The Bullet Goes Where It Is Pointed.

 The kid was One. Year. Old.

In this paragraph, I will lay out all of the things a one year old can do to justify or excuse or rationalize said one year old being shot to death.             And I’m done.

Listen, I have said this before and I am sad to repeat it here.  The difference between the good guys and the bad guys is that the good guys care where their bullets go after being fired.

Jim Wright (Stonekettle) has pointed out all sorts of stuff that I also pointed out (to a much smaller audience for my efforts). And you should definitely go and read all of his essays on the subject.  (https://www.stonekettle.com/p/stonekettle-stations-greatest-hits.html) Scroll down to “The Gun Posts” .

Essentially Jim agrees with me that there are no accidents with guns.  Remember that my rule for accidents is that they cannot be predicted or prevented.  If they can, it is an incident rather than an accident.  It may well be an unintentional incident but, it was preventable and predictable.  I am a gun owner and a shooter.  These are the standards that I hold myself to and you are horribly confused if you think I am going to cut you more slack that I am going to cut me.

Law enforcement officials especially should be held to those standards. (but really, any gun owner/user)  I think it was comedian Chris Rock who said there were some jobs where you can’t have an occasional off day.  LEOs should never pull the trigger if they are not sure beyond doubt about where the bullet will go even if it ricochets, misses, or goes through the intended target.  

The mere fact that the murder of the toddler was not intentional in no way, shape, form, or  fashion ameliorates the fact that it was infact a murder - an unjustified and inexcusable taking of a life.  Either the LEO was negligent or the murder was intentional.  There are no other options.  I would accept a sudden and unexpected earthquake as a reason to excuse the murder but there was not one. None of the things that would justify such an outcome to an honest shooter were present.

Regardless of whether you agree with me so far, I need you to be honest with yourself for a minute.  Imagine that child was white, a billionaire’s offspring and sitting on his nanniy’s lap in a Bentley.  Can you state with a straight face that you believe the outcome would be the same?  (Why yes, wealthy folks have been documented shoplifting and committing other crimes that would be of minimal benefit to them.)  

The manner of expression may have changed but the reality of racism has not changed, it is still being seen every day.  Pair that with the nearly as common economic discrimination and we see what the corrupt AG considered justification for her declaration.

“When your only tool is a hammer, all your problems look like nails.”  It is well past time to train LEOs to consider different tools as their primary and secondary choices in situations that have not devolved into violence.