“It’s just like if you got a credit card, you’re going to spend with it. If you’ve got a gun, you’re probably going to use it.” – Lt. John McKinnon, head of the Anchorage Police Department’s homicide division, quoted in New research offers window into Alaska’s high rate of gun deaths [via adn.com]
That may be true if you’re a committed felon or life long criminal. I’m assuming he has a gun, and doesn’t use it for evil purposes.
He and his fellow officers carry daily without becoming homicidal maniacs. What a ridiculous statement.
They enforce the unethical laws of the state, so of course they use their guns for evil. If not direct use, they are there for the the threat of violence that makes one even afraid to employ friendly humor for fear that they (the fuzz) will see that as less than submissiveness. You need to start earning that pen name again;-)
I second what APM said…
In spades. If the State is evil(it is) then ALL of its purposes are evil also.
Not that all of the States servants are evil. Many of its minions do a lot of good(usually w/o their bosses knowledge…) while still drawing a paycheck from the system. These words are on the evil of the SYSTEM, not necessarily the ones dependent upon it…
Notice the wording folks. “High rate of GUN DEATHS”. I’m betting almost everyone in Alaska owns at least one gun. Alaska has the highest suicide rate in our country. People choosing to end their lives are simply using the most effective tool available for the job. Which means they have a high rate of GUN deaths per capita.
I’m not advocating suicide, just pointing out how people twist numbers and statements to fit their agenda.
I actually went and read the article. Approximately 1,000 “gun deaths”. 3/4 of which were suicides. Conclusion? Guns are bad. Can anyone say straw man?
Don’t forget: If an armed home invader is shot and killed by a home owner, then that too is a “gun death.” I believe that Alaska has at least a slightly higher crime rate than average.
“It’s just like _______________” fill end the blank.
a fire extinguisher
a tourniquet
an AED (automated external defibrillator)
an atomic bomb
an epipen
Narcan naloxone spray
a spare tire
asthma inhaler
dive knife
(feel free to add)
a condom
I’ve been carrying daily, for over 12 years, and haven’t used it once. I must be a statistical anomaly.
Just like the millions of others who do so.
I have never purchased a firearm and not ‘used’ it within the same week….
However, I’ve never had to use one defensively… Only offensively at non-human reactive targets (mostly non-living reactive), and the occasional paper target…
Someone needs to take officer John McKinnons guns away immediately. He carries guns so he’s probably going to use them. He owns guns at home too – that probably means he is also going to use them!
More proof that the principal perk of being a leftist is that you need not let reality intrude on your worldview.
Yep. Freedom sucks guys! Somebody might die!
Maybe we should ban everything dangerous because the very few years we live during our lifetime must be maximized.
One presumes that McKinnon leaves home every day with a brain, also. And we see how that is working out.
It seems they must turn those in once they’re promoted into any position of authority.
He must be talking about criminals. I don’t know any law abiding citizen who owns and carry a gun thinking or wishing to shoot someone. Any individual with that train of thought should not be owning firearms.
This lieutenant is in the wrong job.
Lieutenant McKinnon just joined the Liberal Clown of the Week Club.
Congratulations!
I’m glad I don’t have to work for this incompetent man. This man is not a police officer.
I doubt he is liberal. I imagine that probably quite conservative in everything other than gun control. He is more likely just a control freak and or sucking up to someone.
I have an extra credit card that I carry with me. It’s for emergencies, such as if my regular card gets declined for unknown reasons or an unexpected repair bill.
I haven’t needed it yet. But I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
I’d bet willing to be Alaskas high “gun death rate” is inflated with mainly suicides.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Yes, high rates of gun ownership makes firearms a premier choice for suicides, and social isolation plus poor access to mental health care are a recipe for higher suicide rates.
I only carry a credit card so people can take it from me and use it against me.
I have been carrying a personal firearm for 17 years now. And 17 years I have had to draw it defensively against humans twice and against animals three times. Surprisingly enough (at least in the case of the animals(same neighbors dog 3 times)) i have never had to use it in the sense he seems to intend. Yet all 3 times i believe it was necessary to defend my life or the lives of others (my children). I know several LEO’s both personally and professionally and they all carry off duty and have never needed to “use” their firearm in that manner. carrying a firearm for personal defense is an insurance policy. If you need it you need it right then, not a month later. you don’t get insurance because you expect something to happen, you get it in case something happens. It is accepting responsibility for yourself and acknowledging that sometimes bad things do happen whether we want them to or not. Anyone who seeks to deprive you of an insurance policy is either deluding themselves or doesn’t care about your well-being, only their own
Many millions of people in the United States have fire extinguishers in their homes and/or vehicles. Does having a fire extinguisher virtually guarantee that someone will use it?
More relevant: Chief
WeenerMcKinnon’s statement implies that all uses of a firearm are bad. Just as it is extremely important and NOBLE to have AND USE a fire extinguisher at the right time, it is extremely important and NOBLE to have AND USE a firearm at the right time.His logic leads to the conclusion that if you have a fire extinguisher you are going to start a fire. You must be an arsonist.
He is what I believe is technically referred to as a “douche canoe”.
What is that old statement about keeping quiet and being thought a fool…?
And sometimes it’s better to just say “I don’t know.”
Study references “gun deaths” which is mostly suicides, especially in Alaska.
His statement does make sense for suicides.
152 homicides using a gun in a 6 year period. That’s a month in Chicago.
Between 2009 – 2015 “Some 750 were suicides. Homicides accounted for 152.
Of the remainder, 36 were determined to be accidental shootings.
In 32 cases, police used a firearm to kill a suspect, a category called “legal interventions” by researchers. The cause of the remaining 30 deaths couldn’t be determined.”
Hell ya I use it. I try to get to the range as often as possible.
Does that count? Oh, you mean using it for illegal purposes? Sorry, can’t help you as I’m like most law abiding gun owners.
Hmm…. If you have a knife you are more like to use it? But I haven’t read anywhere about the number of knife deaths in Alaska.
If you have a rope you are more likely to use it? But I haven’t read anywhere about rope deaths.
I haven’t read anywhere about pipe deaths. Baseball bat deaths. Car deaths.
So what, exactly, makes a gun so special that it needs special treatment under the law?
I religiously put between 10 and 20 dollars each month on both of my credit cards, and pay them off when they are due, as a way to build credit. I’m never even tempted to use them for anything else. You see, I have this thing called discipline. It is the same characteristic that makes me an excellent gun carrier, and it had a lot to do with why I am staunchly against the immediate gratification policies of the left.
Most progressives don’t grasp the concepts of self-control or delayed gratification – and they psychologically project that failure onto others.
One can most often identify an “anti-gunner” by the stupid statements they make.
“If you’ve got a gun, you’re probably going to use it.” Lt. John McKinnon.
That explains why Officer Michael Slager murdered Walter Scott. Thanks, McKinnon, for convincing us that cops should be disarmed.
That’s right kiddo. I carry a credit card in case I need to buy something. I carry a gun, in case I need to shoot something. Occurrences of the latter are far rarer than the former.
Lt. McKinnon is at best a moron and a worst a liberal liar. By his reasoning every LEO in Alaska is a potential homicidal maniac. I must be an anomaly as in the 40+ plus years I’ve been carrying a sudearm as well rifles and shotguns I’ve never had a desire to just shoot someone for no reason. However, Alaska is another story. It breeds mental illness as exemplified by Mr. McKinnon.
what a preposterous statement!
I keep a spare tire in all my cars; only had to use them twice (and those donuts scare me). I have a fire extinguisher in my kitchen and never had to use it. I’ve worn a life preserver while boating and am damn glad I’ve never had to rely on it.
Given this jerkwad’s mindset I certainly hope he doesn’t carry a condom in his wallet.
When some government OVERLORD makes statements like this, we all should stand tall and denounce them. This bitch works for the people!
The high number of gun deaths can be reduced by the Alaska government giving away free suicide pills to anyone over the age of 18 who wants them.
If you have a credit card, eventually you are going to use it – to buy a gun.
Has anyone checked to make sure this guy is actually the Cheif of Police in Anchorage, Alaska and not just a drunk tourist who’s actually Chief of Police in some burg in Massachusetts, New Jersey or California?
Either way, Alaska is a constitutional carry state with a gun ownership rate of about 58%. If having a gun somehow inevitably leads to criminal misuse, one would expect half the population to presently be incarcerated for having murdered the other half.
You shall know thine enemy by his absurd utterances, insane policy recommendations, shameless ignorance, and bold, oft repeated lies.
I’ll jump in here and defend Lt. McKinnon. I live in Alaska and know Lt. McKinnon personally. He is not some left-wing liberal nut. I think that what he is trying to say is that if a criminal decides to commit a crime and has a gun handy, that they will probably use the gun because it’s an effective way to commit a crime. Or that if someone decides to commit suicide and has a gun, they are going to use it for suicide. Criminals and the depressed use guns for the same reasons that law-abiding citizens use them: because they are effective.
The bottom line is that Alaska does not have a gun problem. Alaska has a suicide problem that is made worse by a substance abuse problem. Guns just happen to be plentiful and a common choice for criminals and the depressed.
Subtract the suicides from the “gun violence” number and there are only about 40 gun deaths per year for the entire state. Not that many, really.
From the article…
“* Firearm fatality rates were highest in Northern and Southwestern Alaska, also areas with high suicide rates.”
Translation: all the Native villages, where drug and alcohol abuse is rampant (we have to lock the Porta-Potties and tool storage on job sites out there because they drink hand sanitizer and shotgun cans of WD-40), mental illness is rampant and largely unaddressed. They have an EXTREMELY high suicide rate, largely due to the cultural differences. “White Alaska”, if you will, does not bear much resemblance, but we are lumped in with the statistics simply because we live here.
“….if you got a credit card, you’re going to spend with it.” That’s a description of someone who lacks impulse control, lives from paycheck to paycheck and has no savings. In such a case, the lieutenant is probably correct.
Who got paid for that phone-it-in research? How / why does Alaska put up with ignoramouses like this and why is he a paid police officer? Just the unanswered faulty logic alone makes you lose all confidence in their police.
And yet another LEO who thinks only cops should have guns…i think i see a trend developing.
Only a negligible percentage of LEO’s are anti-gun, and most are police Administrator’s in liberal strongholds like California or the People’s Republic of New Jersey where they must assimilate if they hope to advance their careers in the liberal democrat political environment that surrounds them.
Lt McKinnon’s opinion is most likely shared by only a minuscule percentage of LEO’s in the strongly pro-gun and liberty loving State of Alaska and the vast majority of his peers know that drug and alcohol abuse accounts for the high homicide and suicide death count in Anchorage.
In 2014, Alaska had the highest per capita number of residents on welfare of any state. Parts of Anchorage were slowly turning into a cesspool in the 90’s when I lived there. People who were career welfare recipients moved there to get a better standard of living than they got in other states. Gangs with roots in the lower 48 were starting to get established, and people in other parts of the state had taken to calling it Los Anchorage. I was glad to leave that city behind when I came back to VA.
The mind numbing idiocy in that quote by McKinnon is especially troubling when you consider that of all people a police homicide lieutenant knows all too well that Alaska’ s population has a disproportionately higher percentage of the population addicted to drugs or alcohol and that the vast majority of murders in Alaska are committed by addicts or criminals who according State and Federal law can’t legally possess a firearm in the first place.
Lt McKinnon’s ignorant credit card analogy was deceptively simplistic and conveniently ignores the reality that Alaska’s disproportionately high number of suicides are directly linked to the State’s drug and alcohol problem as well.
And Lieutenant McKinnon leaves home for work every day with a penis. Does that mean he is going to use it? Didn’t think so.
It’s the guns, and not the crippling poverty, horrible weather, drug addiction rates, or months-long periods of little to no sunlight, huh? Toss in limited human contact for many in the remote man-camp areas, as well.
Barn hit the nail on the head.
Why is that? He has a brain but he is not using it.
Unless he addresses how the guns in use are used, Lt McKinnon’s stat is just him objecting to sisters n everyone else, doin it for themselves.
I am indeed more likely to use a fire extinguisher, or a gun, if I have one, that’s the point. I’m way more likely to put out that fire if I have an extinguisher, than if I don’t. One more “use” and one more dead fire. The gun question isn’t if they are used, but when, by whom, and to what end.
I’ll be interested in Lt. McKinnon’s vaguely referenced, unspecific “gun deaths” statistic when I understand the number of *gun homicides* vs. murders prevented and assaults stopped. Until then he could be objecting to a tally of fires put out; damage prevented rather than caused.
The point of a defensive fire arm is to use it … when it’s needed.
uber logic fail
Please Do Not lump Los Anchorage in with the rest of Alaska. It’s closer to Los Angeles Far North or Seattle North. I’ve had an ACHP since at least 2010 and never pulled it once. Smart people limit their visits to Anchorage semi-annually or annually.
Nobody had more respect for law enforcement than I do.
That said, this Lt. McKinnon is an idiot. Look at all the CCW holders everywhere that carry daily and don’t ever use their firearm – those are evidentiary numbers and one can conclude facts from that evidence using reason. The bad Lt. needs to find a different line of work, as he is obviously unable to apply reason to evidence to determine facts – making him pretty much useless as an office. A police officer’s entire professional life is centered on using reason and evidence to determine the facts of a case or given situation. This guy gives a bad name to the outstanding men and women of his profession.
One credit card, zero balance.
I don’t actually own any guns due to an unfortunate boating accident on Lake Ontario right after the SAFE act was passed, but if I did, I definitely haven’t used any of them against another human being.
Condescending, arrogant, elitist, jerk. When he put on that badge he swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America AND of the State of Alaska.
When people like LT. McKinnon hold the authority to enforce law it is often at great risk to the republic. This guy believes it is his point of view and not the Constitution that should drive our land.
The vast, vast majority of lawful gun owners thankfully never use their firearm for a defensive purpose…that does not mean that we law abiding gun owners should be deprived the ability to defend our families and ourselves if ever necessary.
While he is at it Anchorage had better start seizing privately owned automobiles, kitchen knives and unregistered lumber since all of those take more lives each year than firearms.
Interesting side note: CCW holders as a population are more law abiding than sworn police officers. http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/10/report-concealed-carry-permit-holders-are-more-law-abiding-than-police/
Comments are closed.