AridzonaShooter: Ramblings

I haven't looked at news sites, and I don't get network TV, so I may have missed something, but...

I'm doing my normal quick-scan of the Anna Nicole Smith...er, CNN channel and in between sensationalism ("Is your dog psychic?") and commercials, there's a report as part of the follow-on coverage of the Trolley Square shooting in SLC.

Seems a local police officer, off duty, who was shopping at the mall with his wife is being referred to as a "hero." Apparently when he encountered the goblin he identified himself as a police officer, called out for people to "Get down!" and engaged the goblin by hollering at him. Apparently his verbal engagement caused Mr. Goblin to...pause in his application of carnage upon the citizenry.

Nowhere in the story is there any mention of this officer having engaged the goblin with a firearm.

He hollered at the goblin.

Excuse me? While the Salt Lake metropolitan area is one of probably the safest places a person can go about his affairs, surely there is some criminal activity, so surely there are police officers who are armed in the course of their employment. Surely Mr. Off-duty Cop has a gun...

But apparently not with him.

Utah has a reasonably unrestrictive CCW system. Utah has a fairly high percentage of the population who have obtained CCW permits, and a fairly high percentage who own guns. Where were our armed brethren?

Even in the safest of locales, stuff happens. The pistol is a worthless means of protection for oneself and one's family if it's left home in the sock drawer.