ST. PETERSBURG, FL (Tampa Bay Times) — Given the recent armed robberies of two Tampa Bay real estate agents, many Realtors are wondering if they should start carrying a gun.
“No!” St. Petersburg police Chief Tony Holloway emphatically said Friday. “That person’s going to take that gun away from you.”
Holloway was addressing dozens of members of the Pinellas Realtor Organization at a seminar on how to protect themselves in the wake of the June 3 robberies. A retired Air Force major is awaiting trial on charges that he lured two female agents to empty houses and robbed them at gunpoint, shackling his first victim at the hands and feet while he called her husband demanding a $50,000 ransom.
“That person is going to take that gun away from you”?
Thanks, Mr. Elitist police chief, pictured above before he took the job in St. Pete.
He cited some alleged FBI stats: “FBI statistics that three out of four police officers killed by gunfire were shot with their own weapons.”
I’d like to see a source for that one.
In the meantime, fifty cops were killed by gunfire in 2014. Taking the chief’s dubious stats as factual, that’s 37 cops killed with their own guns in 2014.
Compare those 37 instances where a cop lost control of his gun and was killed with it with the 2.5 million times each year guns are successfully used to thwart violent crime. That works out to about 6,850 times a day.
I think I’ll take my chances with my own skill sets and abilities, instead of depending on someone else to show up and save my bacon after the attacker is long gone. You probably should too. Nobody is going to be as dedicated to saving your life as you would be yourself.
Furthermore, I’m guessing St. Pete’s top cop isn’t taking guns away from his cops. If he were so certain that guns would be taken from the good guys by criminals, then wouldn’t it be logical to disarm his cops?
The hypocrisy is rich from this elitist hack.
Was this guy a “Conehead” in a previous life.
I’m trying to say something nice about this “chief”. Another elitist snob. He’s a member of the noble class.
I suppose he doesn’t credit Florida’s million plus carry licenses for that state’s ultra-low firearm violent crime rates, now does he?
He’s either stupid or willfully ignorant. Or smart as our president.
Referring 2012 data from the FBIs Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Officer Safety Awareness Training Program, Brian McAllister, a trainer with that program reports, “Even more startling, of the officers killed by firearms, 73 percent died with their service weapons in their holsters or without firing a single shot.”
Here is the link https://leb.fbi.gov/2014/april/officer-survival-spotlight-by-the-numbers-turning-leoka-data-into-training-opportunities