rainbowbob
Member
I attended the 37th Annual Folk Life Music Festival in Seattle on Sunday with my wife. We met my brother and his daughter and two cousins we haven't seen in awhile to listen to another brother play his banjo on one of the many stages. We wandered around, ate fair food, sat on the grass, shopped the booths, and generally had a fine time.
It wasn’t until we returned home that I heard on the news there had been a shooting there the day before! No news of the incident had been broadcast until nearly 24 hours after it occurred. I have to wonder if they purposely put a gag on the story so as not to effect attendance the next day. I’m sure we would have gone anyway, and I was carrying in any case.
The story in a nutshell is this: Crowds of people sitting on the grass…two men begin fighting and crashing into other people…one of them had a Glock in an ankle holster…the gun comes out and is fired once…the bullet passes through the arm of a bystander and into his girlfriend's leg…three LEOs are close by, run to the sound of the gun, and gang-tackle the man with the gun.
Those are about all the facts known publicly so far. The man with the gun, who has (or I perhaps I should say HAD) a CPL, was taken into custody pending possible charges.
There are, of course, additional unverified and conflicting (and perhaps unlikely) versions including:
• The man without the gun took exception to seeing the “concealed” Glock and began arguing with the man with the gun who then attempted to pistol-whip the first man with it when it fired.
• The men knew each other and had some kind of beef and the gun fell out of the holster, hit the ground, and fired accidentally.
• The gun fell on the ground and the two were struggling for it when it fired.
• The gun was “a foot or so long”.
• A third man was hit.
• The Seattle Center isn’t a “park” – so it was OK to CCW there.
It will be very interesting to see if either of the men is charged, and if so, for what. Was the man with the gun in acting in self-defense and can’t shoot straight? Were they actually fighting for possession when it fired? Did they know each other?
Here is where Strategies & Tactics comes in: I’ve been thinking about this since I heard the news – and I’m still not sure what I would have done had I been present with my family. The fact that I can’t figure it out with 20-20 hindsight and another 24 hours to think about it leads me to believe there may be some things you just can’t plan a strategy for.
From the sound of it, this happened very fast, and there may not have even been time to do anything before it was over. But in a “what if” mode, I would like to speculate – along with you – what the right strategy and tactics would have been.
I will attempt to go first here: My initial though was to get my wife and family moving (running!) away from the sound of the shot. My second thought would be to take cover (if possible) and draw my firearm while scanning the scene for an active shooter. My third thought was - I don’t want to be the guy people are pointing to while shrieking “That man has a gun!!!”
So what do you folks think? Obviously, none of us were there (unless one of our Seattle members WAS there) and the facts are sketchy. But if you were sitting on the grass in a large dense crowd minding your own business when a shot was fired near you - what would YOU do?
It wasn’t until we returned home that I heard on the news there had been a shooting there the day before! No news of the incident had been broadcast until nearly 24 hours after it occurred. I have to wonder if they purposely put a gag on the story so as not to effect attendance the next day. I’m sure we would have gone anyway, and I was carrying in any case.
The story in a nutshell is this: Crowds of people sitting on the grass…two men begin fighting and crashing into other people…one of them had a Glock in an ankle holster…the gun comes out and is fired once…the bullet passes through the arm of a bystander and into his girlfriend's leg…three LEOs are close by, run to the sound of the gun, and gang-tackle the man with the gun.
Those are about all the facts known publicly so far. The man with the gun, who has (or I perhaps I should say HAD) a CPL, was taken into custody pending possible charges.
There are, of course, additional unverified and conflicting (and perhaps unlikely) versions including:
• The man without the gun took exception to seeing the “concealed” Glock and began arguing with the man with the gun who then attempted to pistol-whip the first man with it when it fired.
• The men knew each other and had some kind of beef and the gun fell out of the holster, hit the ground, and fired accidentally.
• The gun fell on the ground and the two were struggling for it when it fired.
• The gun was “a foot or so long”.
• A third man was hit.
• The Seattle Center isn’t a “park” – so it was OK to CCW there.
It will be very interesting to see if either of the men is charged, and if so, for what. Was the man with the gun in acting in self-defense and can’t shoot straight? Were they actually fighting for possession when it fired? Did they know each other?
Here is where Strategies & Tactics comes in: I’ve been thinking about this since I heard the news – and I’m still not sure what I would have done had I been present with my family. The fact that I can’t figure it out with 20-20 hindsight and another 24 hours to think about it leads me to believe there may be some things you just can’t plan a strategy for.
From the sound of it, this happened very fast, and there may not have even been time to do anything before it was over. But in a “what if” mode, I would like to speculate – along with you – what the right strategy and tactics would have been.
I will attempt to go first here: My initial though was to get my wife and family moving (running!) away from the sound of the shot. My second thought would be to take cover (if possible) and draw my firearm while scanning the scene for an active shooter. My third thought was - I don’t want to be the guy people are pointing to while shrieking “That man has a gun!!!”
So what do you folks think? Obviously, none of us were there (unless one of our Seattle members WAS there) and the facts are sketchy. But if you were sitting on the grass in a large dense crowd minding your own business when a shot was fired near you - what would YOU do?
