What happened to showing some restraint.

[duckman1911]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

You mean that the neighbors ***CLAIMED*** he was wacked out carrying a kid and waving a gun. This CLAIM was in no way corroborated.

We've reviewed a number of cases where the person making a complaint exaggerates the actions of an honest citizen who may or may not even be in possession of a gun. People who are afraid of armed citizens tend to want police on the scene quickly to deal with one. To facilitate this, they often exaggerate the bit about the gun. Sometimes they claim the gun was pointed at them when it never left the holster. Sometimes they claim that a gun is present based on knowledge of the individual as a gun owner, but without actually seeing a gun.

Hoplophibic complaints of exaggerated risks are a significant contributor to bad officer involved shootings. I do not think that experienced law enforcement officers are ignorant of the propensity for some complaintants to exaggerate the situation to get them on the scene quickly.

In the present case, it appears that an unarmed man was shot, and that all the guns were in the house. A good investigation should determine whether the complaintants lied about the man waving the gun, or whether he genuinely was waving a gun about and returned the gun to the home before police arrived. If this man's death resulted from exaggerated claims from hoplophobic neighbors, then I hope they face appropriate charges for making a false report.

Exactly. Two years ago I had the sheriffs office called on me because a nieghbor thought I was blowing up pipe bombs. We were shooting tannerite(perfectly legal) not blowing up pipe bombs. Its that kind of crap that will have SWAT rolling up in force with AR's and MP5's in hand. Luckily that didnt happen. When the cops walked around to our patio I was sitting there with some friends with guns all over the table. Now what happens in that situation if some keyed up cop with a gun in his hand comes around the corner of my house and sees that? Im sorry but Im not willing to bet my life that he makes the right decision.