The really awful part is that it didn’t have to happen, and this is a pretty clear case where the fact that the victim had a gun escalated the minor situation into a deadly one.
The basic facts are this: a census worker knocked on the door of the home in question. This home is in a nice neighborhood, not the kind of place where gangs run rampant or crime is much of an issue. (My son dated a girl in this neighborhood, I am familiar with it, and it is the kind of place I would have no trouble being by myself at night.) For some reason, one of the residents in the home decided to answer the door with a gun in their hand. Instead telling the census worker to buzz off and slamming the door in her face, like most sane people who don’t want to answer census question would do, they decided to point the gun at the unarmed worker. This started the whole chain of events, and it was completely unnecessary. But some yahoo used gun in a situation where no gun was called for or needed.
The census worker left and reported the incident to her supervisor. Someone in the Census chain of command decided to call in Yuba City’s finest. This is a perfectly sane and reasonable decision when there is some yahoo with a gun threatening unarmed people. If you are dumb enough to wave a gun at someone, expect a visit from the police.
So the cops come knocking on the door of the gun-toting, census hating citizen. Note that these were uniformed cops in a clearly marked patrol car. Still, the man answers the door, gun in hand. The cops, are not amused. And now the residents are trouble because they are not dealing with unarmed census workers, they are dealing with armed cops who spend many hours pumping lead into targets shaped like people holding guns. It does not take a genius to see that waving a gun at a cop is not going to end well.
But we are not dealing with geniuses here. The woman aims her shotgun at the cops and does not drop it when ordered to do so. The result is predicable; we all know what happens when you point a gun at armed police officers and don’t drop it when they order you to do so; the cops shot her and killed her.
Score one for Darwin.
The really sad part is that this did not have to happen. There was absolutely no reason for the residents to have threatened the census worker with a gun. If they had told her that they didn’t want to answer any questions and shut the door, everyone would be alive. But, no, someone had to wave their metal penis substitute around to prove how rough and tough they are.
I think this story illustrates the weakness of the whole “Armed Society is a Polite Society” meme that the right is so fond of. A gun was brought into a situation were no gun was needed, and now someone is dead. That’s not polite, that’s stupid.
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Anonymous guy
FusunA
Donna Carbone
Dr. Susanne Freeborn
Maureenow
Damon E Walters
Salon.com
Comments
Jan, I hear you. Unfortunately, if you read the comments to the story linked above, you find that the gun nuts think that the police are in the wrong and the woman had every right to arm herself in her own home. How does one fight crazy logic like that?
There was nothing keeping the woman from grabbing a knife and doing the same thing.
Clearly the poor woman was unstable, b/c no right minded person would aim a weapon at cops.
But good luck changing the Constitution to fit your opinion.
R
'I saw my (7 y/o) son come into the room holding the .45 like we taught him, he took the proper stance, I recall relaxing, I knew I was safe. He shot twice and the man fell to the ground.'
That kid put 2 bullets in that nuts head from 15 feet away. He just save his entire family
With a gun.
I only heard of this b/c it happened so close to where I lived. I have never ever heard of stories like this in the news, only by word of mouth. So if it turns out that the lady was unstable, I doubt you will hear about that.
Besides, even if your story is true, it doesn’t take way the fact that a gun, used improperly, in a situation where no guns was needed, cause the tragic death of woman. The wild west mentality got her killed. Arming everyone to the teeth didn't make anyone safe in back then, and it's not working now.
A tragedy, and part of our deeply abnormal normal. You capture it quite clearly. r.
Unfortunately, we cannot legislate gun ownership on the basis of common sense or the ability to think critically. We can't legislate on the basis of good manners, which I think would teach us that answering the door with a gun is not good manners, and really a dangerous choice even if it hadn't been the police.
Dr Freeborn, if all gun owners were like your sister, this would not have happened. But too many gun advocates have bought into the theory that the world is such a dangerous place and the ONLY way to defend one’s self to wave a gun around every chance you get.