31 Aug 12

On 24 Aug 12, a lone murderer shot and killed his former boss in NYC, in front of the famous Empire State Building. Two NYPD officers responded and ultimately shot and killed the single suspect, using their Glock-19 pistols to fire a total of sixteen rounds.

Both victim and perpetrator were DRT. Neither officer was hurt.

However, nine bystanders were also injured via gunfire. All nine injuries were unintentional and inadvertent, and all were injured via shots fired by police. None of the collateral injuries were due to shots fired by the perpetrator.

Three were direct impacts, and the other six were due to ricochets and spatter.

There were only two fatalities, the perpetrator and his single victim, both intentional.

The purpose of this Quip is not to be critical of the two NYPD officers. Their twelve-pound-trigger-equipped Glocks (via the mandatory NY-2 trigger modification) are surely not conducive to accuracy! Under the same circumstances, I’m not sure I would have done any better.

What I find curious is the official and media reaction:

Can you imagine what the mayor’s response would have been if two legally-armed citizens (non-LEOs) had been at the scene and had done the exact same thing? Those two poor people would be, at this very moment, so far back in jail, they would have to have air pumped to them! And, the anti-gun mayor would be making endless, hand-wringing speeches decrying “these evil guns” in the hands of mere peons.

And, the self-righteous media would be simultaneously running interminable editorials about the “dangers of ‘ordinary citizens’ carrying guns,” ad nauseam.

As it is, this story, only a week old, may as well have happened on Mars! It is completely forgotten and erased. Not a single editorial, nor so much as a peep from the mayor, nor the chief of police.

They are obviously not “anti-gun.” They’re only “anti-your-gun!” Theirs are apparently just fine, and any mistakes they make with them are instantly forgiven and forgotten. Curious that the generosity they lavish upon themselves pointedly does not extend to us simple mortals, eh?

/John