The more guns that there are, the more guns that will be fired. It’s statistical, it’s logical and it’s obvious. When guns are fired, there is a chance that people will get hurt. Not always. The vast majority of hunting trips which do not involve Dick Cheney end without human injury. But, sometimes. When two people, or groups of people, both have guns and are deliberately shooting at each other, the odds rise exponentially.
He Would Have Handled This Situation Differently
Still, there was no reason for the cops in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to shoot and kill Monroe Isidore yesterday, even though he was shooting at them. The man was 107 years old. That makes him a goddamned national treasure, even if he was waving a gun around.
The police were called because he threatened two other people in the house. The news articles I’ve seen did not say if these people were relatives, caregivers, or maybe Jehovah’s Witnesses who came to his door at a bad time, but the police had managed to get them safely out of the house. So, they didn’t need to kill Monroe Isidore.
The news articles I’ve seen did not do much to explain who Monroe Isidore was. Was he a crazy old WWII veteran, who thought he was holding the line at the Battle of the Bulge? Was he an Obama hater exercising his 2nd amendment rights? Was he a nasty, old sociopath who wanted revenge on the world for all the shit he’d had to put up with in his life? Was he just a poor, senile old bastard who thought it was New Year’s Eve and was just celebrating early? We don’t know yet. There are more questions than answers, so far.
I’m pretty sure the police didn’t know, either. They just went ahead and killed the guy.
They could have handled the situation better. They had all other people out of the house. All they needed to do was cordon off the area, retreat to a safe distance, send out for donuts and coffee, and wait. Maybe have somebody call him on the phone and try to persuade him to put the gun down. Maybe not.
Even just waiting would be O.K. Sooner or later the guy’s got to sleep. He was 107 years old. Then, while he would have been sleeping, the police could have gone in, safely, and gently pried the handgun from his cold, nearly dead hand, covered him with a blanket, and gone home.
I know these cops did what they thought they had to do, and they probably won’t be disciplined at all, because that’s just how fucked up the United States is, but it’s not the way Sheriff Andy Taylor would have handled it, that’s for sure.
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