"Once Whitman began facing return gunfire from the authorities and civilians who had brought out their personal firearms to assist police, he used the waterspouts on each side of the tower as gun ports, allowing him to continue shooting largely protected from the gunfire below but also greatly limiting his range of targets. Ramiro Martinez, an officer who confronted Whitman, later stated in his book that the civilian shooters should be credited, as they made it difficult for Whitman to take careful aim without being hit."
http://www.morganprinting.org/PortRangerRay.htmlCivilian 22 rifles--
Yup, long guns Clearwater.
Not pistols that are only good for 50 yards, and only after the police were firing back at him with their rifles already. I also doubt if they would have had much effect at that range and elevation.
I also doubt if any officer anywhere would have said anything negative about the citizens returning fire after such an outrageous shooting spree.
Certainly not in a book he was selling.
(You do understand that the Texas Tower shootings hit the news and the American mind of the time almost as hard as the assassination of Kennedy or 9-11 did? I mean it is almost a forgotten page of history now, but at the time it was all shock and outrage)
Anyway, all this gun talk was not something I wanted to get into. I certainly did not want to get into a long history lesson and be commenting on the American frontier mythology.
That is a sure way to make enemies and annoy friends.
I pointed out in my early comments that I am not anti-gun or pro-gun and why that was. I will leave it at that.
Your comment that economic trends have an effect on crime is interesting. Yet it does not always hold. I don't know the answer to what causes crime rates to fluctuate or to be higher in some counties than others.
I have not been able to find anybody who has an answer either.
Like you I have some ideas, but no way to really know.
______
Yes Chris, I did read the bit about Knife Rights on the homepage.
I wasn't even really interested in that part of this discussion.
I was more interested in how to harden vulnerable places a bit more against the random lunatics.
But I did make at least one comment about the Anties- and their insatiable drive to ban everything possible.
I think for many of them it is like a mania.
When they get down to banning teeth and fingernails let me know, eh.
I am not going to answer on this thread anymore.
My posting list is starting to look like a troll's
Previous Topic
Index
