What I wrote …I wrote. It is my honest opinion for you to take or …just as well…to leave. I was hoping that I might be able to clear up a couple of common misconceptions but I think I was not counting on causing a controversy with another expert. I will simply put my tail between my legs and leave this alone by deferring to your enthusiastic disagreement. I should have warned you before you put so much energy into your post…I simply don’t care about philosophy…I simply know what I had to learn. Have a nice day!
Here’s the deal:
You put forth a “what if” situation which basically put forth no solution to the problem you brought to attention. You further tried to back up this claim, both originally, and in response to my gripe about the mentality of it, by flapping around your credentials for credibility. OK, fine. However, when badges, credentials, or authority on a subject are flashed, solutions are expected.
Example:
You, being the long time police veteran that you are, are asked to give a seminar on surveillance and arrest techniques for a Bounty Hunting/Private Investigative service. This is not atypical for retired Law Enforcement specialists to do, i.e. act as consultants. Say these people are opening up shop in reaction to a new Homeland Security regulation which puts such things as illegal immigrant apprehension, warrant service, etc into the realm of contracting.
Any firm worth its salt will look at experts in the field and area, you being one. They will have said expert give some regional/local advice, as part of the reason they hired you is so they don’t have to pay some analyst extra money for an intelligence report on historical crime trends. Again, in this scenario, this is not out of the question. We’re what if’ing, right?
So as part of their curriculum on the area, you delve into historical trends in the area on use of weapons in certain crimes. You realize that in most daytime crimes, knives are often used by criminals instead of guns; interviews of suspects over the years have revealed a trend of doing this for lighter legal sentences if caught, ease of stashing, etc. So, the likelihood is that anyone acting on a burglary or anything else for which they’ve been hired to assist in stopping, is they might be stabbed instead of shot. You tell them this. These guys say, “well, what do you recommend as far as reacting to this variable? Our vests are set up for more undercover type stuff, just soft armor, and that’s easily defeated by blades and other pointy, hard objects.”
I’m not a genius LE guy, but I’d recommend utilizing hard plates in a system and style of their choice when at all possible. Solution. Easy.
Putting forth your “what if”, it would have had much more weight and bearing if you’d just said:
Solution:
“So, examining the statistics of day-time crimes in terms of home invasion and burglary, it would be prudent to retain your firearm in a safe when you are not in the home, provided you are not legally able to carry it on your person. As an LEO for
# of years, this has resulted in fewer thefts of firearms kept for defensive purposes, as evident in trends of comparative inventory of residential property during investigations of similar crimes and circumstances.” (Or some equally professional sounding bit of wordiness to say: Get a safe and this likely won’t happen)
No need to get all defensive about how awesome you are because you carried a weapon in your career. Frankly, most cops are an absolute danger with a firearm due to departmental budgeting and the lack of real trigger time. Those who really make an effort to stay sharp are the minority.
And you have a nice day too, Sir.
