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I know there were other circumstances around this event, so I've refrained from jumping in. But one thing I do not want is for LEOs to automatically equate firearms with criminal behavior, and I think we're trending, or already at that point..at least in the inner cities. If the trajectory continues, it's going to become a problem felt by lawful gun owners as state legislatures continue to overrule local ordinances on carry for individuals and and in vehicles. Something to think about as we continue to work towards the fulfillment of the rights we're supposed to have under the 2nd Amendment. Unless it's shown that they were in a place where they weren't lawfully allowed to be, I don't care. I know that LEOs will use that determination to help guide their investigations, and I'm fine with that, but the answer to that question isn't evidence, or anything contributing to the event in question.

Guess I'm finding a new insurance plan regardless of what happens after I graduate in December.

I looked at the photo you posted in the beginning of the thread and didn't know what his ethnicity was. Really. It was inclusive as a lot of surveillance camera footage can be. You got it wrong too when you said he "looks like a young Arabic male." Turns out he was Turkish. As to the BOLO for Hispanic male...the media put out what law enforcement said. No conspiracy there. Will they talk about his ethnicity now that he's been caught? Guess we'll see. American could use the lesson on what the difference is between a Turkish Muslim, Arab Muslim, Kurdish Muslim, Persian Muslim. Everyone's mind went to Arab, but they're not interchangeable terms.

I don't see it as speculation to report the description police got from witnesses. Can you look at that guy's pics and say that identifying him as Hispanic is some kind of conspiracy, and not an understandable mistake?

While an M&P wouldn't be my 1st-5th choice for a 9mm striker fired pistol, I don't think the MAC testing is enough to make me say someone shouldn't carry one if they're comfortable with it, and put plenty of rounds through it at the range. The videos are quite entertaining to watch, though.

Yeah, Turks don't always look like the classic Middle Eastern typeset. Very easy to see how he was mistaken for Hispanic in all the bedlam. Hell, even if they had a clear unstressed look at him, the same info might have come out. Now we get to see if it's a ISIS inspired attack, or just another mentally unstable kid who took it out on a crowd.

Not sure how big a mag she had, but it's a good reminder that ammo expenditure and adrenaline have a correlation. Lucky for her the third intruder got out the way he went instead of doubling back to the front door.

I don't see Arabic, or Hispanic to the point of identification from that photo...so maybe witnesses gave the Hispanic description? Easy enough to see, since both Arabs and Hispanics can widely vary in appearance, and even overlap depending on skin tone. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk just to give Oh Shoot something to be grumpy about.

Unless the event is a 100% mechanical failure, they're the same thing in my mind.

Thanks for the replies and thoughts everyone. Always good to get different opinions on and review actions like this, especially with folks who may have similar experiences to compare and contrast with. Yeah, I figured this was coming sometime giving my postings...is what it is. And I get the satirical comments you made in your first post now. If I had felt the need to shoot...then I would expect anyone, up to an including a jury, to judge my actions. My posting was focused on the draw and conclusion, because that's all that took place. That said, I don't think I've been critical of officers drawing their weapon as a precautionary measure. As you seem familiar with my postings, you can check me on that. For me, engaging the sidearm is when the trigger gets pulled. That's something that needs to come under scrutiny each and every time, LEO or non-LEO. I wasn't daydreaming, but given the how fast the dog came out from behind cover and closed the distance, startled might be the right word that applies. My philosophy on dogs is that unless I know the dog and the owner, I'm wary of it. As to the dog...my limited experience is with the rescue mutt my family had growing up, and I never learned breeds to anywhere near the level of recognition on sight, so no idea what this one was. I recall it had a thicker body, and I'd say it was probably came up past my knee as far as height goes, though I'm estimating that part as it never got right up next to me. Still, I was more interested in its actions after it appeared than its size. Like I said, once I saw the actions of a non-violent dog, I started to relax a wee bit, and things wound down rapidly enough. Anyway...glad I can be entertaining for you if nothing else.

Forget direct appeals to government officials, if you want the attention of everyone you listed, get the media to discuss it. Interns and entry level staffers open and answer the mail. Hell, the mail takes up to two months to get to that level with the screening procedures in place after the anthrax scares. The political consultants and senior staff are the ones focusing on the media and watching for fallout. Get their attention, and you'll have the right eyes starting to care. Randall, once your family takes the time to grieve, think about sharing your story with the local media channels. Maybe one of them can do a segment on the news with an interview of you and your wife going over the treatment records where he wasn't treated for PTSD properly, and try to get the local VA to comment. If you need help, you know how to reach me.

Randall, I wish you hadn't needed to make this post. I wish I could have done more to help. I should have just told you to take him to Nashville, or Atlanta to try there after he was blown off at the local level. I know there are those who are claiming PTSD to game the system, to get benefits and monthly cash...damn them for taking away the resources needed, and numbing the doctors to the signs of danger when men in real need like your stepson ask for help. In the midst of your grief, I can only hope your family can find joy from the time you had with him. As far as I'm concerned, he's a casualty of the war he fought, just the same as those who died over there, Our nation, is stronger for having men like your stepson answer the call to service, and I'm sorry that noble service took him away from you and your family before his time.

Yeah, it's called inflation. It's going to happen, but I don't think it will necessarily be rampant unless the entire economy is dealing with it. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk just to give Oh Shoot something to be grumpy about.

I think we need to look at our economy and take stock of it. We have population increases, free trade eating our lunch, and more automation doing the jobs that used to be held by the middle class. None of this is new, it's been going on for at least a generation now. Even if all the manufacturing jobs came back from overseas and free trade went away (not happening), the amount of work that used to employ 20 people is done by a few machines and maybe five people now. We have to face the truth that the economy as we knew it when things were better in this country (that's speculative, but I'm generalizing) is gone, and it's time to adapt. What that adaption looks like I'm not sure, but I do think that if someone puts in the equivalent of a full time job, than their wages shouldn't be below the poverty line, even if that job is low skill, service industry position that used to be for teenagers. I use the full time benchmark because if someone is willing to work the 36-40 hours a week, then they're doing something positive to society, as I trust the market to cull the herd on jobs that aren't serving a purpose. As to the food stamp part of all that...in theory if we index wages to the poverty line, anyone willing to work should be able to not need food stamps. Maybe there would need to be some kind of sliding scale for working mothers based on the ages and needs of the children, but we'll always have slackers, so at best we can mitigate it to some extent.

I think the 21st century economy is challenging that paradigm.

Guess it's the near annual food stamp rant thread time. Time flies. I grew up free lunch and food stamp poor. After they divorced, my parents spent my childhood sitting on their asses. Difference being my father was sitting behind the wheel of a truck driving all over America, and my mother just sat in the house doing nothing. She wasn't quite a welfare queen, but she sure wasn't chipping in as we know it. She was one of those parents that spent food stamps on junk at times, and as such I had chips, soda, and candy bought with food stamps. I'm sure if the internet had been invented back then, someone could have gotten on and posted about some punk kid getting junk food with food stamps after seeing me. But we also bought a lot of bread, milk, orange juice, and eggs from that same corner store with food stamps. LINKS2K is right when he tries to get you to think about the overall context and not just enjoy confirmation bias. Does abuse happen in the system...sure. Welcome to human behavior 101. But as mentioned, it's on both the abuser and the system. There is a Kroger just over a mile away from my house, and I intentionally avoid shopping there. I hate seeing their "EBT Eligible" stickers on items to make a lazy choice even easier. I also loathe how Walmart is so dependent on food stamp customers that their revenue can take a measurable hit from any negative changes it. I'd be quite fine with SNAP being limited in what can be bought, so long as it didn't get too draconian, but do you really think all those sugar food stuff companies will sit still for it? It's been tried, and coca-cola among others come knocking on legislators doors to nix it riki tik. The abusers are getting over and since that's what we see standing behind them in the queue at the store, that's what we tend to focus on. But just remember it's the companies getting rich off of it all and they're laughing at both the people making the purchases, and the taxpayers giving them the funds to do so.

LINKS2K is a man of few words.

So, this happened today, and I’d like some opinions, good, bad, and ugly. What I’d like to hear is what did I do right, what did I do wrong, and what is in that fuzzy grey area that I need to think about in the future? Legally is my primary concern, but mentally and otherwise is also a concern. Here’s the story: While out walking late this morning, out of nowhere comes a dog to a stop about 5-7 feet away. It came up on me so fast that out of sheer instinct, my gun comes out even faster than I do it at “combat speed” while practicing at the range, and it’s at the “low ready” which is just lower in my sight than where the dog is, so maybe a “dog high ready (?).” I start to slowly walk away from the dog, and while it’s matching my movements, I notice that the dog isn’t behaving aggressively at that point so I relax, even if it’s just a little to an outward glance. At almost the same time, someone from the other side of the street yells (attention loud, not shrieking loud) that the dog isn’t going to hurt me and calls the dog over to her, then proceeds to lead the dog back to its home. With that, I relax a good bit more and bring the gun to my side, as another person (the owner I’m presuming) comes from the home the dog came from to collect it, as the lady makes the comment that I “almost shot the dog.” As I’m re-holstering, they mention something about how I was never in danger. I mutter a quick thanks and go on my way. They didn’t say anything in return, and I didn’t stick around to have a chat about it. The totality of everything that I just described was probably about 45 seconds. After being able to get a look around, I realized the dog was obscured by a parked car in the driveway, which is how it managed to appear so suddenly. Once I drew, my finger never touched the trigger; it was pressed against the guard as I held the gun. I never had any intention to shoot unless the dog had started to bite me hard. Once the situation developed, I stood down as safely as possible (mostly taking time in the act of re-holstering to ensure I did it safely). The gun was never orientated towards a human at any angle of raised readiness, only towards the dog until I felt it wasn’t a threat. I like to think I did well enough legally and otherwise, letting my brain have time to think as the situation allowed. However, I can’t shake the feeling that I may have overlooked something. Please…critique away.

Granted I only have some limited experience here and there at the range, but for my hands, the 17 is easier to manipulate and shoot well with. As to the size...I carry a VP9, and I'm not sure where it falls within the size comparison, but I find it just about right all things considered.

I'm opening up to the post-modern evolution of AK options we're starting to see. Some are still ugly as can be, but the understated ones are looking good to me. If I was limited to one, I think I'd still want it to be "pure" with a fixed or underfolding stock, but I could see myself having one of each if conditions permitted it.

While I'm sure The Guardian, not to mention the universities that did this survey aren't what we would call gun friendly, they do seem to have laid out an objective summary for someone to make their on conclusions about, and as interesting a read as this was, I look forward for the full survey data set to examine. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/19/us-gun-ownership-survey Bottom line up front takeaways: Gun ownership is growing in raw numbers, but not faster than growth in the population, leading to a net percentage decrease Women are a growing demographic of gun ownership, but not to the point of statistical relevance Pistols are still far more prolific than rifles Fair point at the end about how some gun owners are reluctant to talk about their firearms to a survey, but I don't see anything too far out of wack when you realize that this is a national snapshot. As to the "super owner" aspect, I think we have enough people here with multiple guns to give the idea credence. Even though I'm one guy shy of that "super owner" metric, my list of firearms is well above the average of my real life friends, most of whom only have one or two guns, if they even have one at all. I think that's important to remember on a site like this where the average amount of firearms owned is well, well above the average.

I have an email into the fantasy help desk on that. When we drafted, the system retroactively scored week 1 with our lineups. I thought adjusting all the scores to 0-0 would take care of it, but alas no. Worst case, I think i can manually adjust the playoff order if needed to compensate for week 1 wins & losses as the system sees them. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk just to give Oh Shoot something to be grumpy about.

Try a vehicle mount...

Naa, it's pretty much like an Special Operations guy on an ATV. Especially when you take into account that this guy considers Walmart a threat environment.

An AK in 7.62x39 is a damn fine gun if you aren't expecting to drive nails with it. Plenty of punch for what I would call "combat distances" once you get used to the iron sight system (for those who grew up with peep sights), a blast to shoot, and very friendly when it comes to maintenance needs if you have one built to proper specs. If anyone is scared about ammo, both Remington and Winchester make 7.62x39, so American manufacturers can come through if demand is high enough. I'm an AR guy through and through, but my local FFL/pawn shop has some nice and worn in AK's for sale, and I'm quite tempted to get one once I have a more consistent cash flow.