camoman1 Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 And to heck with personal safety and common sense.... spoken from someone who would probably call for an officers head, should a ricochet off the ground hit something it was not intended for or injure someone. Remember this part of the original post "busy 2 lane highway"? Please don't question my ability to head shoot an animal at 2 ft with a large caliber handgun, the question is how can I do it SAFELY! If the officer injured himself by a bullet fired into the animal/ground at close range he'd be an idiot, if the officer injured someone else he should be fired. Another can't win for law enforcement officers huh, camoman? Walk in our shoes before you pass judgement on an officer letting loose a round from a large caliber handgun on the side of a busy highway with cars and houses nearby! Do I hate to see animals suffer unnecessarily? Yes. Do I put personal safety and the safety of the public at risk to do so?? Absolutely not! So call for my head, call for my job and say what you will because I don't care. After 20 years of serving the public and making the right decisions along the way you HAVE NOT walked in my shoes and as an LEO. I am not here to coddle the public when their opinions of us are unfavorable. I follow my departments rules and regulations, my state and local laws and have practiced a little common sense along the way. No matter what YOU or the public may think of me. Nobody was questioning your personaly ability to shoot anything.... your original post said 'if it could be done safely, do it"...... I feel its the officers job to find a way to do it safely. Say an officer decides to not finish off the deer and leave it....the deer manages to struggle back onto the highway and cause another accident??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camoman1 Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 Swampy's right camo. In this day and age with as liberal as this country is getting law enforcement would have a hard time justifing why they shot an armed man pointing their weapon at them. The liberals (and that's who will be sitting on the jury) will ask why they didn't try less lethal methods of stopping the activity. It's crazy, we just had a discussion about this at work the other day. If the bullet did go off a stone or something and hit someone, that officer could very well go to prison, and will without a doubt, lose his/her job. I fully agree....but then why even carry the gun?? ( I know the answer...just playing devils advocate here) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuntnMa Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 I was talking to one of LE's about a similiar situation and i told him, i'd grab my knife and stick it if i couldn't shoot it, i wouldn't let it suffer, he told me that he could get me on killing a deer without the proper weapon....I told him, so be it.....I will not stand by and watch any animal suffer and if they want to be like that, thats fine but it won't stop me from doing what is right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swamphunter Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 I fully agree....but then why even carry the gun?? ( I know the answer...just playing devils advocate here) My firearm is not carried for the purposes of me to walk around a dispatch animals on the side of busy highways. I think we all realize that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swamphunter Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 If a cop cant hit a deer in the head with his/her gun from 2 feet away....they sure as heck shouldnt be a cop as far as Im concerned. Nobody was questioning your personaly ability to shoot anything.... your original post said 'if it could be done safely, do it"...... I feel its the officers job to find a way to do it safely. Say an officer decides to not finish off the deer and leave it....the deer manages to struggle back onto the highway and cause another accident??? This certainly sounds that way since I was the original poster. Don't get me wrong camoman, I understand and share your concern and compassion for an injured whitetail however, I have to abide by state and local laws, and my agencies rules and regs for discharging a firearm. All this wrapped in a big blanket of liability..... the DEC specifically deals with injured wildlife, AND have the means to transport both injured and dead or dispatched animals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camoman1 Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 Im sorry if it seemed I was directing that comment about the accuracy directly towards you...it was intended to be a general statement.... I also understand that there are rules and regs for everything...Im not insisting that an officer shoot an injured animal immediately...but I feel it should be his/her responsibility to make sure it gets taken care of properly. Whether that be dispatching the animal by some means or contacting the proper people. Not only for the sake of the animal but also so it doesnt find its way back into traffic, or since its so dangerous, to keep John Q. Public from shooting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevebeilgard Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 Swampy's right camo. In this day and age with as liberal as this country is getting law enforcement would have a hard time justifing why they shot an armed man pointing their weapon at them. The liberals (and that's who will be sitting on the jury) will ask why they didn't try less lethal methods of stopping the activity. It's crazy, we just had a discussion about this at work the other day. If the bullet did go off a stone or something and hit someone, that officer could very well go to prison, and will without a doubt, lose his/her job. i agree, and will take a trained officers opinion at any time, even over my thinking. they have a career to lose, not just a court battle. i carry a 22 beretta with snake charmers in it. it works real well out to 15-20 feet. is solves lots of problems for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swamphunter Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 i agree, and will take a trained officers opinion at any time, even over my thinking. they have a career to lose, not just a court battle. i carry a 22 beretta with snake charmers in it. it works real well out to 15-20 feet. is solves lots of problems for me. Its funny you say that Steve because some agencies have had officers request a smaller caliber handgun to keep in the vehicle for situations just like that. Most agencies carry .40 or .45 cal handguns and because we are a municipal agency, not like the rural Sheriffs, our car/deer accidents are usually near houses, schools and our 4 lane highway. The department heads don't want the additional firearms as then we ALL have to train and qualify with it several times a year. They prefer we call the DEC guys and let them handle it... falls under their responsibilties. One officer in a neighboring municipality got a call late at night, of an injured rabbit of all things. When he got their, the rabbit was bouncing all over but was definitely injured badly. He took his nightstick out and struck it one time in the head as opposed to discharging his sidearm and he very nearly lost his job. I guess they thought he was going to render first aid and perform CPR if necessary when he arrived. (must be his CPR card was expired) :hammer1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWSmith Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 ...and it will be a loss for Northern New York and this State! Our only hope is that the position you retire from is replaced by someone who also uses their brain instead of just their emotions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 It's a really sad situation I had something like this happen once, too. When I was in high school, I was driving one morning on my way to take my ACT's. I noticed a doe on the side of the road, obviously hurt but alive. I stopped and backed up and she wanted to run, but she couldn't even move. I noticed she was salivating and there was blood and fur around her and I quickly drove back to my house and let my parents know. The sheriff had to come and finish her off, but they let us keep the meat. (It didn't taste very good, though.) The worst part was that she was pregnant with twins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethan Givan Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Have a knife next time and make it happen... Yep I agree, or a .22 would work as well. This is kinda crazy, but when I was still going to school and riding the bus, one morning we were going to school and my bus driver suddenly stops in the middle of the road. I wa sitting in the back of the bus and she yells back and asks me to come up front (I was one of the older kids on the bus). I get up there and she points to a rabbit laying in the road thats been hit but not dead. She tells me to go get it off the road (She was an animal lover, and would take to the ditch to miss a chipmunk). So i get off the bus...walk out into the road and pin the rabbits head between my feet so it cant bite me. The rabbit was screaming and kicking. I thought for a second about breaking its neck and putting it out of its misery but there was a whole school bus full of little kids setting there watching me...so i picked up the rabbit behind the head and carried it over and layed it in the ditch. I felt really bad that i didnt finish it off. I guess my point though is there are situations where putting the animal down would not be ideal...like with a gun near a busy highway with houses...or in front of a school bus full of 1st graders. JMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TigerLily Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 the absolute nerve of those guys!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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