Reply #5: If this isn't a poster shot for more training needed, I don't know what is. [View All]

[jtuck004]

People need to understand the CCW is just a state allowance to carry a concealed weapon. Has nothing, nada, zip to do with their defense if they pull that sucker. In this case I wouldn't be surprised if the first guy gets an assault with a deadly weapon charge -and as supportive as I am of CCW, I would support any DA that brought charges. As careless as he was who knows what he might have shot if he had pulled that trigger. Beyond having no business pulling a weapon to stop a property crime, identifying himself as a police officer takes it into the realm of real ignorance.

The second guy's case might even be a little shakey, though perhaps not. I would not have wanted to be him if that was a plain clothes policeman holding a weapon on someone. Course they probably would have secured him and holstered the weapon.

Even shooting someone in self-defense could put you in court defending your actions in some cases. Oklahoma, and probably other states, have passed laws which may keep you from even being charged when shooting someone in self-defense _in your own home_, but once you step outside of that perimeter it becomes much less clear.

I do wonder - if it had taken the police a while longer to show up if the line of people holding weapons on each other might have reached around the block...