The Coward? of Broward County.

[jdmidwest]

I ran across this post this morning reading my news feeds. What a statement. How can you call a man armed with a handgun who was reluctant to face a superior armed individual with a rifle a coward?

An AR 15 in 5.56 creates about 1300+ foot pounds of energy and has an effective range of several hundred feet. It may or may not defeat most personal body armor. Shoulder fired, it is very accurate and deadly even under stress. And was probably capable of firing up to 30 rounds without reloading.

Then you have a well seasoned officer in a nice relaxed job, very low threat probability. Maybe a kevlar vest, surely no chest plate or heavy armor. Armed with a handgun that produces a third of the energy, a third of the capacity, and a very short effective range. David and Goliath, in a round about way.

You can arm chair quarter back all you want, but don't call him a coward. We will never know what went thru his mind, but unless you have someone ordering you to push on, it would be a hard life decision. One he will live with all his life.

If he had been armed fully for the threat with superior firepower, it may have been a different call. But his chances of survival in an encounter with the crazed killer would have probably been pretty slim.

I am ashamed and saddened as always by this ordeal. We can never face the common denominator, the crazed person with an axe to grind. They are going to grind that axe with a car, a bomb, a knife, a sword, poison, or a gun. Laws were in place that should have caught him. Law enforcement was aware of him. Someone dropped the ball. The gun did not lead him into the school and kill the people, the crazed individual did it with his own axe that he picked up to use that day.

 

The anti gun war machine was cocked and ready with its senseless agenda.

 

Attack the real cause of the situation.  Society.  Bad parents or lack thereof.  Reality TV.  Morality in general.  If you want to attack the real case, I have my axe in hand to start chopping away. 

 

And for God's sake, lock down a school, prepare for a threat, and protect our kids.  Surely all of the tax money they suck down could accomplish that.  Watch over my kids like I do.  Give them at least as much protection as we do our common criminals in jails and prison.  Control access and stop this nonsense.

__________________

[fishinwrench]

Was he actually restricted to only carrying a handgun ?    I certainly wouldn't call him a coward, but he was guilty of being unprepared.  Obviously not a boy scout.  "Well seasoned' appears to be a stretch of the vocabulary, doesn't it?   

I mean how effective can you be defending against the highly possible threats of today.....with a handgun.   

Shoulda been carrying a shotgun at least. 

[jdmidwest]

33 years in law enforcement.  And I assume his only weapon was his sidearm.  He may have had access to more in his vehicle, depending on what his department let him have.  Probably no personal weapons.

Muzzle energy of 12 ga 00 buck is closer at around 1100 lbs of force, but still around 30 ft effective.  Will not defeat body armor of most types.  Nobody knows yet if he had any armor and he could not tell by looking.  None the less, the second he entered a 100 ft range, he would have been under gunned and odds would have been against him even armed with shotgun and slugs.

Almost all of law enforcement today walk around with handguns, either 9mm, 40 S&W, or 45 ACP.   The rifle, or shotgun is in the vehicle.

This is not the article I read that stirred me up, but one that seems to support him.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-bz-florida-school-shooting-scot-peterson-20180223-story.html

[fishinwrench]

Pretty sure that a magnum load of #4's will quiet just about anyone down within 50 yards, I don't care what you're wearing.  Even if wearing a plate, a few pellets are likely to find their way into the noggin.  If not on the first shot then surely the 2nd or 3rd.  

[tho1mas]

That job is sort of like being in the military - you can not pick the situations you are involved in.

[ness]

2 hours ago, tho1mas said:

That job is sort of like being in the military - you can not pick the situations you are involved in.

Agree, but we just don’t know all the facts. I know his boss sure threw him under the bus. 

Seems to me we could find a billion or two and physically secure all our schools. 

[fishinwrench]

Ya know the thing about all this mass shooting crap that has started bugging me the worst lately is that they keep saying it's a result of "poor mental health care" in the U.S.   Can someone describe to me how GOOD/BETTER mental health care works?  

There's no cure for mental illness.  Doesn't matter if they are in the U.S. or in Australia.   Crazy is crazy.    Has anyone here ever known someone that used to be crazy and dangerous... but got cured of it and is ok now and can function just fine?     Yeah I didn't think so.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I just heard on the news that there were other LEOs there at the same time as Peterson. 

And they didn’t go in either. 

[jdmidwest]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

Ya know the thing about all this mass shooting crap that has started bugging me the worst lately is that they keep saying it's a result of "poor mental health care" in the U.S.   Can someone describe to me how GOOD/BETTER mental health care works?  

There's no cure for mental illness.  Doesn't matter if they are in the U.S. or in Australia.   Crazy is crazy.    Has anyone here ever known someone that used to be crazy and dangerous... but got cured of it and is ok now and can function just fine?     Yeah I didn't think so.

Because of privacy laws, crazy does not get reported to authorities or ever leaves the office.  If it is not in the FBI Database when it comes to legal gun background checks, crazy buys a gun. 

In most of the last few shootings, red flags were up all around before the shooting happened.  The system failed to work and crazy did its things.

I only use crazy as a common thing among all of the shootings.  None were done by normal minded individuals.  All were thought out and planned ahead of time.  They were not done spur of the moment.

[Terrierman]

15 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Pretty sure that a magnum load of #4's will quiet just about anyone down within 50 yards, I don't care what you're wearing.  Even if wearing a plate, a few pellets are likely to find their way into the noggin.  If not on the first shot then surely the 2nd or 3rd.  

That's my recipe for coyotes too, be they two legged or four.  Instead of giving teachers CC pistols, put a coach gun and a couple of spare rounds in one of those fast access gun safes scattered around schools.  If you really want schools to be armed camps that is.