Gun guru John Farnham writes [via ammoland.com]: The video above features the theme song from The Lawman. The TV series ran from 1958-1962, starring Dan Russell. The song put into words the ideal that persuaded me that I was born to be a cop. That’s the image that I aspired to. “Lawman” was the title I bore with a fierce pride, and still do.

Those principles of personal honor and duty are now obsolete, I’m told by liberal friends. The loss is illustrated by the events of 23 Sept 16 in Washington State, when an elected sheriff found himself unarmed and unable to protect himself, his wife and five other innocent citizens. Citizens shot to death by a Turkish-born murderer at the Cascade Mall in Burlington.

Island County Sheriff Mark Brown wasn’t carrying a gun that day, and thus found himself every bit as helpless as the rest of the herd of clueless sheep wandering about the mall. In the aftermath, our sheriff pathetically bleated: “I wish that I had been armed and proactively done something…”

“The expectation people have on police officers in these situations is that they’re immediately going to solve the situation and not having the ability to do that is certainly frustrating,” Brown said in an interview with KOMO News.

Our “sheepdog” was asleep at the switch! But, like all self-righteous hypocrites, he’s now doing his best to “ justify” his personal cowardice and incompetence. He is a disgrace to our profession, and our Code. He should resign in shame and go back to eating grass, but in our “enlightened” era, he’ll be praised by our liberal, gun-hating media.

For those few sheepdogs among us who still take our oath and Code seriously, going armed is not an “option.” It is a way of life. “Lawman” is not what we do. It is who we are!

/John

About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent and unlawful lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance, if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or inactions.

It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com

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32 COMMENTS

  1. While I don’t disagree that he should have been armed while off duty, I would think it would take more than just not carrying a gun to make a gun zero post, cop or not.

    • Being a career LEO, the Sheriff would have been sufficiently exposed to how the real world works. He should have known better. Asleep on watch.

  2. Of course he should have had a gun. And the whole moose-lim angle sure disappeared quickly didn’t it? I have watched a bit of Lawman. Like Rifleman and some other old west TV that world is gone-but he sure had some cheekbones.

    • “A Sheriff with a badge and NO firearm????? ”

      Progressive Utopia.

      For the children, and the feelz…

    • In a department of any size, the Sheriff/Chief is just an administrator.
      They shouldn’t carry firearms unless they pass qualifications every six months, and I’m sure the vast majority never go to the range to try.

      Do we really expect LE officials like Mark Brown or Loretta Lynch to take down a terrorist like they were the stars of an action movie?

      EDIT: but if Brown is just an official and not a cop, perhaps he could just skip the brown shirt with the shiny star on the front.

      • In the early 1970s, the attorney general for the state of Kansas was an eccentric named Vern Miller. He was known for raiding illegal gambling operations and argued successfully before the US Supreme Court to force airlines not to serve liquor while flying over dry Kansas. Miller used to go into the field with local LEOs to catch cattle rustlers. On a night stakeout, he popped out of a car trunk and shotgunned a rustler.

      • The previous Sheriff in my county served for over thirty years. He led a department with a $6 million budget and over fifty officers under his command. He was an administrator who wasn’t out running radar or apprehending bad guys.

        He dressed casually, donning a uniform only for official ceremonies, and he ALWAYS CARRIED. You might see him in the grocery store, at a funeral visitation or a local restaurant. His gun was always strapped on. Like any good leader, he was setting the right example for his subordinates.

      • Do we really expect LE officials like Mark Brown or Loretta Lynch to take down a terrorist like they were the stars of an action movie?

        Yes. I expect that of any citizen.

  4. “For those few sheepdogs among us who still take our oath and Code seriously, going armed is not an “option.”

    All citizens want is to have the same opportunity to lawfully protect as law enforcement does. Arm citizens are a force multiplier against active murderer.

    Nov 9th

  5. John Russell, not Dan.
    Yes, a cop should always be armed. A perp might have a beef with him and stalk him.

    • I’ll respectfully disagree.
      The sheep/sheepdog/wolf analogy accurately describes most societies throughout history. The problem is, and has always been, to the sheep – the sheepdogs still look a lot like wolves.

      • What what are sheepdogs other than servants of the shepherd, who’s only interest is to slaughter the sheep for market? Yeah, you’re right, maybe “sheepdog” IS the right term for cops. The shepherd being the government, essentially. Either way, if you’re a sheep, you’re screwed.

        • I like your point. Probably no justification for it, but your comment brought to mind an old axiom of the jungle: “If you are a Tiger, when the sun comes up you will spend the day running to catch your dinner. If you are a Gazelle, when the sun comes up you will spend the day running to avoid becoming dinner for the Tiger. Either way, when the sun comes up, you better be running.”

        • What what are sheepdogs other than servants of the shepherd, who’s only interest is to slaughter the sheep for market?

          Shepherds, just like governments FLEECE the sheep again and again before selling them.

      • If you knew anything about sheepdogs, you’d know that they often attack the flock on their own anyway.
        So, yeah. Good analogy.

  7. he tried to justify himself by saying that he was out of his primary area of jurisdiction, and thus did not carry a firearm off duty. Surely he knows, as a Washington state law enforcement officer, his law enforcement commission extends throughout the entire state, he has statutory powers of arrest in circumstances such as this anywhere in the state of Washington.

    It still stuns me that even in our current environment, when I speak with law enforcement officers about being unarmed when they are off duty, they do not want to intervene, they instead want to be a “good witness. ” Frankly, I would rather be an armed, alive, good witness, compared with and unarmed, defenseless, potentially dead witness

  8. Well, did Sheriff Mark Brown get home safe that night? Because that’s all that really matters, isn’t it.

  9. Personally,I believe it’s fine if Law Enforcement is Disarmed…It’s a “Right of the People to keep and bear arms…” Not Government agents…” Once that’s re-established…Then remove the police unions from public service…No more special privileges, “so called Carve-outs”, or extra rights by job title, or status…Bring full independent accountability into full swing…Privatize the whole lot…Town-guardsmen, limited intermediate arms—except a c/o. ….

  10. Let’s be honest. There truly are several among us who cannot be responsibly armed in public. I would dare go so far as to say that maybe as many as 5 out of 6 people in public cannot be responsibly armed. (Remember, those people in public who cannot be responsibly armed include the likes of children, elderly, people with physical or mental disabilities, and good old fashioned adults who are simply irresponsible.)

    The good news is that something like 1 out of 6 people in public can be responsibly armed … and are more than adequate to provide near perfect “herd immunity”.

    The problem is getting all those capable people to embrace their minimal obligation to look out for the interests of others and tool up.

  11. so basically what John is saying is that according him anyone who puts on a badge, IS the law. you could not be anymore wrong. THAT is an attitude that lead to the Nazi’s. that ANYTHING they do while wearing a badge, is acceptable. even cold-blooded murder. got a badge? means your above the law to people like him.

  12. The most recent past sheriff of Harris County Texas, Adrian Garcia would have been similarly unarmed. He left his service pistol unsecured on a table in his home during the day. No alarm system. No gun safe. A burglar stole his pistol. Garcia next ran for mayor and lost.

  13. Where I live people even open carry at the post office and nobody says anything–a very large percentage carry & carry everywhere–crime very low, only stupid outsiders stupid enough to try something cause issues, which are quickly resolved

  14. The guy was off duty. It’s none of your business whether he carries on his personal time. Every day in here, the atmosphere is dismissive of the police for being corrupt, incompetent, or at least not being inhumanly everywhere at every moment. Thus, the need to protect yourself (although you have the right regardlese of your need). So now you want to extend responsibility for your safety to the sherrif even when he’s off duty, too? Why, so you can make fun of him even more? Why not ridicule some of those other jackwagons walking around unarmed? Oh, he’s a LEO? So what? That doesn’t matter. Yiuvare your own first responder. Those mall goers showed up unarmed; they left themselves vulnerable.

    • I think the derision stems from a person who actually is a firearm owner, who went about after duty hours without a firearm, and is now lamenting (whinning) that he feels bad that he didn’t believe he needed one off-duty.

  15. Law enforcement by Island County Sheriff Mark Brown is lackadaisical at best, to begin with. This is the man who refuses to deal with the issue of aggressive, violent dogs in his county. Specifically, a particular dog was reported to sheriff’s deputies (there are official reports filed) 3 times within one year without the dog’s owners even being given a citation. Then the aggressive dog in question grabs a neighbor’s dog from their front doorstep and kills it in front of them.

    12% of the incidents reported regarding aggressive/violent dogs in Island County are made against repeat offenders, yet nothing is done about them. Sheriff Brown’s response to the news team investigating the incident? “Deputies routinely handle animal complaints and in most cases, forward the information to our Animal Control Officer Carol Barnes for her information and/or follow-up,” Brown wrote in an email. “As to the question, ‘Is enough being done?’ This is a matter of opinion.” I suppose enforcement of the law is still going to be ‘a matter of opinion’ when a child is injured or killed.

    Island County Washington is a beautiful area, but beware if you visit, you’re on your own there.

    http://www.king5.com/news/local/investigations/owners-of-dog-killed-in-attack-blame-negligence-part-1/438021547

    http://www.king5.com/news/local/investigations/owners-of-dog-killed-in-attack-blame-negligence/437970527

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