U.S. Cop Fatalities Rise 13 Percent. DOJ Jefe Holder Blames Guns

1. You’ve got to have brass balls to take that table and spin it to your liking. A 15% increase is BAD, and it’s directly related to the gun availability you believe in and that you fight so hard for.

   Your patronizing remark that “While every human life is precious” doesn’t work here any better than it does when we talk about kids getting shot with daddy’s gun. The point is not how small a percentage these tragedies are but that they are largely preventable.

   • “The point is not how small a percentage these tragedies are but that they are largely preventable.”

     Well, that’s your point. And I disagree with your statement that firearms-related police shootings are “largely” preventable.

     Absent any statistical definition of that word, or proof that gun control has any impact on officer shootings whatsoever, it’s hard to take your suggestion seriously.

     If we abandon fact and wander in to the realm of “common sense” (i.e. pure conjecture), you need to ask yourself what would we give up to reduce this number?

     Perhaps even you would admit that there are SOME effective indeed life-saving defensive gun uses by legally armed civilians. How can you crack down on illegal guns through gun control without limiting legal gun ownership and the benefits thereof? Look at New York City, Detroit and LA. Stringent gun laws. A largely disarmed population. And PLENTY of illegal gun use (including cop shootings).

     Some 40k American die in traffic accidents each year. Yet we “accept it”, balancing the carnage against driving’s personal freedom and economic benefits. One hundred and seventy-three cops got shot this year (I’d like to see more data on the guns involved BTW). Is that really cause enough to abridge our constitutional rights and endanger the personal freedom and safety of millions of Americans?

     I think not.

     • Oh, pleeease leave the traffic accidents out of it.

       I say you could use simple common sense and agree that making guns less available to bad guys would directly impact on whatever gun violence we’re looking at.

       And the cost to your precious rights is minimal.

       • Of the 56 victim officers, 38 were wearing body armor at the times of their deaths. Sixteen of the victim officers fired their own weapons, and seven officers attempted to use their own weapons. Seven victim officers had their weapons stolen; seven officers were killed with their own weapons.
         http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-preliminary-statistics-for-law-enforcement-officers-killed-in-2010

         12.5% of officers killed by firearms were killed by their own guns in 2010. Not a marginal number. Your delusional conclusion of gun control saving lives is exactly that. Even if gun sales were completely banned BGs will find a source or even craft their own firearms.
         Gun violence is a “fight fire with fire” situation. The more commonplace guns are in society, the less likely a would be criminal will risk a direct confrontation with would be victims. It still amazes me that persons of your mindset can come to the conclusions that they do.

       • MIKE, Mike, Mike,

         Robert Farago said several things in his reply, but you seem to have only heard one of those things. So I will try again to state Robert’s second point clearly for you.

         You said, ” … you could use simple common sense and agree that making guns less available to bad guys would directly impact on whatever gun violence we’re looking at.” “And the cost to your precious rights is minimal.”

         I have to ask you what “common sense” method you think will be effective at “making guns less available to bad guys” without completely eliminating my “precious right” to self-defense (by keeping and bearing arms) that is protected by the 2nd Amendment.

         Even in Mexico, the U.K, and every other country with near complete bans on guns, the criminals are still killing and robbing WITH GUNS. There is nothing you can do that will stop gun violence or even seriously curtail it, because there is nothing you can do that will stop criminals from getting guns. NOTHING!

         PLEASE, when an argument has been completely debunked over and over and over, please stop using that argument. You’re smarter than that.

         • No he’s not!

         • “You’re smarter than that,” is one of the those condescending bullshit phrases, usually employed by two-bit conmen who know they don’t have the goods.

           I’ll humor your request even though half the commenters on this site know how I feel about this already. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention.

           “I have to ask you what “common sense” method you think will be effective at “making guns less available to bad guys” without completely eliminating my “precious right” to self-defense (by keeping and bearing arms) that is protected by the 2nd Amendment.”

           Let’s take one. Straw purchasing. We agree, I assume that straw purchasing does provide bad guys with guns, right?

           http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-we-need-gun-registration.html

           Here’s the crux of it:

           Registration of newly bought firearms to individual licensed owners would largely put a stop to this. The new gun owner would have to renew that registration after three months and every year thereafter by presenting the documents and the gun itself to the police.

           A law like that, properly enforced would cut down on straw purchasing by 87% in the first year. The second year it would be over 90%.

           It will surprise no one that I made up those percentages.

       • Poor Mikeb refuses to acknowldge the following facts about those that kill cops.

         http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/killed/2009/data/table_46.html

         Yet the goverment & BATF refuse to enforce the background check more than 1% of the time letting over 99% of 930,000 felons and 750,000 others who were rejected since 1994 go free.

         So why isn’t MikeB slamming on the failure by his uber god Big Brother to enforce the existing laws?

       • Mike, Bloomberg came out blaming the “illegal gun” for the killing of a NYPD officer last week instead of the judge who released the shooter despite having a NC warrant for him related to another shooting in NC. This shows Bloomberg’s willingness to:
         A: blame the gun first.
         B: deflect blame away from screw ups by people working for the system (in this case two cops and a judge).
         C: deflect blame away from the criminal.

         During Bloomberg’s presser he laid the blame at the feet of Ruger, not the shooter! He said nothing about how they had the shooter in custody before the cop was killed and released him despite the fact the shooter was wanted for another shooting in another state!

         New York City has decided to attack crime by attacking the citizen’s freedom. Texas attacks crime by allowing responsible adult citizens to carry concealed weapons and allowing juries to sentence killers to death. I and Patrick Henry think you are on the wrong track with your thinking. If you have a way to prevent felon’s from using guns that does not impact the responsible citizen then I suspect Robert, myself, and most of the gun rights community will support it. However, time and time again the effort has been to restrict firearms and not the felon. This is the easy route and the wrong road. People have a right to own guns and to carry them. The right is a civil right. This is the program and you would benefit by getting with it.

         • You know, as much as you’d like it, and as often as you guys keep repeating it, Bloomberg did not blame the gun. He understands very well that an inanimate object cannot be blamed for anything.What you may be referring to is the fact that “gun availability” is such that any asshole who wants to can get a gun. It shouldn’t be that way and it certainly doesn’t have to be. That’s another lie that you guys keep trying to perpetuate, the old, “criminals will always get guns.”

           • Yet you perpetually infer that uselss pathetic laws will be obeyed by criminals with additional laws, so whats your insane irrelevant point einstein?

             Oh thats right, a lie repeated often enough becomes truth in your fantasy, we understand!

             Yet our resident anti gun zealot infers that registration will stop straw buys, ROTFLMFAO, ROTFLMFAO. THE BATF PASSES 100% OF BUYS USING A FAKE IDENTIFICATION TODAY.

             Yet you also infer that registration will stop those 95% of felons who dont even attempt to acquire a firearm from a licensed source today. Since that is 95% of felons dont even attempt to buy from a licensed source, (that number comes from government data, not made up by anybody) how again will registration affect the felons eh einstein? Oh thats right, IT WONT!

             So explain again how registration will stop this, ROTFLMFAO, ROTFLMFAO, ROTFLMFAO.

             Mikeb really does need an intervention performed as he is simply gone off the deep end.

             We would pray for him, but socialists dont believe in God as a rule.

             • Jarhead, Let me explain to you what I mean by registration stopping straw purchasing.

               The “professional straw buyers” are folks who take advantage of the laws which people like you support. They buy multiple weapons at a time and do so regularly. They immediately turn those guns over to their patrons for a profit.

               One visit by the ATF to inspect their registration documents and ensure they’re in possession of the weapons bought would put them out of business.

               Even the occasional straw buyers would be loathe to do it if they knew they’d have to produce both documents and guns at a future date.

               Now, how would that infringe on you and fail to accomplish what I said?

   • mikeb,

     clean up your panties and listen: the firearms number includes suicides

   • Wrong. Gun availability has zero to do with those statistics.

     The FBI has established that criminals buy and sell illegal weapons amongst themselves regardless of where they are located or what the legal gun laws are.

     There was a firearms black market before you were born, and there will be one after we all are buried. Regulating the legal market will not change a thing, any more than banning Cocaine stops people from overdosing.

     As far as preventing an officer’s death, in most cases it isn’t possible. Yep, its not possible, any more than we can predict the deaths of people killed by DUIs or stabbed to death with a knife. We do no live in the age of Minority Report just yet,and until we do-or invent some magic crystal ball-prevention is going to come down to part training and part luck. And even then, criminals will get lucky too. Its part of living in this place known as the ‘real world’ . It would behoove you to rejoin it Mikeb.

     • ST, please think about that for a minute.

       “The FBI has established that criminals buy and sell illegal weapons amongst themselves regardless of where they are located or what the legal gun laws are. There was a firearms black market before you were born, and there will be one after we all are buried. Regulating the legal market will not change a thing,”

       Isn’t it a little shortsighted, not to mention convenient, for you to say one criminal buys a gun from another and leave it at that.

       Think just a step or two further, man. Where did the criminal gun seller get it? If you go back enough steps, you’ll find a point at which one of you legal gun owners handed the gun over to a criminal, in one way or another.

       That’s why gun control laws need to be aimed that the law abiding. Sorry, but there’s no other way.

       • “Handed over”? You mean the criminal obtained the firearm by stealing it, correct? Aren’t there laws against that kind of thing? And laws against buying or owning stolen property? How could we improve the current system, exactly?

         • Of course there are laws against stealing. But what’s lacking are the safe storage laws that most gun owners don’t have the common sense to do on their own.

           • Again with the unqualified qualifiers: “most”. Where’s the hard evidence that “most” gun owners don’t store their guns safely and securely?

             And again, you fail to see the trade-offs involved. If you create a rigid safe storage law for firearms, you create all kinds of new problems. For example, how do you enforce it? Do cops do a regular home check to see if a homeowner is storing his or her or their firearms safely? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a cop in my house for any reason whatsoever (excepting a home invasion or similar emergency).

             And what of those cases where “safely stored guns” weren’t immediately available for self-defense, resulting in injury and death? Guess what? There’s a scientific study on that very subject. Debunk this. Seriously. I dare you to get down and dirty with something we like to call facts. And scientific analysis. Rational thought. It’s a process. Give it a go.

             • I can’t believe you made me download a 31-page document.

               Debunking coming right up, but be a little patient becuase you know my attention span.

           • Oh, this is really brilliant. People cannot be allowed to have guns because bad guys will steal them! Like in Mexico, where the bad guys steal guns from the average Joses. Oh, wait.

             • No, Ralph, if I were king, you wouldn’t be allowed to leave your gun under the pillow when you go out for six or eight beers.

               Guns in the home should be secured properly.

           • Need the same safe storage laws for doctors, cars, knives, ropes, pharmecuticals, swimming pools, cigarettes, etc, etc, etc, etc as they all kill more than law abiding gun owners do by far.

             But Mikeb has proven that the USDOJ National Gang Threat Assessment annual report is a complete lie where the government acknowledges that 80% of all violent crimes are committed by career criminals/gang members, nope, never has, never will.

             But Mike can show everyone how the deaths by accidental firearm discharge have risen on pace with the population since the high of 2,500 in the 1930’s?

             Oh wait, 167% population increase, additional 100 million firearms, from 54 mil gun owners to 80 mil gun owners in 2007
             and accidental firearms deaths dropped by 75% to 613 per the CDC.

             Oh kwanza happy hanukka, how can that be.

             Oh thats right, Mikeb can eliminate that free will thingy as well as FORCE everyone not to be stupid.

             Hey, just figured it out, Mike is biased against stupid people doing stupid things.

             Shouldnt Mikeb be ranting and raving against all polititicans and anybody who lies like them as well?

       • “Think just a step or two further, man. Where did the criminal gun seller get it? If you go back enough steps, you’ll find a point at which one of you legal gun owners handed the gun over to a criminal, in one way or another.”

         Assuming you have statistical evidence to back this statement up, then we are forced to consider ALL legal gun owners as criminal transferees.

         Including the Police and U.S. Military, both of which have had multiple incidents of class 3 automatic weapons illegal for civilian sale stolen from government armories. They are seldom recovered afterward unless discovered in the course of a drug bust or other investigation.This is why the following statement:

         “That’s why gun control laws need to be aimed that the law abiding. Sorry, but there’s no other way.”

         …is categorically false, because assuming every gun can be magically removed from every civilian’s posession that still leaves armories filled with police and military hardware that is just as capable of being stolen and used in crimes.

         And once they hit the streets, that’s exactly where that full auto M4 or police rifle will remain.

         Stories below illustrate this point:

         100 guns stolen from Puero Rico Armory:
         http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=373911&CategoryId=14092

         (Former)Oregon LEO Busted Selling Police Firearms:
         http://news.opb.org/article/redmond-officer-charged-stealing-and-selling-armory-weapons/

         Los Angeles SWAT Cache Stolen:
         http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/17/30-weapons-stolen-from-los-angeles-swat-training-site/?test=latestnews

       • To answer the “handed over” question, I think mikeb will talk about private sales that don’t require a NICS check. But that’s not really the issue. No matter how much your regulate and criminalize certain gun-related behavior (no private transfers, gun storage verified by police, registration on local, state and federal levels, etc) among generally law-abiding people, criminals will still get guns because they confer a significant advantage in a physical conflict. The problem is that you can’t un-invent technology. Bersa is in Argentina. Taurus is in Brazil. Armscor is in the Philippines. Norinco is in China. Do you really think we’re going to tell a Chinese company what they can and can’t manufacture? Guns will be smuggled in and sold to criminals willing to pay, like heroin and knock-off DVDs. Can we stop that? Maybe some, but not all. And that’s the slippery slope. The new restrictions will cut deaths by firearms by, let’s say, 50%. Or more. But not 100%. That new lower number is now tagged as “unacceptable”, and a new round of restrictions is enacted to the point where confiscations become the “common sense” solution.

       • Actually did you realize many of the guns in “illegal” hands are stolen from cops homes, cars and even armories? In fact just recently there was a story of a cops home that was broken into and they stole his uniform, guns and badge. Explain to me how “stricter gun storage laws” would stop that?

         Or another angle. Stating stricter storage rules would stop illegal arms trafficking and sale is shortsighted considering many guns come from other countries. Now we’ll need an international “safe storage” and “gun law” legislature yet we can ‘t even nail that one down in our own country?

         • Absoltely, Matthew. If Mikeb goes to the FBI’s web site he’ll find the FBI reports the number of weapons, including full-auto sub guns, stolen from or lost by agents every year. The recent average seems to be 300+ weapons a year. If agents and police would secure their weapons better, thousands of guns would stay out of the hands of criminals. I keep the reports on disk, but here’s and instant google confirmation: http://political-stuff.blogspot.com/2007/02/fbi-criticized-over-320-missing-weapons.html

       • That is just stupid. Look how many people mess around with illegal drugs. If they can get the drugs from other countries, they can get the guns from other countries, or ours. How much shrink does the Mexican Government alone have? 25-30%. Just think of all the shrinkage Afghanistan and Iraq have; let alone African and Latin American countries. Everything I have read about gangs in England is that for the connected; it is weapon of choice for them.

     • +1

   • it’s directly related to the gun availability…

     Or perhaps it’s directly related to recidivist criminal availability. For example in the NLEOMF 2011 EOY Report three categories where 2011 had a jump in fatal shootings are Traffic Stop, Investigating Suspicious and Attempting Arrest.

     A related publication, the NLEOMF 2011 Letter, mentions how a patrolman’s “family continues to deal with parole issues related to her brother’s death.”

     Using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics this article notes that
     “… recidivists commit the majority of violent crime in the United States. Some studies of metropolitan areas suggest that as much as 70% of reported crimes are committed by felons with prior records.”

     The point is not how small a percentage these tragedies are but that they are largely preventable.

     OK …, one way might be just to keep the dangerous felons locked up!

     • Then we would have to repeal drug laws to get all those non violent drug offenders out! That is unthinkable sir.

2. IF you could find a source of honest facts,I bet you will find a large percentage of the officers killed by firearms were killed by their own gun.This is even more proof that criminals commit criminal acts and no amount of laws is going to change that.

   • By gungrabber logic, officers’ being killed by their own guns necessitates disarming the officers.

3. I didn’t realize that “gun availability” had gone up or even changed. If anything, it’s gotten harder to get a cheap gun now that Kmart and many Walmarts no longer sell them. Please outline how guns are more available as compared to the availability of criminals on the street.
   Criminal availability is a bigger problem/

   • Oh, you’re gonna feign ignorance now? After how many times did I hear you or one of your confreres boasting about how many guns were sold when Obama was running and even last month on Black Friday. For years the market’s been flooded, and that’s the source of ALL the guns in criminal hands, don’t forget.

     Now, you ask what I mean be increased gun availability?

     • “For years the market’s been flooded, and that’s the source of ALL the guns in criminal hands, don’t forget.”

       Mikeb, you live in a fantasy world. See any of numerous news articles pointing out the number of weapons provided to criminals by our government or others. The drug cartels in Mexico get their guns from the government and it’s well documented. Big scary black rifles that shoot many more bullets than any civilian arm. Criminals will get guns one way or another. If Eery gun manufacturer was forced out of business today, then the ill willed and well financed would start their own assembly lines. The only way to decrease crime is to make sure that the criminal has reason to fear for his life when he kicks in your door in the middle of the night. Take guns from the law abiding and watch anarchy ensue.

       • “Take guns from the law abiding and watch anarchy ensue.”

         Proof of that – Mexico and the U.K.

     • Oh, you’re gonna feign ignorance now?

       I’m glad you don’t have to do that.

4. Another lawyer who is clueless about statistics. Even if the numbers are accurate, a one time increase does not a trend make

   • Mikeb is an attorney? Seriously?

     • I’m a lotta things and I’ve been many more, but a lawyer is not one of them.

       • Even lawyers know when they have a losing case, so the continued rhetoric from mikeb should have been evidence that he was no lawyer.

5. Funny how we don’t hear cries for “cop control” when a SWAT team breaks into the wrong house and executes a family every other week.

   • It’s not their fault. It’s the guns! The guns!

   • While I agree that SWAT and police make mistakes I find it hard to believe the statistic of “every other week” is even close to true. Facts to back it up?

     • Extremely plausible. Cato’s book Overkill has an estimate of 40,000 no knock raids per year. To have one “every other week”, or 26 per year, would require a error rate of only 0.065%”

       And they’ll get a medal when they shoot you and your family
       http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5484185&page=1#.TvyXzrxyO9I
       “A Minneapolis family is outraged that members of the SWAT team that mistakenly raided their house and fired upon them last December have been awarded medals for their bravery under fire… Khang said he feared an intrusion when his home was forcefully entered. With his legally owned hunting shotgun, he fired at what he thought were unknown invaders from behind the second-floor bedroom door… When police responded by firing 22 rounds… Police chief Tim Dolan awarded all eight SWAT team members medals for “bravery in action under fire,” police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia told ABCNews.com”

6. “We need cops. Cops need us.”

   Why do we need cops? I know cops need us to pay their salaries and to have people to arrest. And the politicians need cops to enforce their dictates and generate revenue. But what exactly do they do again which is useful to the people?

7. If we’re really concerned about these guys safety, why aren’t we focusing on the “Other” category, which had a more than five times greater percentage increase in fatalities and double the raw numbers increase over last year? Maybe because there’s no political hay to be made there?

   • Exactly

   • Clearly “Other” is too dangerous. We need to ban it.

8. More gun control is just another band aid approach the Left wants to put on an social injury that needs surgery.

   Modern-era politics and social movements have caused so much national dysfunction. One of many examples: about 75-85% of men who are in prison for a second violent crime incarceration grew up in single parent families. Breaking up the nuclear family and destroying traditional values increases drug use and addiction, dropping out from school, and more unskilled girls/women having babies often with a bad-boy type who walks away. For several reasons, some because of bad domestic policies and some simply do to external foreign developments, skilled blue collar and middle class jobs have been migrating abroad. That contributes to lower incomes, less jobs to aspire to, and less revenue for schools, etc.

   Taking advantage of shootings, the Left and some in the modern Right, want to curtail the power, freedom, and ability to defend themsleves of the people: therefore more and more gun control.

   I think the roots or cores of the problems need to have surgery. Taking away guns from good people will eventually put more of those defenseless people into ER for real surgery.

9. To prevent drunk driving, schools and social workers created educational programs and non-alcoholic alternatives for teens.

   To prevent teen pregnancies and the transmission of STI’s, schools and social workers created programs to educate teens about safe sex and abstinence practices.

   To prevent reckless teen drivers, states have required teens to take driver’s education courses.

   To prevent suicides and dangers patterns of behaviors exhibited by teens with mental illnesses, schools and social workers have sought to educate teens about the dangers mental illnesses such as unipolar depression, eating disorders, and body dysmorphic disorders. They have taught how to recognize these illnesses and how to get help for oneself or for others.

   But to prevent gun violence the reaction has been to run away and pretend guns don’t exist. Ban them, get rid of them, they are evil. All of us have seen how our society is a reactive society. We see something wrong in our communities and we do something about it. Sometimes these endeavors fail; other times they are successful. Gun violence is bad. It is terrible. Last week a police officer was gunned down at a traffic stop and his wife and three children will always be reminded of this tragedy in this cheerful season. We cannot confront gun violence until we are ready to confront it like other societal ills.

10. Hello it the govermnet provide statisticas same one can not seem get number right in Operation Fast and Furious. Same goverment not provide truth in Operation Fast and Furious. Same Attorney General Eric Holder who realize well can not blame gun oweners now for what happen Mexico becuase Operation Fast and Furious. So new idea sound like this let pin policemen deaths on gun owers here in USA provide fuzzy statisticas with out proof explain nothing about what those statisticas really mean sell US people on idea there major issues with gun laws on books that need more of them becuase for owen safty policemen safty. Yep that sound just like Obama goverment we all love to despise.

11. I’m a wee bit late, but here goes:

    I *WILL NOT* have government or anyone into my house inspecting to see how my guns are stored. Period. I don’t want to live in Japan, where the police come by twice a year to make sure you’re not doing anything they don’t like. Inside. Your home. Sure they are “safe” and free of violent crime, but at what cost? I will accept the responsibility of defending myself from the occasional aberrant as the price for my being able to defend myself at all. Without that responsibility I am just a victim.

    MikeB302000 has the fortunate luck to be in a country where free riders have it much easier thanks to the millions who lawfully own firearms. He is less likely to be involved in a crime, home invasion, or to have his everyday freedoms impinged thanks to those of us who are armed.

    • Mike doesn’t even live in the US anymore.

      • Darn. I was going to invite him out to the range if he every got out to New Mexico.

        A curious thing about cops (four are good friends of mine) is that not one I know is in favor of gun control. They all seem to want as many decent people armed as possible.There do seem to be some exceptions among the politician-cops, but never among the rank and file.

        So if the gunophobes want to justify disarming people to help cops, maybe they ought to ask the cops first?

    • All right Twinkie. How about this. No home inspections, believe it or not I find that abhorrent too.

      But, if you have a gun stolen and in the investigation it turns out that you hadn’t secured it properly, you’re charged with felony negligence or contributing to the delinquency of a burglar or something like that.

      How’s that sound?

      • I lock the doors of my house when I go out. That’s all the security required to make unauthorized entry with criminal intent illegal.

      • Yeah, hows holding any politician who creates a gun free zone criminally and civil suit liable for failure to protect those they disarm.

        Hows that hit ya Mikeb, lol!

12. The number of officers killed in the line of duty jumped 13 percent in 2011 compared with the year before — and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder condemned the increase as “a devastating and unacceptable trend” that he blamed on illegal firearms . . .

    Holder said “too many guns have fallen into the hands of those who are not legally permitted to possess them,” in explaining the increase.

    Well he should know as the Feds and the BATF supply the guns to those who are not legally permitted to possess them.

13. “One Oregon police chief was killed when a man allegedly took the officer’s gun and shot him in the head.
    Civilian Gun Control will really fix that problem.

14. Why bother to argue with this cretin? Who cares what he thinks (or Josh Sugarmann, or Sarah Brady, or Dennis Henigan, or any of the rest of the Hoplophobe Brigade)? All that matters is to build and hold the political power to keep the gungrabbers at bay, and the fact that we have been mostly successful at that seems to irritate them no end. I feel no need to debate with them or convince them of anything, just to prevail over them.

15. Here’s a link to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund’s archive of fallen officers: http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities-data/

    Of the officers killed this year by gunfire, several were shot a long time ago and only recently died. A couple were shot by friendly fire, and at least one had his duty weapon taken from him and used to kill him. Here’s a link to a similar page: http://www.odmp.org/.

    The Officer Down Memorial Page gives more detail on each officer and the circumstances of the fatality. Of the fatalities in which the offenders had weapons before the fatal shootings, I found no mention of the source of the weapons, nor if the shooters had legal possession of the weapons they used to kill the officers. Most of the shooters were well known to police before the fatal shootings.

16. “One hundred seventy-three officers killed out of [a conservatively estimated) 800k? While every human life is precious, you can round that down to zero. ”

    The homicide rate in the US in 2010 was 4.8 per 100,000, and 3.24 per 100,000 was by firearm. The rate of officer deaths is 21.625 per 100,000, and the death rate by firearm is 8.5 per 100,000. That’s significantly higher than the US average. How in the world you do round that down to zero??

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