Good read....

Active Shooters, Home Invasions and “Protecting Our Children” « Blue Line Lawyer ®

What a sad, horrifying and bizarre way to begin 2012. From a media standpoint, there has been a lot of news to cover. A young mother shot and killed an intruder in Oklahoma, LEOs in Brownsville, Texas responded to a report of an armed suspect in a school on lockdown and shot the suspect and three LEOs were murdered. Through all the commentary, there is a one theme: Protecting our children.

The teen mom is being praised for being brave and she was brave. Let’s be honest though. A lot of people in her situation are brave…and deceased. Like many private citizens, she was the victim of a crime and facing an armed attacker. She called 911 to ask for help like millions of other citizens. Fortunately, she still had a right to possess, access and use a firearm to protect herself and her child. While much is being stated in the media about this brave mother who acted to protect her child, would her actions have been less brave if she was an 80 year old widow who lived alone? The media was attracted to this story because of the infant. You can read thousands of such stories at the Armed Citizen page of the NRA website. They have been publishing such stories for decades. However, the critical role of legal firearms ownership was lost on the media.... (click on the link for the rest of the story)

From one of my local stations (Houston Tx)

BROWNSVILLE, TX -- Police shot and killed an eighth-grader in the hallway of his middle school Wednesday after the boy brandished what looked like a handgun and pointed it at officers. It turned out to be a pellet gun that closely resembled the real thing.

15-year-old Brownsville student killed by officers had pellet gun !
click here for story

Yeah, I have followed this story. I saw it break on Fox News and have read articles on it over the last few days. I've seen all the idiotic comments about how the LEOs should have shot him in the leg, excessive force, etc.. I've seen the idiotic comments about how the Big Grown LEOs should have overpowered the "innocent child" and taken the firearm away from him.

Facts, based on audio and eye witness accounts - The kid threatened people with what anyone would have considered a real firearm. He was ordered by uniformed LEOs to drop the weapon. He raised said weapon at the Officer who were all yelling at him to drop his weapon. He made terrible choices and paid a consequence for it.

The Officer got to go home that night and deal with killing a kid, however justifiable they were in their actions.

Speculation - The kid didn't have parents that taught him right from wrong. I saw the interview with the "dad" and he looked like he was basically a kid himself. Also, this probably ended what would have been continued bad judgements by this kid in the future.

Opinion - It's sad a child lost his life, but there is no one to blame here except the kid, and possibly the parents.

I did not mean to start a "lets take sides on who shot John and why", we, (Houston Tx) have had 3 officer shooting incidents in the past two weeks !

Personally, I do not know of a LE department, that pays enough for me to risk my life like the front line does everyday. In today's times one can not take a perceived lethal threat to their life, (or the lives of others), lightly.

I am sorry the child would not listen to reason, the officer, I am sure, is sorry he had to do what was done, none of that is as important as making sure the officer, (AND others), were safe !

LE officers face the "bad guy" everyday and some of those calling for alternative endings do not have a clue what was involved with making the decisions that had to be made and carried out !