olddude, this might be the time for YOU to get a clue as to what you are talking about.

Perhaps what you say is true where you are, but there are police departments all over the country and they ALL have their own rules as to the use of Tasers, Mace, pepper spray, and such. And they all have their own rules as to when and when not to use deadly force to stop a suspect, whether threatening or attempting to flee.

There are also (at least here in Seattle—and most other municipalities I know about) police review boards whose job it is to investigate any incident in which a police officer—AND, if I am correct, any private citizen—discharges a firearm, save in such locations as the range at the Kenmore Gun Club. And there are civilian review boards that oversee the procedures of the police review board.

An acquaintance of mine got hauled up before a police review board because he inadvertently found himself on the scene where the police were trying to apprehend a couple (man and wife) fleeing from a crime scene (hit-and-run). The couple had just come out of a tavern, and they were staggering drunk. They got into their car and as they drove off, they sideswiped another parked car. They stopped to assess the damage, and noting that, despite the expensive gouge in the unoccupied parked car, their car was undamaged, so they fell back into their car and were preparing to drive off.

Two police officers who were sitting in their squad car parked nearby, saw the whole thing and, through the bull-horn mounted on the top of the squad car, ordered them to stop. They hesitated a few seconds, then started to make a run for it. My acquaintance drew his Colt .45 automatic (for which he had a concealed weapon permit), stepped out in front of their car, and in a spread-legged crouch and a two-handed hold, pointed his gun at their windshield. They hit the brakes and came to a screeching halt, horrified. But—they could have probably simply run him down before he had a chance to pull the trigger.

And if he had pulled the trigger, he definitely would have been run down!

Trying to play "cowboy" can get you killed!

The police arrested the couple. Drunk driving, hit-and-run, attempting to flee from the police—the book!

By the way, it would not have mattered that much if the couple HAD got away (barring the possibility of further auto accidents). The two policemen had already written down their license number.

But they also arrested my acquaintance. His gun was confiscated and his concealed weapons permit was rescinded. He could have been charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Driving while intoxicated and hit-and-run, grievous offenses that they are, are generally not considered serious enough to justify the use, or the threat to use, deadly force in order to apprehend the perpetrators.

As for being threatened with deadly force:

"Deadly force" is not an either-or thing. If someone is pointing a gun at me, that's one thing. But if he's coming at me with a switchblade knife or nunchucks, that's quite a different level of "deadly force." Could kill me just as dead as a firearm, but he has to get close enough to me to make effective use of his weapon.

Here's something to point a brain cell or two at:   by the time you're aware that there is a gun involved, chances are that his gun is already out and pointed at you. Now, you CAN try to play "Fast Draw McGraw," but the odds are that you are going to wind up face down in the dust in the main street of Tombstone. Very romantic. Very historical. Also, very dead!

And that's just as true whether you are armed with a Glock and a little red wagon piled high with 17-round magazines OR a can of Mace.

Now is the time to negotiate! That doesn't mean you can't be sneaky. But if you go for your Glock when he's already got a bead on you, chances are you'll earn yourself another eye between the two you already have. Again:   negotiate!

By the way—I'm reading a lot of the same stuff from a couple of people here about the "right to carry" and the use of "deadly force" that I used to hear coming from my gung-ho, too-much-testosterone, gun-toting acquaintance.

Don Firth

P. S. I dropped out of the NRA when I became fully aware of how obstructive the organization was (is) when it comes to matters of trying to enact, both nationally and locally, reasonable legal restraints on the ownership and wielding of firearms.

Who the hell NEEDS a "street sweeper" for hunting deer or defending their home from burglars? How many burglars are you anticipating, really? Oh, that many!?? Well, maybe it would be more intelligent to move to a safer neighborhood.