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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!rochester!ritcv!ccieng5!ccieng2!kfk
From: kfk@ccieng2.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Handguns and Cops
Message-ID: <148@ccieng5.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Sep-83 12:03:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: ccieng5.148
Posted: Mon Sep 19 12:03:28 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Sep-83 03:15:39 EDT
Lines: 58

I have a couple more comments on the subject of my incident last Satur-
day.  They involve the local police (actually sheriff's deputies) who
dealt with us that evening.  As I said before, one officer was named
Nyhan.  I did not get the other's name.  An interesting thing happened
when they arrived at the apartment building.

After the police were called, we all sat back and checked our wounds,
and were discussing what could be done about the attacker if he were
caught.  Our door buzzer went off a couple minutes later.  We thought
it was probably the police, but we could not know; it might have been
the attacker trying a new ploy to get into the apartment.  I went to
my bedroom and pulled out my .30-06 rifle.  It was not loaded, since a
high-powered rifle cannot be reasonably fired in a building (several
walls would not stop a bullet leaving its muzzle), but I figured it
looked good as a warning.  I opened my door and had my wife lock it as
I walked out.

I live in what is euphemistically called a security building.  That
means that the doors to the hallway (not the apartment doors themselves)
lock automatically as they close.  Unfortunately, the hallway door where
the officers were waiting had not latched completely, and the officers
had come down into the hall already.  As one of the officers (the one
whose name I do not know) turned the corner and faced me, he was con-
fronted with a man holding a rifle in an evidently threatening manner.
He had no choice: he just stopped.  As soon as I saw that it was an
officer, my muzzle went straight up in the air.  About that time,
Officer Nyhan turned the corner, saw what was going on, and in one of
the smoothest moves I have ever witnessed, unclasped the strap over his
weapon, pulled it out, cocked it, and had it aimed directly at my face
in perhaps 3/4 second.  I immediately turned the butt of my rifle around
to the other officer who took it and opened it to check it, finding it
unloaded.  I then voluntarily went spread-eagled to the wall, where
they frisked me to make sure no other firearms were around.  After all,
they didn't yet know if I was the victim or the attacker.

I wish to commend Officer Nyhan for doing *exactly* what he was trained
to do.  He did not fire; he was trained well enough to know that I
wasn't an immediate threat as long as my muzzle was in the air.  But he
was *ready* to do so instantly.  That is a very strange feeling: I knew
that if I made *one wrong move*, my life expectancy was nil.  That did
not bother me, however, because I knew what was going on.  Also, the
fact that I turned the weapon around and gave it to them quickly helped
reduce the tension of the moment.

Also, let's not pull any punches here: Officer Nyhan was going to shoot
to kill if he shot at all.  His .38 special was aimed at my upper lip.
If he had fired, the shot would have gone through me and taken out my
brain stem, and I would have been so much dead meat on the floor.

To summarize then, the officers did exactly what they should have done;
they were well-trained.  The state or county (whichever trained them)
did a very good job.  If a question of giving local police/sheriff's
deputies a raise ever comes up, I'm giving my full support, because I've
seen them do extremely good work.

============== Karl Kleinpaste ===============
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