EleanorsMine

Oh screw it.
Edited to remove post.

JessicaRabbitt

Police officers have accidents with guns April. It doesnt matter how careful or trained you are, accidents happen. It is my preference to not have guns around my children.

My husband grew up in the Midwest, he knew how to fire all sorts of different weapons from a very young age. However, the guns were never kept inside the home, and when we began living together agreed that there will never be a firearm in our home, with the kids.

Again, I have lots of LEOs in my family, and as neighbors. ALL OF THEM kept all of thier weapons well out of the kids reach, locked away in lockboxes, ammo in a different lock box.

My kids will defintely be trained on the use, and safety of firearms. Thats not the point. The point is, the only way to guarantee they dont accidently hurt themselves or someone else is to make sure they are locked safely out of the home, either in the garage or different location.

Guns dont kill people, people kill people. Either by accident, or on purpose. I am all for your right to bear arms. In fact, I love Texas, no one messes with Texans! However, unless you are living in an area where there is a high crime rate, with slow emergency response, I personally think that carrying is uneccessary. I am getting my CCW for a job, when not working, the gun will be nowhere near me.

EleanorsMine

You know- I totally agree with you. You are 100% correct.
Please don't think I keep em lying around here.....They are stored and locked with any ammo I keep in a seperate locked case. I drag it out if my husband is travelling period- because i don't like being home alone and scared. But first and foremost, I sleep with the phone under my pillow to call 911- the police and fire are minutes from me.
Very important to note: Where I lived before- there were NO police, NO fire Departments and no hospitals. I was in fear for myself and others when I lived there(google Sprott Alabama, its 60 miles from the middle of nowhere, and we thought it would be fun to "go country"- you see we are back in the Bham suburbs now) That is how I aquired my firearms- because if something happened, there would be no one there to help you. When I moved back home- I didn't get rid of the firearms. I have zero plans to ever hold a CCW now, because I have no use for it. Down there I had absolute use for all of it.

05GT-O.C.D.

Thanks all, especially our LEO 'insiders' who posted. I understand the 'intimidation' factor - and I guess that's part of what I disagree with. Police IN MY OPINION should not be used to intimidate the public. I know there's more to it than that, but it's still my opinion. The only good reason I see that I didn't think of previously, is protecting the officers against later retaliation from gangs, etc. That makes sense.

Blip

Let me be clear--the "Intimidation" technique (command presence) I was talking about was only used in high threat situations.
Armed/dangerous suspects, many weapons on the property, prior history of resisting, felony arrest warrant,
any of the things like that, if you can gain control without using weapons, it's a success.
My response was only to the black masked officers entering a building comments.

In routine situations, courtesy and professionalism should always be your guiding principle when dealing with the public.

The Rock 326

Well put, Blip.

Faber

let me get this straight....you sleep with a loaded semi-automatic weapon next to your bed, and also keep an AR-15 close by "just in case"

I hope you dont have any kids......

I understand that this is the united states, and it is your right to bear arms (i have a few guns myself) but if you do have children, and you keep loaded weapons around the house "just in case" I say you are asking for a horrible accident to happen.

you asked for opinions...well...I think it is exactly people like you that make it so terribly dengerous for the police to do their job. I would also say if the police decided to serve a "no knock", I am positive that they would be doing it for good reason.

I dont really do anything wrong enough to worry about such things, so i dont care what the cops decide to do to these scumbag drug dealers. I think actually that there should be a hunting season for convicted drug dealers....i am a little bitter since i have some family members that cant seem to stay away from drugs, and i have seen it destroy their families, and the lives of their children. so drug dealers are last on my list of things i would care to keep alive.

Cops do very dangerous work, and generally dont get paid enough to do it. I have never been much of a cop lover....I always seem to get the book thrown at me, but i would not trade jobs with em for a second. sure there are kind cops, and there are mean ones (they are human just like you and me) but you cant lump them together and burn them at the stake for upholding the law.

I think you would probably take the exact opposite stand if YOU were a cop.

oh by the way...
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/deaclass.wmv

look at that link.....big tough "highly trained and qualified" DEA agent shoots himself in the leg while lecturing kids on the finer points of gun safety.....no joke.

05GT-O.C.D.

I have no kids, the AR is kept unloaded and locked. The 9mm is either on my person, or in a gunbox that I am able to unlock quickly.
One thing I didn't expect this thread to show me is how many people seem to have a pre-concieved notion of gun owners.
No one on this forum knows me at all, but I'm quickly attacked as 1)Having something to hide, 2)being a criminal, 3)being irresponsible w/ my firearms... and I know there were other things but I'm not going to go back and re-read them.
I would love to hear the logic that someone (me) w/ NO criminal record, who has NEVER been arrested and is responsible with their firearms is a danger to police. I'm not a criminal nor a vigilante (sp?)... wow, the conclusions some of you jump to.
Police have and do make mistakes - fortunately they are far and few between due to the fact that they go through a tremendous amount of training. I know this because I considered going into law enforcement myself, but decided it was too difficult of a career for me. This is why I have a great level of respect for what the law enforcement brings to a community.
I think it's really a shame the way people make assumptions when someone has a differing opinion on a police tactic.

scottie1113

No assumptions and no preconceived notions. Just thoughts and opinions. That's what you generally find here.

05GT-O.C.D.

Oh, and Faber... 2 things; 1st of all, tell me what "people like you" means. 2nd of all, what one single thing did I say that makes you think I lump good and 'mean' cops together to be burned at the stake? -Please respond... I'm missing something.
I understand what it's like to have your family torn apart from drugs and guns. My brother got involved with them and it has been He11 on my family for years. His actions have caused me much stress and guilt that I live in a different state and wasn't around to help keep him out of that life. He's my younger brother, I'll carry guilt for the rest of my life for not being there 'physically' for my family. Having him in jail was more difficult for my family than I would've ever imagined. The stress has taken years off my parents lives, I will always be upset by that.

(mods- He11 bypassed on the language filter due to my using it as a percieved religious place - not a curse word)

Treadhead

John, I think some it is from your comment in Drizztbob's thread about shooting cops when they "break in" to your home at 2am. Whether or not you meant it to sound the way it does I don't know and I would like to think not.

05GT-O.C.D.

Oh, if that's it... it wasn't meant as when I PLAN to shoot a cop... I definately do NOT.

I was meaning to state that I would HATE to see the TRAGEDY that would happen if a mistake was made. That's my whole point... people are human and prone to mistakes(LEO's and regular Joe's), and if mistakes can be prevented I feel they should be. I would hope that everyone would agree with that.

I started this thread looking for information and opinions because I didn't understand the need for the tactics. That's why I thanked some of the LEO's that posted for giving me insight that I understand a little better now. It's the 'John' bashing that I didn't appreciate - Oh well, I'm a big boy, I can take it.

Oh, and by "break in," I meant breaking your door down to gain entry, not breaking in to rob me.

Treadhead

Cool, I figured that's what you meant by it and I knew what you meant with the "break in" thing too. I just thought it was a funny example of how things don't always sound(or read?) the way you meant it. That's one reason I try not to join the bashing wagon. Anyway, I hope you now have a better understanding of why we do some of the things we do.

P.S. Your car looks sharp.

poldrv

I'd say stay away from the heavy drugs and maybe open all the windows in your home to let some fresh air in. Police officers in plain clothes are in plain clothes for a reason that being that they blend in with the average joe. This is also way plain clothes officers have long hair, earrings, wear chains have tatoo's etc. Its rather difficult to buy drugs from a trafficker in uniform. If the cops were going to bust into you home to do a search warrant you can be sure that they would be making every effort possible to determine if you had weapons before entry was made. Its call self preservation. As for Hollywood most of those shows come no were near reality when it comes to actual police work. The only show that was reality based and is now off TV is NYPD Blue. The question I have if this is the mustang site how does this tread relate to Ford Mustangs? Perhaps someone has to start a paranoid - drug - delusional - holy crap the cops are everywhere site. If this is the mustang site then the topics should only be mustang related.

scottie1113

It's called off topic chatter and it's how we get to know each other a little bit.

That comment about the windows was really uncalled for but obviously you have a right to express your opinion here.

flashbang756

Ok, most everyone has answered as I would. The LEO's specifically since I am one also.

Black masks and BDU's serve more than one purpose.
1) The masks hide identity for reasons covered here already.
2) The element of surprise is very important for officer safety. MAny times, officers are on perimeter of the target location some time prior to entry.(especially in a barricaded or hostage situation) If the officers were in uniform, they would be easily seen and easy targets. The masks also fall into this category because as you learn in basic military camoflauge, the face will stand out in the dark and even in the daytime. So, having your face covered is good camoflauging technique also.
3) This also holds true after making entry. If the subject was ready for the officers or was able to send rounds down range toward them, then if they had uniforms on they would be easy targets inside the house also. Even in the dark, the residual lighting would reflect off the officers brass buttons, badge, name tag etc. to give away location.


Also, in my 5 1/2 years as part of a Tactical Team, we made more entries than I could count. And several times it was criminals with known violent history's against officers and civilians. Every one of them, when surprised by our entry and flashbangs, were temporarily stunned and vapor locked and never caused any trouble whatsoever. Not to say people don't react and fight back. It's just that those people are few and far between. I was just lucky I guess. Because several team members had stories of violent altercations prior to me being on the team.
So, the odds are, that by the time you wake up and figure out what's going on, you won't be able to move due to being heavily covered by officer's weapons. And if you do decide to move, then you wouldn't probably even touch your gun before getting shot. It's just not a smart move.

And I promise you, just as others have said, you don't have to worry about knowing whether they are police or not. You'll know because they will be saying it several times as they clear the building! Hope this helps!

The Rock 326

What's up Brad?? I was wondering when you would comment on this thread!

flashbang756

Ahh, it took me a while. My DSL has been down for a few days so I've been doing alot of catching up.

EleanorsMine

Charter yes?

flashbang756

Nope, even worse! Alltel!