/MSM pronouncements on the issue with the same skepticism one would use for an NRA press release.

[DonP]

4. Darn you anyway

You just ruined what I'm sure was going to be a long, utterly uninformed, rant on how "assault weapons" are killing our police.

Now they'll have to shift to the variant of "If it just save one policeman" angle and see if that works.

Good data that many of us will spread around when we find the opportunities.

[jeepnstein]

5. Don't let the facts stop you.

Just let it roll. Use your emotions, make a powerful statement of how this affects you on a deeply personal level. If anyone brings up mere facts you can always accuse them of just being mean.

[Caliman73]

6. I don't begrudge anyone their emotions in response to tragedy

I think that it does make us appear callous even though we tend to suffer along with everyone else when criminals assault our symbols of law and order. Police are out there trying to enforce the social contract and they have a tough job. Criminals have little respect for the social contract or for their fellow human beings. That makes the police's job that much more dangerous.

What I agree with my fellow gun owners on is that the solution presented by proponents of gun control is incorrect. They seem to focus on one implement with which criminals operate instead of tackling the motivators for crime in the first place. I think it is more than the economy. There are factors such as race, socio-economic status, and personal characteristics that influence people's choices to commit crimes and violence that go beyond the current state of the economy.

Emotions do get in the way of having a discussion about what might really work to decrease the problem of violence.

[DonP]

7. Good point

While my previous post had my tongue planted firmly in cheek, it would be nice if we could all just share in the sense of loss of cops who did their best trying to keep their city and people safer.

Emotions are bound to run high after a tragedy of such proportions and people need to vent their feelings. My issue is with people that go beyond venting and decide that their POV needs to be codified into law immediately and applied to all of us, regardless of the facts. Shot with a handgun? - call for a rifle ban! Shot by a convicted felon? - call for law abiding gun registration.

I watched a thread up in GD two weeks ago about some recent killings in the Chicago area of a grandmother, father and teen aged daughter and the critical condition of the mother. Posters went on a rant about the desperate need for more gun control for over 100 posts - before someone pointed out that the criminal had stabbed and slashed all three, no guns were involved. Did any of them recant or even say "never mind"? Of course not. It's totally irrational and that doesn't make for good public policy.

For all the typical raving about the "Heartless NRA" it's always seems to be the gun grabbers favorite hero Sara Brady/Tom Diaz et. al. that comes out with a fund raising e-mail less than 24 hours after tragedies like this. That's just damn cold.

I got two e-mails from Brady less than 24 hours after Virginia Tech asking for donations before the facts were known, that's pretty typical of them.

[Caliman73]

9. I agree with you.

I get your tongue in cheek comment. My own strategy is never to give the opposing side anything to attack you with. Their irrational insistence in their position is already enough to keep the arguments raging on. I would prefer not to give them even a bit of a toe hold to call gun owners "unfeeling". I feel that any death is tragic and while I do not dwell on the deaths of criminals who were killed while trying to victimize others, it is still a tragedy that they felt they had no choice but to steal or kill their families and themselves.

As I said, the problem with Brady and their ilk is that they are trying to stop violence the same way the Temperance movement tried to stop alcoholism and related problems through Prohibition. They broad brush attack rather than trying to get to the root causes of the problems and working those solutions.

[DonP]

8. I was being facetious (ntxt)

[jeepnstein]

10. Me too.

[jeepnstein]

3. It's the Economy, stupid...

I fully expect to see an uptick in violence for the next year or two. As folks who barely were able to function in a good economy start to drop out the bottom they will make a statement. Most of it will be over the dumbest things imaginable.

[malti_poo]

11. Cop gun deaths....?

Were the cops' guns killed? If a cop is killed by a BG with a club do we have "cop club deaths"?

[krispos42]

12. 95% of all murders are done in single-victim incidents

The recent spate of shootings, while horrific, will not change this statistic to any degree.


The surge of police deaths will, though :-(