Dear Council,
I want to share with you an incident over the weekend that shows the tremendous danger faced by our officers these days. Police received a call of a disturbance at the 7-11 store in Cascade involving four individuals, one potentially armed with an UZI. Officer Aaron Hisel found the car westbound on S. Grady Way and officers were able to stop it on S. 7th near Rainier Ave.
Since they had information that the individuals may be armed, Hisel waited for adequate assistance prior to stopping the car. They ordered the suspects out at gunpoint and the passenger in the car fled on foot. He was captured across from McLendon’s. On the floor of the car where he was sitting was a fully loaded .45 caliber UZI with a 30-round magazine attached. A second magazine of ammo was also found. Police suspect that the weapon may have been modified to make it fully automatic, giving the suspect the ability to empty the entire magazine within a couple seconds. The weapon is being examined by agents with the Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. If it proves to be fully automatic, the suspect may face federal charges.
You can imagine the potential danger to any officer who could have stopped this car on a routine traffic stop and not be aware that the occupants may be armed.
It’s a sad sign of the times!
Denis Law
Mayor, City of Renton
Nothing should be routine to the police and someone should be presumed armed until proven otherwise. We ask too much of officers who have to wear too many hats in light of the every day dangers they face. Every time they go to a residence they should assume someone is armed as well.
I think I’ve probably gotten off on a few tickets because I did my best to make the police feel comfortable when they pulled me over -putting on my flashers immediatly when the cruiser pulls up behind me, finding a safe place to pull over, turning on the dome light, and keeping my two hands in sight and on the wheel.
Chris Rock says it best:
Where do you find this stuff?
If there is a better way to celebrate our country’s birthday and all our rights then by carrying an assault weapon designed to lay down covering fire, I would love to hear it!
Since modifying a semi to make it an automatic is illegal because it makes it more effective as a weapon, shouldn’t bettering one’s aim through target practice also be?
Fully auto does not make a weapon more effective. Few people know how to be effective with such a weapon. On the flip side, my assumption is that you see the person with the Uzzi as a law abiding citizen?
This is where the argument leaves me. Many people carry concealed weapons, own semi-automatic military design weapons and we have precious few who ever use them contrary to law. Every time there is a discussion about these types of weapons the reality is the thugs are the ones who obtain these weapons through theft and are not entitled to own them. You can legislate and license all day long and all you will have done is made the current law abiding citizenry more law abiding without having touched on the idiots who illegally possess weapons. If you see the person who was stopped and ran as someone who works a 9-5 at a bank, municipality, Boeing, etc., then you need to re-align your reality meter.
I’m not exactly sure what argument you’re referring to because I never made a point. I just like to poke fun at the people who think rights are absolute.
You are quite wrong on the fact that fully automatic weapons are not more effective. Besides their obvious point of killing somebody, they’re designed to fire such a high volume of rounds with ease so the target cannot find any time to shoot back carefully. Which is probably why the cop called in for assistance.
Please don’t confuse the right to weapon ownership with the non-existent right to randomly shoot people.
If you never made a point maybe you should learn to write clearer than you do?
The perception of an automatic weapon strikes fear in people, but that doesn’t seem to kill too many. Maybe you watch too many cop drama shows.
Interesting arguments. Not sure how many I agree with.
All I know is when protecting my home my single shot shotgun wouldn’t stand up to well to someone illegally carrying an automatic weapon.
Also I am only a couple of blocks from that 7-11. Thank you Renton police for taking another law breaker off the streets.
No question about it. Despite the gun banter, it’s great when some punk gets taken away. Trade that single in for a pump and you’ll be more lethal at close inside distances. Uzzi style weapons are horribly inaccurate (MAC10 et al)
If you get the right shot – you don’t have to worry as much about over-penetration and accidently offing your family or neighbors.
Our family has been thinking about passive defenses a bit:
We’re thinking about fencing off the front of our yard – it just is more intimidating to enter and it would let us let the 18 month year old run naked around the yard without the local Level 3 sex offenders getting bulges in their pants.
Problem with that is that children are smarter then we give them credit. My 2 year old open the gate and got out of the yard. The fence helps but you still need to watch them closely.
Never thought about the front yard fence maybe a deterrent to people you don’t want visiting.
Spell check is a blessing, almost makes one look intelligent (almost).
Just don’t make the fence too tall and solid. A six foot cedar fence will just give crooks something to hide behind while they’re looting your stuff. My neighbor who never leaves her house is my alarm system – as long as we leave the drapes open!