What is it with cops who can’t keep up with their weapons? First they find a cop’s gun in a Florida movie theater crapper. Then another one leaves his in the facilities at a New York state park. Now, from Monroeville, Pennsylvania, we hear of a search for a service weapon and taser that were lost when the officer put his duty belt on his truck as he changed in the police department parking lot for the drive home, then drove home. (Note to Police Chief of Monroeville: Please include building a locker room at the station in your next budget request.) When the officer got home he realized the belt was missing. Retracing his route, he found the belt and “some of the attached items,” but not his .45 or taser. The officer, who’s a new hire and still on probation, may be subject to disciplinary action. But “the gun has been registered as stolen, and possessing it would be a felony.” Perhaps it should be a felony for a LEO to lose a service weapon as well. Meanwhile elsewhere . . .
In RF’s now former home of Rhode Island, the 2013 legislative session adjourned without taking action on any of the assault weapon or hi-cap mag bans that Governor Lincoln Chafee and his minions tried to push through. Other proposals to change the way handgun permits are awarded or charge a $100-per-gun registration fee also fell by the wayside. It appears that the protests held by gun rights supporters were instrumental in keeping these bills on ice. The lawmakers did manage to make laws to increase jail time for carrying a stolen firearm while committing a violent crime and to make it illegal to possess a gun with a destroyed serial number, and agreed to “create a task force to study” adding mental health information to background checks.
In Clarksville, Arkansas, some teachers and staff members will be allowed to carry firearms when school resumes in August. The newly formed Emergency Response Team members “are learning tactics similar to those used by law enforcement, like defensive techniques, legal use of force and shooting, all with an emphasis on safety and accuracy.” Once trained, armed staffers will complete a refresher course each summer. The ERT isn’t there to take the place of the school resource officer or the local PD, but “enhance their capability to keep students and staff safer” by “responding to any dangerous situations within seconds, while police officers are still en route to the school.”
Some insurance companies are trying to extort colleges in Kansas to ban concealed carry in public buildings by raising rates or canceling coverage. Three Kansas community colleges are taking action of their own by dropping their current company and forming an insurance consortium. Independence Community College trustee David Wallis thinks this trend is going to spread. “I truly believe when the word gets out that there is an option, that this team will be joined by K-12, municipalities and universities across Kansas.”
We’re all aware of the sheriffs in Colorado who are standing up to the governor and opposing the gun control laws there. As state officials in South Carolina start making similar noise about gun control, sheriffs there are speaking out as well. Reader BradM tells us “This is my hometown. Now under fire from NE libs who’ve moved down to SC who think they’ll help us ignorant Southerners by fixing our town. They’ve screwed up the NE with high taxes and higher crime but now feel they can help us out with more of the same. The big three counties and their elected (read: will of the people) Sheriffs on one side (2A) and the politically appointed City of Charleston on the other.”
If you’re going to fall asleep with a handgun in your lap, don’t do it with your finger anywhere near the trigger. This is a lesson hard earned by an unnamed Mitchell, South Dakota man. He was sitting “in a lawn chair on the back porch of his residence” and dozed off holding a loaded handgun “when a family member turned on the porch light and opened a nearby door.” This startled him and he “woke up and unintentionally pulled the handgun’s trigger and shot himself” in the midsection. He was very lucky in that 1) he didn’t shoot someone else; and 2) he didn’t have the gun pointed lower. His injuries were reported as “minor” and the State’s Attorney is waiting for the results of the investigation to decide whether to file charges.
The reason there are so many cops losing their firearms is because there are so many cops. If we abandoned the “War on Drugs” and treated minor (revenue enhancing) traffic violations the same way we treat, say, rape (show up after the fact, take a statement and file it in file #13) we could lay off 90% of our civilian police force. Hopefully we’d have the wherewithal to keep on the best (least likely to leave their firearms unattended) 10% and incidences like these would be reduced to near zero. We could use the “peace dividend” to pay down the national debt.
I always leave the chamber empty when I sleep with my firearms. I just hope I don’t inadvertently take up sleepwalking.
Are your firearms amorous when you sleep with them?
And if you have many firearms you would be polyamorous.
I like it; a virtual harem.
Well I’ve never had the urge to “stick a round in the pipe” if you know what I mean, but if I did I’d have to take up sleeping with a 10 gauge.
you’re so cute when you’re ignorant.
The insurance companies aren’t “extorting” the Kansas schools. They’re making a cold blooded actuarial decision based on risk and liability. It’s not pro-gun or anti-gun. It’s pro-money, weighing the increased risk versus the chance that one of these amateur, minimally trained teacher/security guards will reduce liability during the astronomically rare event of a mass shooting.
really? do they have tables for that? Seeing how there is such little data they are swag’ing at best.
You may be right, but you’re making the wild assumption that humans in the insurance industry are immune to letting their emotions and politics interfere with their professional duties. No other group of humans have such immunity so gun owners are right to question their integrity when they make such assumptions without providing any empirical evidence.
In other words, it’s a knee jerk, risk averse, anti gun response.
Ya think?
Their integrity is primarily in direct relation to how much money they think they can make or loose.
BTW, I’m basically in agreement with what you state, Gov.
Really? Go back and read the post again. Teachers in Arkansas can be armed; in Kansas, the only issue is whether the campuses ban concealed carry, presumably by the public/qualified students. The question then, from an actuarial standpoint, is what if any is the increased of injury caused by a student or third person caused by carrying a concealed firearm? The only statistics I have ever seen about CCW carriers is that they tend to be more law-abiding than the general population, i.e., present less of a risk of harm…. So this is politics, perceptions of risk, and fear, not actuarial analysis.
As someone who works with statistical models, I can say that you’re completely wrong. They are not making these decisions based on actual risk data, they are making them based on personal agendas and using the fact that many people believe possessing a gun is inherently “dangerous” to pretend this is a legitimate business decision.
Balogna. Here is a simple breakdown. Insurance companies decide there is X amount of risk of negligent discharges at universities that totally ban firearms. And why do they conclude X level of risk? Because the universities have a rule that bans firearms and the insurance companies assume that everyone will follow the rule. And yet absolutely nothing stops any student, faculty, or staff member from bringing a firearm to school other than a rule.
So, if insurance companies are totally happy with a rule that makes negligent discharges impossible, then they should be equally happy with a university rule that requires all students, faculty, and staff to keep their handguns in a properly fitting holster that covers the trigger — because it is impossible for a handgun in that configuration to discharge.
If someone wants to argue that someone carrying a handgun could ignore the rule to keep their handgun holstered, the same argument applies to rules that ban guns completely: anyone can ignore those rules as well.
I’m flat calling BS. . . as someone who both knows a little about actuarial tables and someone who has a passing understanding of institutional insurance there is definitely a bias involved. First, as already indicated, no such tables exist (especially since this hasn’t been tried in at least 100 years). More importantly there often exist liability waivers for terrorist acts and or acts of war in institutional policies. Which is to say the company doesn’t pay if the place gets shot up. Thus they do have a monetary incentive to raise rates or deny insurance to institutions that allow effective resistance, however their decision is depraved. It really is cheaper for the insurance company to let a lunatic shoot the place up than to insure the employees of the institutions for liability if they fight back. It might not be political, but it sure is disgusting and worthy of derision.
Monroeville is where George A. Romero shot NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD. Just sayin’.
I have “people” in that general neck of the woods. Suffice to say that the overall populace there doesn’t have the average mental capacity to have a unique (nay, intelligent) thought. They still think the steel mills are coming back for the most part.
Wow, talk about generalization…I live just across the County line from Monroeville and the Police Station does have locker rooms. Why this asshat was changing off his belt outside the station and forgot about his rig leads one to assume he doesn’t belong on the force. As for believing that this part of Western Pennsylvania is stuck in the 70’s you could not be more in the wrong. Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities are going through a high tech rennaissance. This town is very unlike what it was 20 or 30 years ago. So get up to speed rather than casting broad generalizations. Or if you cannot, maybe it is you who are swimming in the same gene pool as your “people.”
Defeating most of the gun bills was a good win for RI gun owners, but that task force for examining gun laws and mental health policies is going to be a Pandora’s Box. I was glad to be part of the “Gun Control Doesn’t Work” crew, giving testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee at 2AM and I had a class at 8. I hope I don’t have to go back next year, but I will if I need to.
Thank you for your dedication and hard work!
I like what’s happening in Kansas. Free market in action. If you don’t offer what consumers want at the price that they want it, they will find other options.
Keep your booger hook off the bang switch. Especially when taking a nap.
Or, you could make a point to only nap with your Nagant. “Napping with Nagants.” Indeed, it’s got quite the ring to it…
How can a lost weapon be classed as stolen?Rhode Island does have some strict gun control but at least they didn’t infringe anymore than what they already have.good for Arkansas!Kansas it’s the money!Glad the Sheriff’s are standing up for the folk’sthat put them in office,seems like a lot of politicians are forgetting this!I agree take that finger off the trigger,yeah really good thing he didn’t hit lower or he would be singing soprano now!Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.
I think the term is “castratto” lol.
he (cop) must have been reading TTAG when this happen….that has to be it….
“Bang, Bang, Bang”, another school shooting? Nope. It’s the CEO of the insurance company banging his head on his desk when he realizes that they not only lost a bunch of customers (& revenue), but a bunch of customers that very effectively lowered their risk.
I have to believe that a university pays out something like $333,000 a year in liability premiums. Now that three universities have cancelled their policies, that’s about $1 million annually that the insurance company/ies will no longer receive. I imagine losing $1 million in annual revenue will get someone’s attention. If we are lucky, it might even get someone fired — like the CEO.
Yet where there are laws restricting magazines or what not, cops are exempt…because they have magic special training…that once a year shooting at 25 feet a 2 foot wide target really must be magical…because most civillian gun owners have better training than that.
Education is a good thing for David Wallis to get into since he got the boot at Dunder Mifflin.
I live in Clarkville, AR. I’d no idea our local school was forming an ERT among the teachers. Good on ’em.
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