Punta Gorda police officer Lee Coel fires his gun during the Punta Gorda Police Department’s demonstration Tuesday night. The department identified Coel as the officer who accidentally shot and killed Mary Knowlton. (Photo: Sue Paquin/Charlotte Sun)
A woman, Mary Knowlton, was accidentally shot and killed by a police officer during a role-play incident, “Shoot or Don’t Shoot,” at the Citizens Academy.
For me, it was a plum assignment. It was a Punta Gorda Chamber of Commerce event, so I knew most of the people there — John Wright, Nanette Leonard, Debi Malinoski, etc.Mrs. Knowlton had volunteered to be one of the participants in the role-playing part of the exercise. She was given a “simunition” gun, a fake weapon which used detergent in the rounds, and the officer involved had one as well filled with blanks.Or so they thought.I snapped the photo as the officer, playing a “bad guy,” fired
It seems that this was more of a Dog-And-Pony show for the Chamber of Commerce than training. Safety protocols were disregarded and somebody paid with her life.
If Punta Gorda PD was trying to make an impression, they managed. Those who approved, set up and prepped this thing have to be given their retirement papers and job application for WalMart.
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (WSVN) — A woman has reportedly been shot and killed by a police officer during a Citizens Academy class at the Punta Gorda Police Department.According to the Punta Gorda Police Chief, a woman was shot several times by a police officer in a role-playing scenario where the officer was playing the “bad guy,” and the woman was playing a victim.The officer was supposed to be firing blank rounds, but live ammunition was used instead.Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials have been brought in to investigate the incident.
This sounds like a Force-On-Force training gone absurdly wrong. There is a reason why FOF training is done with Airsoft guns: they can give you a nice bruise but won’t kill you. Heck, even blanks will kill (Brandon Lee) you or give you a nasty scar for life. And if the military has found this a long time ago, there is no reason to use blanks to train civilians.
Blank device attached to rifle muzzle to contain any escaping gases or debris.
There are some schools that train with Simmunitions but you better be ready to be strip searched and probed for real ammo before you touch a gun.
Punta Gorda PD better get ready to shell 7 figures on this one…. and well deserved it.
Trump, in typical Trump fashion, made a statement that Hillary will take the Presidency – after a rigged election, of course – and appoint anti-gun Justices that will take everybody’s gun, and there is nothing anybody can do to stop her… except maybe those “Second Amendment people.”
The mass media immediately glommed onto this statement as Trump calling for an assassination of Hillary Clinton.
Personally, I think he meant more along the lines of the NRA-ILA and grass roots pro-gun movement, but the media has to media.
There is already the comparison that what Trump did was as bad or worse as Palin’s crosshairs over Congressional districts map that supposedly got Congresswoman Gabby Giffords shot.
Expect it didn’t. Jared Lee Loughner was completely, grade A fertilizer, bat shit level crazy, and had no political motivation for his shooting. Still, the media tried to put Gifford’s blood on Palin’s hands.
But now anti-Gun politicians, like Senator Chris Murphy, have jumped onto the “Trump just called for Hillary’s assassination and crazy gun owning Trump fans will do it.”
Whether or not Trump was really calling for an assassination or just making an offhand comment about the political power of gun rights organizations is now neither here nor there. The media and antis have a narrative and they are going to run with it.
Now my fear is that this imprecise and Trumpish statement by Trump will be used against law abiding gun owners.
Have gun? Support Trump? Don’t support Hillary? Well… maybe you’re just a potential assassin?
I don’t know where this is going to go, but I don’t like it.
As for Trump: a smarter man, or at least a more savvy man, knowing the media was out to sink him, would be a little clearer in making a statement like this, as it is not hard to predict the way the media would twist it. But no. He had to be Trump and make a statement as blunt and obtuse as the tips of his stubby, little, cocktail weenie fingers.
I am on the record saying that those stupid Concealed Carry Badges are a bad idea. Plus I hate to be carrying unnecessary crap and add to the EDC I already have. But this particular individual although he might be right on the badge not being the same as the ones local LEOs carry, it looks similar to some badges from out-of-state agencies. And maybe you can skate on that particular item since it is not an exact copy of a real badge, but stating that you are carrying one so people think you might be a LEO and not get tagged for accidental exposure is adding crap to the pile and asking for a prosecutor to nail your ass to the floorboards. That you might be found not-guilty in a trial is not important, the issue as Jon Guttmacher says, why be Defendant Zero and test the law?
Florida Statutes
843.085 Unlawful use of badges or other indicia of authority.—
(1) It is unlawful for any person, unless appointed by the Governor pursuant to chapter 354, authorized by the appropriate agency, or displayed in a closed or mounted case as a collection or exhibit, to wear or display any authorized indicia of authority, including any badge, insignia, emblem, identification card, or uniform, or any colorable imitation thereof, of any federal, state, county, or municipal law enforcement agency, or other criminal justice agency as defined in s. 943.045, with the intent to mislead or cause another person to believe that he or she is a member of that agency or is authorized to display or wear such item.
So, stay the hell away from the badges, but if your Inner Ninja forces you to get one, shut the fuck up about why you are carrying one.
After losing to Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders is back to his day job as a US Senator for Vermont.Sanders campaigned against the 1%, promising to bring America closer to his Democratic Socialist ideal and to take corporations and rich people down a peg or two.But now that his campaign is over, he’s picking up a sweet new pad.According to Seven Days, a news publication in Vermont, the Democratic Socialist from Vermont shelled out 600 grand for a lake house.
He should call it Ramen House on account of the diet of tens of thousand of idiots who believed in him and are now reduce to eat noodles, Styrofoam cup and all.
Federal authorities are accusing a Dearborn Heights man of supporting Islamic State extremists and planning to “shoot up” a Detroit church.Khalil Abu-Rayyan, 21, hasn’t been charged with terrorism-related crimes but faces federal charges of illegally having a firearm while using a controlled substance.But a complaint unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court reveals the FBI has been investigating him since May “regarding increasingly violent threats he has made to others about committing acts of terror and martyrdom — including brutal acts against police officers, churchgoers and others — on behalf of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.”
Church Carry is nothing new, in fact it dates back to Colonial Times. But what amazes me is that a simple train of thought (Church +Lots of people + No guns = Mass Casualties) was easily understood by a wannabe Jihadist, but it is somehow a dark and complicated concept for many others who insist a House of Worship comes with a magical force field that will protect everybody from Evil.
