Barber Blues

I went to the barber today ... I had tried to get in on Wednesday but he was so busy I got tired of waiting and left.  Besides, I had left my reading glasses at home and the American Rifleman magazine issue on his coffee table was printed in a smaller font than usual and I couldn't read it.

It was a much shorter wait today, and I enjoyed the magazine more with my glasses on.

When it was my turn, I hopped into the chair and started chatting with Takaa, my Chinese barber.   Glancing down at the dropcloth I saw a lock falling into my lap.  I blurted out:  "Where the hell did that grey hair come from!?"

Takaa looked down at the lock in my lap, shrugged, and said "It's okay, I'm only cutting grey hairs today" and went back to his clipping.

When I got out of the chair I tipped the barber an extra five bucks for getting rid of the grey hairs.

I swear, when I shaved this morning, I only saw brown hair in the mirror.   I guess I should have stuck around longer on Wednesday; I'm pretty sure I didn't have any gray locks than.

Darwinian Solution

Ouch: Gun goes off, man shoots self in groin on Madison-bound bus, police say | Crime | host.madison.com:

A 21-year-old Chicago man shot himself in the groin early Wednesday morning, while on a commuter bus .... The unidentified victim apparently had a loaded handgun in the waistband of his pants, and the gun fired, sending a bullet through his penis and one testicle, said police spokesman Howard Payne.

Pretty sure his children won't follow in his footsteps.

And yeah, "the gun fired".  Is this what they mean when they talk about "Smart Guns"?

Tomorrow ...

I had it in mind to post "The Day Of The Triffids" on Tuesday, but today I think I'll post this:

                                                             Tomorrow

Grasping At Straws: Baltimore Gerrymanders Gun Rights.

Baltimore gives initial nod to proposed mandatory minimums for illegal guns:

The measure originally aimed to criminalize the carry or transport of a handgun, either openly or concealed, within 100 yards of a public building, park, church, school, or “other place of public assembly” with a mandatory penalty of one-year imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.

A flawed bill, for two reasons:

First, assuming the phrase "other place of public assembly" is not explicitly defined in the actual bill, that could mean a movie theater ... or almost any place where the public assembles.   Example: A Shopping Mall.

Second, assuming the phrase "transport of a handgun" means having a handgun in your car as you drive through town, it's almost impossible to chart a "safe" route through town on your way to or from (for example) a Shooting Range.

To illustrate the complexity of this problem, you should avail yourself of a map of a city, municipality, etc. and identify and mark the locations of every " public building, park, church, school, or “other place of public assembly”.

I couldn't do that with 100% confidence in my home town, or even a small town.
Hell, I live within 100 yards of both a church and a park.   I couldn't even leave my driveway without violating such a law.

It is idiosyncratic of politicians (not just Liberals, but all of them) to resolve every problem by throwing a law at it.  Plan "B" is to throw money at it.   That's their entire toolbox.   It is reasonable to expect no more effective plans from a group of people who are elected by popular votes.

I would give Baltimore politicians credit for at least trying to resolve their high-mortality rate of Gangsters with Guns, but passing new laws like this one only serves to criminalize law-abiding citizens.

The gun delusion

The Concord Monitor has offers an interesting opinion piece from Debra Marshall, who cautions us that:

"I’m not safe, and you’re not safe, if either of us is armed; and you’re deluding yourself if you think you’re well-trained in firearms."

Debra Marshall: The gun delusion:

A weapon [emphasis added] has just one purpose – to kill another human being. We all need to assume, very seriously, that anyone who possesses a weapon has every intention of pointing it at another human and attempting to kill them. Not maybe, not only if they have to – but absolutely. And that any person who carries their weapon around with them intends to do so at any moment, without warning. We would be fools to think otherwise, and fools to think that we won’t be their target.

AND ...

Specialized training doesn’t consist of taking pot-shots at a human-outline target in an indoor target shooting range. I don’t care what the range instructor told you – he lied. If you aren’t a member of a police force, military unit or related government agency with specialized weapons training, you have NOT received the training you need to be armed with a weapon and for me to be safe anywhere near you.

I agree with some of her arguments ... and disagree with others .... in whole or in part.

Which isn't really important.  It's still a fascinating screed, written by someone with experience and judgement.   That she evinces an inordinate amount of faith in the skills and training of Law Enforcement personnel only demonstrates that she believes a regular regimen of training is better than none at all.

Some people really SHOULD NOT be trusted with guns.

Most of them already know that.

But some of those who do not know that, are employed by municipal police departments.

Dems Deny Concealed Carry By Charging Preposterous Permit Prices

John Lott details the obstructions anti-gun states use to deny Concealed Carry by "Undesirables".

How Democrats keep guns in the hands of the rich - Chicago Tribune: A new report from the Crime Prevention Research Center shows that the average fee for a concealed handgun permit is $67, but it is much higher in the most Democratic states. Each 10-percentage-point increase in a state's presidential vote for Hillary Clinton was associated with an additional $30 in the concealed handgun permit fee. In California, where Clinton won by about 30 points, fees can be as high as $385 for just two years. In New York City, where she won by 60 points, a three-year permit costs $430.

 In addition to prohibitive fees, some blue states — California, Illinois — require four times as many training hours as the national average, adding hundreds of dollars to the cost of obtaining a concealed-carry license. In California counties, the mandated cost of training can run from $250 to more than $1,000. Compare heavily Democratic Illinois, where the cost of permit and training runs over $450, with neighboring Republican Indiana where the total cost for everything is $50.

I'm on the side of encouraging firearms training ... I teach it at my local gun club.   But there is no 'certification' awarded in my class;  it only serves to familiarize students in safe gun handling, with an emphasis on competition. So I can attest that It Ain't Rocket Science; what you PAY for is the certificate, which some states/localities require before a Concealed Carry License will be issued.

The states which mandate "certification" aren't using this requirement to "ensure proficiency"; they're using it as a club to beat the shit out of anyone who has the gall to demand that their Constitutional Rights will be honored.   Then after the expensive training, they add on this absurd fee for the permit itself.

Dr. Lott is, as always, absolutely correct.   This is all a great scheme on the part of the so-called "Liberals" (who are anything but liberal) to obstruct the American Citizen's access to firearms as noted in the Constitution.

This is why we can't have any fun any more.    The Democrats are, literally, doing everything they can to discourage law-abiding private citizens from exercising their rights.   Why are they doing that?

There are two reasons why Democrats are against the Second Amendment.

The first reason is that they are, as a class, a bunch of narrow-minded fuss-budgets who pretend to believe the Government can solve all your problems for you ... and if you aren't the government, you're not competent to run your own life.

The second reason why Democrats are against the Second Amendment is that Conservatives (not all of them Republicans) are FOR it.   Anything Republicans like, Democrats instinctively denounce.

Yes, many Democrats are nice people; many of my best friends are  ... uh ... no, not really.   A couple, at best.   But I'm sure there are a lot of nice Democrats out there, that I just haven't met yet.

Having said all that, the Democrats in "Blue State" of Oregon are among the "Nice Democrats".    For example, the cost for a CHL (Concealed Handgun License) is in the $50 - $65 range.    You can actually take an online course for about that same amount, and apparently their certification of completion is acceptable in Oregon.   (Also, it seems that most County Sheriff offices will accept USPSA membership as certification of handgun competence.  Go figure.)

(The same website offers a neat summary of Oregon Gun Laws)

In Chicago; Just Because you're Paranoiac ...

... that doesn't mean that nobody's out to "get you".


Inside the gun violence epidemic on Chicago's South Side - CBS News:

 "We felons. You know what I'm saying? Ain't nobody gonna give us no jobs. The cops don't give a f*** about us." But when asked if innocent people dying by those bullets is worth it, they both said, "No."

Lances at Dawn

The Brits can't own guns any more.  Or knives, or spears, or lances, or ...

Wait a minute!  Lances?  They can do LANCES!


Extreme jousting: Knights in armor clash on horseback in VR:

It’s knight time: go lance-to-lance on horseback in a modern jousting match. 

USA TODAY NETWORK



Damn this looks like fun!  Can we do this 'here'?

NEVER denigrate the ability of Englishmen to Find A Way to practice Extreme Sports.

Is a Lance designated as an Assault Weapon?

This is the COOLEST THING EVER!

*It makes IPSC look like a Child's Game*

Another "Mike The Gun Guy" pack of lies and misdirection

Want To Be A Gun Nut? Move To Kansas | HuffPost:

Now the last time I looked at my trusty Road Atlas, Kansas City straddles the Kansas border, and the rate of gun violence in that city increased by 64 percent from 2014 to 2016 and is on track this year to set a new record by at least 50 percent more shootings over the total from last year. Of course the number of shootings in KC and throughout the state would probably be much higher if the law-abiding state residents weren’t all walking around with their guns. Remember a little story called The Wizard of Oz? There’s a reason Dorothy lived in Kansas.

Very colorful ... especially if you remember the scene in the Wizard of Oz when the movie changed from Black&White to Color.

The famously fraudulent Gun Guy is conflating Campus Carry with the increase of gun violence in Kansas.

By suggestion and innuendo only.

Nowhere in his citations does he present any factual or even incidental link between gun violence and Campus Carry.  He fails to provide any incident of the horrible massacres he implies will inevitably occur on Kansas University property:

The evidence that a gun represents a threat to public safety is overwhelming, 

... and he cites The Brady Campaign as his authority source.   In a contribution to the Huffington Post.   At least he's not shy about proving that he's nothing better than a shill for the Anti-Gun fanatics who will stop at nothing to protest their discomfort with the Constitutional rights of American citizens.

Some people need to learn not to see the world in sepia only.

"Gun Safety" vs "Gun Control"

When Liberals get all worked up about guns, they don't focus on the gangsters; they focus on the law-abiding firearms owners.  Why?  Because they know we're safe ... and we can be identified because the liberal Gun Registration Laws are focusing on US!

Wisc. Democrats: Gun Safety Course 'Inappropriate' for High Schoolers - Breitbart:

Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Dist. 80) opposes the gun safety courses for high schoolers. She says the bill to create the course is bad because nothing in it “prohibits students from hiding ammunition in their bags and loading their guns in the school.” 

Liberals (Democrats, almost universally ) claim that when they espouse "Common Sense Gun Control", they are concerned about safety.  They seem to believe that when a "normal person" is presented with a firearm, something goes sick in their heads.   (See the movie "Blue Steel".)

But when presented by a plan to teach firearms safety to teenagers ... something goes sick in their heads.    They can't get past the awful images of Things Which May Go Terribly Wrong, and they focus on the worst possible consequences of allowing the Stupid American Electorate ("after all .. they voted for me; how smart can they be?")  to exercise their Constitutional Rights*.

Thus we come to the irrationality of Rep. Sondy Pope (D-DIST. 80) who worries that, if high schoolers are 'allowed' to take a firearms safety course, they may go stark raving mad and shoot up their school.   She apparently thinks there should be something in the bill to make it illegal to shoot up a school.  "There, that's fixed!"

(Note to Rep. Pope:  and this would be different from the alternatives .. how?    I note that in that list of 101 school shootings, only 35 of them occurred in American schools.  Which is too many, granted.  But considering that America has the most guns per population, you would think that such a Wild West culture would dominate the list more definitively.)

*(Yes, it's in the Constitution.  But those old guys ... what did they know about how America would look in 200 years?   They knew enough to foretell that idiots may would be elected to Congress.)\

Shall Not Comply

"I Will Not Comply" isn't a catch-phrase.  It's a warning.

The Bloviating Fat Men from Seattle got their come-upence this week, and all True Citizens of the Constitution are laughing at their Hubris.

Seattle Spent More Defending Gun-Tax Lawsuit Than It Collected in Revenue From Tax, Gun Group Claims - Washington Free Beacon:

The city of Seattle spent more to defend a lawsuit against its gun tax than it gathered in revenue from the tax, a gun-rights group claimed on Friday. King County Superior Court Judge Lori K. Smith ruled in favor of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on Friday in a Public Records Act suit over Seattle's refusal to disclose the exact amount of revenue collected through their "gun violence tax." The gun-rights group filed suit after the city refused to fulfill a public record request from Dave Workman, editor of SAF-owned TheGunMag.com. The group said the real revenue numbers revealed in court documents appear to fall short of the city's projections.

Apparently, Seattle thought that "I Will Not Comply" was nothing more than a threat of passive resistance.

The "City Fathers" (and a more mordant bunch of Maroons have not recently been found) thought that they could arbitrarily tax a Constitutional Right to death, and their citizens would roll over, uttering only meek objections.

They didn't expect that a citizens' group would actual sue their arrogant asses into infinity.

Thanks to Dave Workman and his Second Amendment Foundation crew, there was no need for a Malheur-Crew of protesters to endure prison and risk death in the process; a simple legal requirement seemed adequate to prove that the anti-gun politicians were just blowing smoke.

Politicians have no sand.

What they DO have is monumental egos, which allows them to convince themselves that they can make any laws which catch their fancy, and their subjects constituents have no alternative but to roll over and say "Thank You Sir, May I Have Another?"

We can only hope that this serves notice to other unscrupulous politicians (are there any other kinds?) that Americans are serious about this whole "Shall Not Be Abridged" thingie.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot this archaic warning:

What a bunch of maroons.

Oh .. and Thanks, Dave and Crew; from all of us to all of you.

Don't Mess With Kroger!

Police: Armed Citizen Takes Down Alleged Attacker at Kroger - Breitbart:

Sheriff’s deputies in Shelby County, Tennessee, say an armed citizen at Kroger shot and critically wounded a suspect who allegedly attacked using a metal bar and a pair of pliers. According to News Channel 3, the armed citizen was sitting in his car at the Kroger gas pump when the unidentified 32-year-old suspect charged him. The armed citizen “shot the [suspect] in the face and abdomen.”

Sheriff’s deputies in Shelby County, Tennessee, say an armed citizen at Kroger shot and critically wounded a suspect who allegedly attacked using a metal bar and a pair of pliers.

There's a Kroger store in my town.  In fact, it's 3 blocks away from my home, and I do all my shopping there.   Groceries, mostly, but also hardware, clothing, lawn and garden, cigarettes, books and music and movies, and even  Crossword Puzzle books!   I fuel my car at their gas pumps.  (They have the lowest price in town.)

Last year, when their "No No Guns Signs" policy was announced publicly, I wrote a letter in appreciation to their Corporate Headquarters.   I said I don't shop at any business which is posted; if crooks know nobody has a gun, they will be emboldened to attack the store and the customers.

I feel safer in a store that isn't posted.   Besides that: if they don't trust me, why should I trust them?

Anything I need to buy, I go to Krogers first.   They don't have uniformed, armed security guards on site; they don't need them.They have hundreds of stores in their chain and as far as I know NONE of their stores are posted.   I feel safer in any Kroger store, because I'm pretty sure that someone is watching my back for me.   I'm not the only CHL in town.

The neat thing is, no other stores in this little college town are posted, either.  Since Krogers is the biggest store with the most customers, all the others are just picking up "neighborhood" shoppers.  I like to think that they're afraid of losing the few customers they have if they posted.

Kroger markets provide a standard for all their competitors, so everyone benefits from their public policy.

The moral to the story is; don't bring a pair of pliers and a stick to stick up a Kroger market.

You never know who you will run into.

The Great Aurora, Colorado Gun Debate

Recently, the Arapahoe County (Colorado) District Attorney George Brauchler and the Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry found the time to write opposing Editorials in Dave's Newspaper (in George's county).    Their subject was the 2012 Theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

I've decided to post large quotes from both public figures, if only to illustrate the margin of difference between the Liberal Editor and the Conservative D.A.

(Note: The quotes have been edited slightly to improve readability; no part of either statement has been edited in content.)

Due to the length of the comments, I've inserted a page break between the quotes for those who don't want to read a LONG post.

PERRY: Common sense, facts and hope refute DA Brauchler's gun-law claim and Nugent's nuttery - Aurora Sentinel:  BY DAVE PERRY, editor, Updated: July 26, 2017 7:05 am

Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler is the smart and affable Aurora DA who helped convict James Holmes for the Aurora theater shooting murders and assaults. Brauchler is now running for governor.

He nearly won a death sentence against the sadistic and hopelessly mentally ill Holmes for murdering 12 people five years ago on July 20.  ...  The anniversary of the grisly massacre coincided with the regular meeting last week of the politically rightest of the right, the Western Conservative Summit in Denver. In a straw poll, Brauchler won the group’s endorsement for governor in 2018. He came out on top among other conservative hopefuls in part because of his remarks about gun laws.  

Brauchler said — in the shadow of the anniversary of one of the worst gun-massacres in the history of the United States — that there is no gun law he’s heard of that could have prevented the Aurora theater shooting.   

 Now I know full well that Brauchler is just pandering to the gun set when he says things like that, even if he means it. It’s no different than Democrat gubernatorial candidates telling teachers they’ll help keep the union strong — except teachers don’t kill nearly as many people as do guns.

See Brauchler Quote Below:

Gun Violence Archive

(In case you missed it:)

Lexington-based website counts gun-related deaths in the US - Washington Times:
 LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - When gunshots make national news, Mark Bryant’s phone rings in Lexington. 

 Bryant, 62, is neither a law enforcement officer nor a trauma specialist. He runs a private website, Gun Violence Archive, that updates on an hourly basis, with street-level details, most of the gun-related incidents that have occurred in the United States since 2013.  Want to know how many people have been killed by guns so far this year nationally? In your state? In your city? Last year? The year before that? The number of people wounded? How many shooting victims were children? How many mass shootings there were? Police-related shootings? How many times guns were used in self-defense? How many shootings were unintentional? 

Operated out of a small home just off Richmond Road, Bryant’s GVA answers such questions for journalists, policymakers, even law enforcement. And despite the public-safety menace of gun violence in this country, few others do this kind of work.

See: Gun Violence Archive

Folding Glock

Full Conceal's Folding Glock Akin To Magpul's FMG9 - The Firearm BlogThe Firearm Blog:

 Full Conceal had a prototype of their concept back at SHOT Show 2017. Pete posted about it here. Their original concept was a cut down Glock frame and the remaining grip/magazine would lock onto the frame making the pistol a rectangular brick. You would have to remove the grip/magazine and insert it into the gun to make it into a complete pistol.

You'll have to visit The Firearm Blog to see the pictures (and also a very short video) demonstrating the concept.   Personally, I'm a 1911 Slob  Snob  so I try not to show Glock pictures here .... even when they look like a Klein bottle as an Embryo, or something that came out WRONG in the Starship Enterprise Transport Bay 3.

Or ... like this:

Society's Child in ToonTown

We didn't have enough Psychopaths in America, so we decided to import them.

20-Time Deportee Moves to Sanctuary City, Allegedly Rapes 65-Year-Old Woman: Police officers in the sanctuary city of Portland [Oregon] arrested Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, after he allegedly broke into the home of a 65-year-old woman, tied her up, held her at knifepoint and raped her, KOIN CBS6 reported. Court records revealed Martinez has a long criminal history that includes burglary, battery, and multiple deportations.

It's not "Sanctuary", it's a Hunting Ground

Following his alleged attack on the 65-year-old woman in her home where she gave him her Prius to get him to leave, police responded to a call about a man attacking a woman in the basement of a parking garage below a building. There, police discovered Martinez allegedly sexually assaulting another woman and holding her at knifepoint. Martinez fled on foot and officers chased him through a neighborhood, capturing him in a nearby apartment, KOINS reported.

Sanctuary Cities need to take responsibility for encouraging these maniacs, who migrate to places like Portland which encourage rapine and murder by their permissive social policies.

Martinez had been deported at least TWENTY TIMES, and he kept coming back because he (like all of his perverted kind) knew that the worst he could expect was a slap on the wrist, and a plethora of Social Justice Warriors who will weep for his poor degenerate self.

What kind of community allows encourages feral creatures to predate its citizens?

A Credit To His Profession?

Secret Service special officer accidentally shoots himself while on duty:

A Secret Service special officer on Tuesday afternoon accidentally shot himself and is hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to the agency. A news release from the Secret Service said a special officer assigned to the Washington field office accidentally discharged his weapon while on duty.

I hope the Secret Service "special officer" (what does this mean?) recovers completely.

I see that the article published in the Washington Examiner includes the following note:

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the special officer involved in the incident as a "Secret Service agent," which is a different position. We regret the error and have pasted the full statement from the Secret Service below.

Weasel Words; I'll assume that "Special Officer" isn't a member of the Presidential Protection Team.
It's just that, we don't know what is the difference between a "Special Officer" and a "Secret Service Agent".   Don't we need to know?

If I Were A Conspiracy Theorist ...

I would wonder about the Rafael Prieto factor.

And,  I would suspect there's a Back Story which will never be told.    I doubt that this happened "Accidentally".

Inadvertently, perhaps, but it's been a long time since I saw a firearm discharge occur "accidentally".

The proper adverb might be "Negligently".  That makes me more comfortable, assuming "bad gun-handling expertise" rather than some Conspiracy Theory balderdash.

   Best guess ... holstering a pistol without ensuring that his finger was off the trigger.   Which is an "Amateur's "Accident".

Still ... we always have the example of (federal employee) ATF/DEA Agent Lee Paige:


Thanks, Lee; you make your fellow Federal Officer look good by comparison.

(He's still an idiot.)

Australian Girl's Anti-2nd Amendment Rant Online

Breitbart posts an article on 2nd Amendment rights, and (in the COMMENTS section) almost casually includes a link to a video which is .... very confrontational about Gun Control.  (view the video below, or go directly to the YouTube link here.)

The link to this article is in the Comments Section of the Breitbart Article link, in the sentence:

Here's an Australian who just doesn't get it. That wouldn't bother me but for the fact that she starts preaching to us Yanks about our guns and blames the guns rather than the fact that we don't keep hardened criminals in prison throughout much of the nation. There is a lot of misinformation, stupidity and sleight of hand in this 6 minute video.

(I think she makes some very good points, and that we should listen to what she says; many other anti-2nd people will be quoting her in the very new future!)

The Gun Control Debate

I assume that the young lady who narrates is the author, but I have no way to confirm that at this time.   Certainly she seems sincere in her beliefs.

(See Below For More Content)

Chicago is a One-line Joke, and it ain't funny

This one line says all there is to say about Chicago:

 It had been about nine hours since the last fatal shooting in the city.

Back in the day, Chicago was best known for it's meat-packing industry.   Now the whole place sounds like a slaughter-house.

New Questions arise in Justine Damond death

Justine Damond: Killer cop Mohamed Noor ‘didn’t respect women’ | Daily Telegraph:

On Thursday, Officer Harrity’s lawyer described their fear of being attacked as “reasonable” given a spate of recent cop killings. Mr Noor’s gun was on his lap — and not in his holster — at the time on the incident.

What?  
This adds a whole new perspective to the situation.  It strongly suggests that Noor was not only anticipating, but EXPECTING that he would be attacked.   And it makes one wonder why his partner didn't object to his unprofessional behavior at the time.  Note that the press still refers to "Officer Harrity", but "Mr Noor".

Just one more reason to question why there was no more experienced officer in the patrol car; someone who possessed the experience and judgment ... and seniority ... to suggest that Noor was over-reacting.   As in: Stand Down!

 But claims of an ambush yesterday infuriated Ms Damond’s family, whose newly hired high-profile lawyer told US television they “have no basis in fact” and were “ludicrous”. Lawyer Robert Bennett told CBS that Ms Damond’s family does not want Officer Noor to stay in the force and they are considering a civil lawsuit over her death. “This is an unbelievable situation,” Mr Bennett told CBS yesterday.

On the Other Hand: What?
"claims of an ambush" had "no basis in fact" and were "ludicrous"?

Ms. Damond called TWICE to the police emergency phone number  ... once to report a possible felony assault, and again to make sure the police were on the way.   That sounds to me as if the 911 call suggested that an ambush was possible.   (Which does not excuse Officer Noor's over-reaction .. he obviously did not see a gun ... were there not enough lights in that alley?   Of course, a Policeman's Lot is Not A Happy One.  They are sometimes required to enter dark alleys; that's why they are issued flashlights.)

In the first call at 11.27pm Saturday, she said she feared someone was being raped behind her house in south Minneapolis. Eight minutes later she called again to make sure police were coming.
“Hi, I can hear someone out the back and I’m not sure she’s having sex or being raped,” Ms Damond said at the start of the call, at 11.35pm.

I can understand how the Damond Family would wish "Officer Noor" to be removed from the police force, but I don't understand how the Daily Telegraph can believe two impossible things before breakfast.

“This is an unbelievable situation,” Mr Bennett told CBS yesterday.

And that is the first believable thing I can understand about this entire tragedy.


I think there are three, perhaps four, lessons we can all take from this:

1. Ms Damond, out of a keen sense of social responsibility, made the fatal mistake of entering a possible crime scene which SHE reported; she paid for that mistake (she thought someone was being raped, yet she ran into the alley while wearing her pajamas?) with her life;
2. Officer Noor should never have been allowed out  of the station house without an experienced (read: not gullible) keeper;
3. Officers in a patrol car do not typically carry their duty weapons in their hands; unless they are being fired upon, they usually wait until they exit the patrol vehicle before drawing their duty weapon.  This is called "Don't Shoot Your Buddy", aka "Rule One".   Had Officer Harrity been more experienced, and/or clearly Senior, he might have tool Officer Noor to "Keep Your Pecker In Your Pants, Dude!"  (Or words to that effect.)    This is another of the unfortunate side-effects of the recent spate of patrol officers being murdered
4. The press will print what they have, and if they have nothing to print, they will make it up.  If it bleeds, it leads.   The truth doesn't matter.  Accuracy doesn't matter.   Appropriateness doesn't matter.  The only thing that matters is selling newspapers (or hits on a website, or readership, or viewer count ... it's about the numbers, Baby!)

Senior officers need to take command of their individual units; it's not enough to hold the command office, they need to actually command their subordinate officers.   When a patrol officer rides with his gun in his hand, that's something that his superiors need to know about ... and stop!