A completely unsurprising tragedy occurred not far from here a couple days ago, when an Arvada police officer shot and killed a man described as a Samaritan who had, just before, shot and killed a man who had ambushed and murdered another Arvada police officer.
Sound confusing? Yeah. So confusing that officials still haven't been able to share all the details with the media and the public. When it takes days and days to get the facts on a shooting in broad daylight, we are smart to suspect that something went horribly wrong in the response.
According to eyewitnesses, a man with a concealed weapon saw a uniformed offer shot and immediately went into action. Everything after that is blurry, thus far, but the original shooter (who we know hated the police and seemed to ambush the officer) is dead. So is the guy who leaped into action. And one other Arvada officer is on administrative leave.
Is it at all surprising that an officer arriving in the midst of the action might mistake a civilian firing a gun at another civilian as a potential threat? It's not like everyone is wearing a sign that identifies their role. So, no, I am not immediately being critical of the police or anyone, really.
But the myth for many gun lovers is that if we only ALL were armed, we would all be safer. The actuality is that if everyone were armed, everyone is a potential shooter, and a possible target.
Good guys with guns can and will kill good guys with guns. They might also kill bad guys. And both might happen, as seems to be the Arvada story.
The lesson might be that whether you are carrying a weapon or not, you might want to think twice about being a Samaritan and firing at a bad guy. You might be mistaken for a bad guy. Oh, and you MIGHT have misread the situation and be shooting at another good guy.
Oh, hell. Just fire away and we can sort out the details later.
After all: freedom.
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