Concealed Carry Holder Killed, the Danger of Other People’s Business ~ VIDEO

Opinion

Man Killed By Armed PSU Officers Had Valid Concealed Carry Permit
Man Killed By Armed PSU Officers Had Valid Concealed Carry Permit

Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- Getting involved in other peoples’ business never ends well.

Last Friday, officers with the Portland (OR) State University Police confronted a man on campus, who had a gun in his hand. The man appeared to represent a threat.

Officers shot the suspect. The suspect was DRT. No other injuries.

Details such as numbers of shot fired, distance, verbal challenges by police, etc have not been reported.

The suspect apparently had a valid state-issued CCW permit. Witnesses say he was in the process of trying to “break-up a fight,” in which he was not otherwise involved.

Witnesses also say the suspect’s holstered pistol (apparently legally carried) somehow fell out of its belt-holster (assuming it was actually carried in a holster) as he tried to pull one combatant off of another.

When the suspect attempted to retrieve his pistol, officers arrived and saw a gun in his hand.

Of course, arriving officer knew few details, aside from the fact that they were confronting a man with a gun in his hand.

The suspect/decedent turned out to be a postal worker with no criminal record. It is likely that he had no criminal intent at the time and place in question, but of course, we’ll never know.

Predictably, many on campus have since called for the campus PD to be disarmed. The controversy and the investigation are ongoing.

Predictably, critics of the police are censuring their actions, citing facts and circumstances not known to police at the scene.

Among the ignorant, this is typical!

Sometimes, armed police officers have no choice but to employ deadly force, making their decision in dangerous, chaotic, and rapidly-evolving circumstances.

They are armed for a reason.

They do the best they can, but, they don’t have x-ray vision, nor are they able to read minds.

With the foregoing in mind, here are important lessons for the rest of us, particularly those of us who have valid CCW permits, and routinely go armed:

  1. First and foremost, do your best to avoid places and times where the foregoing is even a probability.
  2. Be extremely disinclined to precipitously insert yourself into any potentially violent circumstance, in which you were not otherwise involved.

In these cases, the best strategy is usually represented by withdrawing a safe distance away, and then calling the police.

That’s why we pay a police department. Unlike you, they are equipped, trained, and organized to effectively deal with these kinds of things.

The foregoing advice also applies even to ununiformed and off-duty LEOs. You usually don’t know enough to go blundering in there by yourself.

You carry that pistol so you have an effective means immediately at hand to protect your life from precipitous, deadly, and otherwise-unavoidable threats! Don’t be anxious to manufacture a situation where you have to use it.

Stepping forward on your own initiative in an effort to “break-up fights,” or “settle arguments” is very unlikely to bring forth a “happy ending,” in any event, and once your gun is exposed and involved, nothing “good” is going to happen.

(2) Who have “good intent” or “evil intent” don’t normally wear labels identifying them as such.

Arriving police can’t look at you and instantly tell that you’re a “good guy.”

When you have a gun in your hand (no matter in what direction it’s pointed), you’re just “… a man with a gun!”

Under cross-examination, I was once asked if a particular person “looks like a ‘bad guy’” I replied, “I’m not all sure I know what ‘bad guys’ look like, Counselor. Do you?”

(3) When instructing on these matters, we cannot specifically address every conceivable situation in which you might ever find yourself. The best we can do is provide you with sound “guidance”

My purpose is not to tell you what to do. It’s to make sure you know and understand what is probably going to happen when you do.

(4) I believe it takes an evil person to do an evil thing. I don’t think good people do evil things, but sometimes good people do stupid things, and consequences can be just as bad.

Who go armed need to be genuinely good people, but smart as well.

/John

Defense Training International, Inc

About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or in-actions.

It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr. Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com

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Rock

I hadn’t noticed any protests or riots about this….. No nonstop reporting about it on every station either. Hmmm.

Skyviking

Several good points – as well as bad – have been made by as many Monday Morning Quarterbacks. Hopefully, everyone who reads up on this tragedy should take the manifold lessons contained therein to heart. Select a quality holster and gunbelt that keeps your weapon in place during strenuous activity. In urban environments, it should be concealed. Wearing a pistol does not make one any more of a master pistolero than owning a great guitar makes one a rock star guitarist: Training and Practice is everything. When you strap on your sidearm and walk out the door, leave the super… Read more »

Core

My thoughts are that police should focus training models more in line with German GSG9 and focus on a higher quality of applied training that can be studied at home and applied during routine training sessions at the department’s range. I also believe Glock design and triggers attribute to many unnecessary discharges in part due to lack of routine and quality training also. I know the training budget is not a priority for our politicians, nor is protecting our children in schools. Just my 2 cents.

H. Spires

I read about this on another website. The story they told was that the police arrived and the gun was on the ground and the fight was still in progress. The person that was shot was attempting to pick up the gun. They ordered him to not pick it up. He still tried to pick it up and they shot him after giving him orders not to pick it up. I think they are looking at body camera footage. Often the law enforcement officers are going into a situation not having a lot of information other than the call to… Read more »

tomcat

Being a cop is a dangerous job but some take it to the extremes and should be one bullet barneys. Maybe being a cop in U.K. would be a better challenge because all they can carry is pepper spray. Irregardless, there are a lot of cops that treat legal carriers like they don’t have any business with a gun and that just compounds some problems.

JLS

And if this cop had been a soldier in a war zone, he’d be on his way to Leavenworth for an illegal killing. The time of a cop being able to shoot someone because the cop “feared for his life” is over. If the cop had not been a police officer and shot the victim, he would have been charged for manslaughter. Sorry, cops need to be held to the same requirements as non-police would be in the same situation. Cops drawing their weapons and pointing them at an unarmed suspect are just as guilty of aggravated assault as a… Read more »