Work place shooting, Update

Yesterday I wrote about the workplace shooting in Manchester, Connecticut. You can read it here. The point I was trying to make is that such events are rare, and are in the same category as being struck by lightning or winning $1,000,000 by playing a slot machine in Las Vegas. Such things do happen, but they do not happen often. By the coverage given and the content of the news bites, commercial media would have everyone believe otherwise.

The Toledo Blade ran a story on this shooting today, Conn. killer had 2 guns in lunch pail at warehouse, which it got from the New York Times. Here's a quote from the article:

“We need the cops here right away — somebody got shot, I got shot!” a frantic Mr. Hollander told the 911 operator at 7:25 a.m. “Omar Thornton is shooting people!”

Again, a point from my previous post is that the police were informed via nine one one that Omar was shooting people, including the caller. At 9:30 a.m. the police entered the building where Omar was holed up. That's two hours during which Omar was free to do as he liked without opposition.


Somewhere in my previous post I may have given people the idea that I saw no point to being armed, which was not my intent. If someone were armed and willing to shoot at Omar, lives might have been saved. Particularly since,

...it's probably likely that he was targeting some individuals,” said Lt. Chris Davis of the Manchester Police Department. “He passed by many individuals and did not shoot them.”

So if Omar walked right past an armed person, that would provide an opportunity to shoot him in the back. Unlike the heroes of the old western movies and TV shows, I have no problem with that. Nor do I have any objection to anyone carrying their pistol with them anywhere they think they should, concealed or not. This includes violent felons who are out of jail, which some readers might consider to be a strange thought. My reasoning is that no amount of objection on my part will prevent a violent criminal from carrying a gun, so why bother?


If you do decide to carry your gun with you, I would hope that you'd memorize and learn to apply the four rules of gun safety as codified by Col. Jeff Cooper. You should also consult your attorney about what to do in the event of a shooting, as well as consulting someone in the police department as to how to conduct yourself after a shooting. For instance, pulling your pistol out of the holster with the intent of handing it over to police might be misconstrued by a young, inexperienced patrolman as an aggressive action that is preparatory to the discharge of said weapon in his general direction with corrections to ballistics to follow as needed. Keeping your attorney's emergency contact information with you along with a good bail bondsman is also a good idea.


Another thing that bothers me about the commercial media coverage of this shooting is the lack of any mention of a hate crime. The shooter's family claims Omar was forced to endure racial slurs and harassment at work. Omar was black and all the victims were white. Somehow this isn't a hate crime. At least, if you believe commercial media it isn't.


So to summarize my own personal stand on an armed populace, I believe all adults who want to should carry their pistol with them. I also believe that if someone besides Omar had armed lives might have been saved. Might have been, which is not a certainty.