[Phillip Beall]

All,

I have carried a firearm just about daily since being victimized by a knife attack in my late teens.  I lived in the “big city” then, so rural America some might not see the same daily threat suggesting the need to always go armed.  I am here to tell you that evil can happen anywhere and I believe ALWAYS going lawfully armed is the safest personal practice.  We owe it to not just ourselves, but to our families and friends.  Making my case for me is this headline Officer-involved shooting leaves suspect dead, DPS Trooper injured.

This week in Paris Texas, population 24,500, you thankfully had a Paris police officer backed up by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper.  From the article they were responding to reports of a man threatening one or more people with a knife.  So the initial call was someone with a deadly weapon threatening one or more persons and the picture is at a local Valero gas station/convenience store.

The perpetrator was noncompliant and attempted to knife the officers and was shot dead.  If confronted by someone brandishing a deadly weapon I expect anyone that is armed to appropriately use deadly force to protect themselves.  In this case the great news is that nobody was badly injured other than the perpetrator, and I for one am perfectly fine with him taking a dirt nap.  Harsh?  You bet.  I care about our police and I’d rather one dead bad guy than any law enforcement officer be even slightly injured.  You’ll get no compromise from me there.  And that same rule applies to my friends and family.  Threatened by someone with a deadly weapon I’ll back you 100% for using deadly force to terminate the threat.  Period.

One man’s opinion.

73

Phillip Beall (W5EBC)

[Phillip Beall]

All,

Yesterday I posted about the officer involved shooting of a knife-wielding perpetrator and urged you to go forth lawfully armed when possible.  My point was that even in rural America we have an epidemic of mental illness and/or demonic possession induced jackassery.  You are not really safe anywhere.  And while a firearm is not the answer to everything, it is sometimes the best option based on the circumstances at hand.

I did some follow up reading on the case here Suspect shot dead by Paris Police after injuring state trooper with a knife and learned that in this particular case the situation started at Brookshire’s and then ended with a traffic stop at Valero.  There are a lot of lessons to be learned here, not least of which is that you should take cover if you see something going sideways with a law enforcement contact you are witnessing.  Just standing there and watching may get you killed from an errant round.  Officer involved shootings statistically include a lot of misses and bystanders being struck is not an uncommon fact.  I asked Grok to give me some numbers on these details and it said (generally) that 2-4 rounds are typically expended and that less than 50% struck their intended target.  And illustrating my point, about 4% of these shootings result in a bystander being hit.  Don’t be one of those people.  More details on that can be located here (link).

Then, talking with another Club member yesterday morning, I learned that a Fannin County deputy was involved in a use of deadly force situation the very next day.  Paris Lamar County Wednesday, Fannin County on Thursday.  Good grief…

Looking into it as I had the chance I found this Suspect dead, sheriff’s deputy injured after ‘intentional ambush’ in Fannin County, officials say story telling me that a deputy responding to a call was ambushed by an attacker shooting at him fourteen times.  This follow up article Fannin County deputy wounded in ambush attack, suspect identified tells us a lot more detail, to include that the deputy was fired upon before he could even place his vehicle in park.  It is a miracle indeed that he is not dead or seriously injured.  The shooter, I won’t call him alleged, the shooter was “35-year-old Cory Goode, adding that he has an extensive criminal history” and who killed himself.  Would you carrying a personal firearm help in a situation like this?  No, not really, but I use it to again make the point that there is some kind of mass idiocy going on.  And to me that does translate to the need to always be armed.

It is everyone’s personal choice, a very personal choice, to decide if you wish to carry a firearm.  But if having made the decision yes, if you are lackadaisical about carrying, work on that.  If you aren’t licensed to carry, get some training and start carrying.  Some of you do not know that I was a part-time law enforcement officer for Dallas County for 28 years.  I was also deeply involved in lobbying to get the initial Texas concealed handgun licensing law passed.  Really dating myself, back to then Governor Ann Richards (D) vetoing a referendum on the matter because democrat obstructionists never seem to want facts and public sentiment involved with their longstanding efforts to disarm us.  So, I have been in this arena for decades.  If you are curious and want to know more on the topic, please reach out to me and let’s chat.

73

Phillip Beall (W5EBC)

PS  I posted this a little while ago and the site asked me if I was sure I wanted to do that.  And it lost my work.  So, we continue to have some bugs with the site.  If you are going to make a post and it has a lot of time and effort in it, always try and save it prior to hitting post.  From the school of hard knocks.

[Charles Penry]

Any time I make a very long post on any platform I usually put it together and save it in Word or something similar. It helps me spell and format correctly and keeps it from getting lost, plus I can post the same thing in more than one place.

Good words Phillip. Me too.

73,

Charles WA5VHU

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