The incident began about 6:50 a.m. Wednesday when the 47-year-old man arrived to start his shift at Fire Station 28 at 930 E. Red Bridge Road.The One Strike You're Out Rule is quite flexible on the question of jail time. In many cases it could result in none, this case for example, should probably require psychiatric treatment rather than incarceration.
The man “started complaining about the new guys never putting fuel in the fire trucks,” the police report said.
A 29-year-old firefighter “wasn’t really listening to the suspect,” police said, because he was trying to get ready to go home. This angered the man, who said, “I’m talking to you, too!”
The younger firefighter asked “what his problem was … and why he was yelling,” according to police reports. The man then allegedly shoved the younger firefighter with both hands.
A fire captain intervened and told the man to go home and take a “sick day,” according to police reports.
A few minutes later, the man showed up in the station with a gun and “began waving it back and forth and pointing it at” four firefighters who were sitting in a common area. The man “stated he was going to shoot them all,” police reports said.
The fire captain told the man to put his gun away. The man complied and left.
The part which is not flexible is the loss of gun rights. You do something like this, one time, and you never again own guns legally. It's simple.
Some may consider that severe, but first consider a couple things. What this fireman did was a heartbeat away from murder. If he'd pulled the trigger, even unintentionally in his ranting and waving the gun around, no one would object to the loss of gun rights. I say there is so little difference between that and what actually happened that he's guilty of one strike.
Imagine what would happen if we removed guns from everyone who commits any offense of any kind. Imagine how many second and third offenses would be avoided, some of which would have been worse than the first. The result would be that the pool of gun owners would be of a higher quality. Everyone wins.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
