Guns are Great!

It's sad when a guy pulls a gun on a woman in a Wal-Mart parking lot and the first thing you think is, "Did he just come from a health care rally?" (not: maybe this guy is a policeman.) Also making me question my sanity, I then asked the guy I was with if he thought I should call 911. He shrugged. At least six people were watching including the policeman's wife and two young children, and I was the only one that called.

After a scuffle in the parking lot when an angry (reportedly drunk) boyfriend decided to get involved, the policeman was "forced" to shoot the man in the groin. I guess the guy might have overwhelmed the officer, taken his gun and shot him. He probably didn't have time to unload the gun and toss the bullets and the gun in different directions, but he did seem like he was in better shape, so I bet he could have outrun him.

But I am digressing from my point here. After seeing the officer shoot this man, I'm thinking they're going to close the store, but no, they just need to close the south entrance so we can go ahead and do our shopping. Yay! I don't shop at Wal-Mart, but I don't judge my friends (or anyone else) if they do. If you ask me, I'll tell you why I won't go back, but I'm not going to proselytize. So, I've just seen a man shot and as far as I know he could be dead and I'm shopping in Wal-Mart. "Shouldn't we go talk to the cops?" Turns out we shouldn't because it took them almost 3 hours to wake up the detective and get him down there to take our statements.

But, I can't be critical of a policeman that was purportedly trying to stop a crime when he wasn't even on duty while facing two aggressive people who don't back down when a gun is pointed at them. I don't know what all happened, but I do know that if he left his gun in the car or called for backup before confronting these people, there might not have been a weapon discharge. There is no way I could do his job and when they asked me if I thought he had another choice, I told them he probably didn't. I'm not sure he should even be reprimanded, but it's sad that we've become so numb to these events. What would it be like with less guns? We'll probably never know.

Oh yeah, the guy went to the hospital and he's fine (well, he's not going to die from the shooting) and he and his friend were released from jail today. I hope everyone involved is ok. It was gratifying to know this is the first firearm discharge by an officer (on or off duty) in this town of almost 250,000 people in 17 years.