Police Tase Legal Gun-Carrying Citizen
Posted by Razorback from www.theblaze.com
High_Binder, Chet_Manly, Robochess and 6 others like this
After telling him he was free to go.
Added in Guns and Such, Going to Hell in a Bucket
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Robochess 10 years, 7 months ago
My thoughts. I am sure will be unpopular. Even though he was in his rights he should still have just done what the police asked of him. The young man was calm, and talking, but he was not really cooperative. People need to remember that police deal with the crap of society on a more regular basis, 100x more. They want to go home, just like we all do. The police were pretty reasonable, up to the point of shocking, Don't really know what would have happened if he would have just said ok, I am putting my gun down so as to not appear a threat, then we can iron everything out. My guess is, if his record was clean, he would walk with his gun back home.
I say all this with the concept of there having been a phone call complaint on this guy. Who knows if it was real or not.
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JakeLonergan 10 years, 7 months ago
On the other hand, this should never have taken place. The police are NOT required to show up just because the guy is carrying, if open carry is legal. The dispatcher should ask if he is being threatening or appears to be doing something illegal. The police can't claim Fear Of Lawsuit if they don't respond to a call either, SCOTUS has ruled they are NOT obligated to be there to protect everyone. (That's condensed, the point is they don't have to roll just because somebody calls.) In this case it would appear there was no reason to even call local law enforcement, much less respond, other than the fear whipped up by "The News". BTW, I'm not a big advocate of open carry. Over-exuberance seems like a good pathway to a misunderstanding with a bad end. But if it's legal, it's legal.
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Robochess 10 years, 7 months ago
I agree with you JakeLonergan. I believe the reason the police showed up was that in the complaint, the complainer mentioned that the person in question was randomly pointing the gun in the neighborhood.
My guess, since this is all on video, was that this kid was trying to elicit a reaction. Nobody could prove he was pointing his gun anywhere, unless they took a video, so it becomes a he said they said and it is just a frickin waste of tax payer dollars.
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Razorback 10 years, 7 months ago
Without question, it could have been handled (or completely avoided) if both parties had acted differently. Bottom line, the guy should not have been walking around with a rifle that has a round chambered, whether it is legal or not. Simply no need for it.
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