Sunday evening, I was beating the bushes around a wooded area in Tacoma, in the rain, looking for someone that had just fired off four rounds with a rifle. I was with a Tacoma officer; she had a sidearm, and I had my AR carbine.
Does your garbageman do that?
Another time on duty, we were talking a guy up from a ravine, after he dived into it, totaly naked, after running around the street yelling at folks, near an elementary school in session. The guy was yelling that he had found Jesus in that dry creek bed. He was off his meds, on a couple of bags of meth, and HIV positive.
Does your garbageman do that, too?
I have the utmost respect and gratitude for police officer's and the job they do. But there is a certain segment of population that feels that police officers should be put on pedestals for their career choice. One way this comes out is the feeling that you should tell the police officer about your gun and permit "out of respect and courtesy". So, I have to ask this question:
Take a tent, your guns and a police officer with you and live at the local landfill for 1 week preferably in the rain and cold of winter. Don't take any food or water - just a tent, guns and a police officer. After that week, honestly evaluate if you had to go without the services of a profession for any length of time, which would you rather do without?
The farmer - who is killed more often on the job than the police officer, who puts the food in the grocery store for your family to live on?
The lumberjack - who is killed more often on the job than the police officer, who provides the wood that shelters your family and provides for their security in the house they live in?
The garbageman - who is killed more often on the job than the police officer, who takes all that trash from everyone's house and delivers it to the landfill?
Or the police officer - who is in the #10 profession according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics likely to be killed on the job - who does his best to keep your family safe from criminals (however, you still feel the need to carry a gun to protect yourself with).
So for those that show their permits and tell about their guns to police officers only, and use the reason of "respect and courtesy", I must ask....why are they more worthy of respect and courtesy than any other person out there in a job of greater danger which has a more immediate and continual affect on our health and safety?
I appreciate the honesty of those that fully admit they will only disclose to a police officer about their permits and guns because they think it holds some advantage to themselves to do so. But I must question, for myself, the motive of those that claim to do so due to some heightened entitlement reserved only for police officers to know about your permit and your lawfully possessed firearm which poses no more threat to the police officer (while the gun is in the holster) than your cell phone does.
I am not saying police officers are not worthy of courtesy and respect...the good ones (99%) most certainly are. I just can't see the justification for a pedestal for them.