As Rick has pointed out here, here and here, Gov. Lynch paraded around the state a goodly sized gaggle of Police Chiefs and Sheriffs in an attempt to put the pressure on the NH Senate to not override his veto on SB88 (the "Stand Your Ground bill). SB88 basically says that you are no longer required to retreat first when you are threatened – anywhere. All we heard during this run up to the Senate votewas the variation of the anti-gunners: the streets will run red with blood and that innocents will suffer. This will be especially true, according to our law enforcement leadership, when overly emboldened but severely under-trained citizens endless defend themselves against low-life muggers as if they were in Afghanistan using a one-off of the "pray and spray" technique.
The other argument was if gang members (who, being criminals, have neglected to get any training at all and walk around muttering "say ‘ello to my ‘lil fwrend") used the law to start taking out their rivals (like many of us would care?). Oh, sorry, forgot about the innocents walking by.
After all, police officers have been highly trained in marksmanship and know when and when not to use their weapons. And if they have to, they know how to aim and fire under stressful conditions…..oh wait! (emphasis mine):
…In another example of appalling marksmanship by members of law enforcement, it appears that a bystander who was killed during one of the 52 shooting events that occurred in New York City over the weekend was probably killed by a stray round fired by an NYPD officer. This, in and of itself, isn’t terribly surprising given the population density of the five boroughs. What is notable is that, as nytimes.com reports, eight officers firing 73 bullets at one shooter managed to hit him only twice…
…It’s been determined the bullet that killed Denise Gay was not fired by the shooter’s gun.
I’m going to wait to see what Belknap County Sheriff Wiggin is going to say about this, as he was one of Lynch’s leaders that decided that WMUR’s CloseUp was a great venue to extol the prowess of trained officials vs mere mortal citizens).
What has gone unsaid that the vast majority of law abiding citizens take their Second Amendment Rights seriously, as there are low-lifes not only on the street but members of the Bar that would gladly act as legal counsel to the first kind of low-lifes in order to extract money from the lawful citizens who have been attacked. Thus, there will be that thought process of "I pull that trigger, almost regardless of the situation, and my butt is gonna end up in front of a judge – just for defending myself. A rational thought process and not the automatic Wild Wild West mentality that they’ve been trying PR.
And remember, Dirty Harry carried a badge (but seemingly a better shot than the NYC Keystone Kops, whom we have been led to believe that they have been trained sufficiently well to know when NOT to pull that trigger).
