Let Me Tell You Where To Stick That Taser

Another family of a “good boy” who “didn’t deserve to die” is whining because their precious little buttercup is pushing up daisies after pointing a stolen gun at hospital staff and police.

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Illinois State Police officials said the entire incident began shortly after 11 p.m. on Nov. 3 when police responded to a crash on Route 94 near Lake Cook Road and arrested the driver for driving under the influence.

Two passengers in the vehicle, Christopher Anderson and his 9-year-old daughter, were taken to Highland Park Hospital, police said.

A few hours later, about 1:30 a.m., Highland Park police officers responded to a call for assistance with an “aggressive subject” at the hospital. Officers and hospital staff attempted to calm Anderson, who they say pulled out a handgun after becoming angry over the young girl’s care.

After “repeated efforts” to get him to drop his weapon, officers fired, according to the statement. Anderson was struck and pronounced dead, police said.

In the footage, workers and officials are seen running from the hospital room. A few minutes later, officials wheel someone out of the room on a gurney.

Outraged family members remain adamant that Anderson didn’t have a gun and said police have not given them updates about what happened.

“He was just looking out for his 9-year-old daughter, in a hospital,” said his girlfriend Ladonna Rhyan. “They’re not supposed to kill him. Why not Taser? So many different methods.”

Let me clue you in to a little something, Ladonna Ryan.

When a human being pulls a deadly weapon and points it at other human beings, it isn’t a exclamation point on the end of a sentence. It is the life-threatening felony use of a deadly weapon.

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When a human being pulls a deadly weapon and point it at other human beings, it does not require a non-lethal, less-lethal, or verbal response, or a wait-and-see attitude.

Your boyfriend pulled a handgun simply because he didn’t like something.

You know what the rest of us don’t like? Criminals pointing deadly weapons at us.

Let me put this is big, bold letters, so that you and people like you can grasp this very simple truth.

When you illegally use lethal force against other people, they have an IMMEDIATE right to use lethal force against you to save their lives and the lives of others.

We have no obligation to attempt to reason with someone who insanely thinks that a weapon is a conversation starter or a tool for negotiation.

We have no obligation to use a taser or baton or our fists against someone who pulls out a weapon.

We have no obligation to wait to see what the intentions of a madman with a gun might be. On the contrary, we arguably have a societal responsibility to draw our own deadly force weapons and use them to stop the threat with as many well-aimed shots as it takes to end that threat to the lives of everyone in the area.

Frankly, the officers in this incident went well above and beyond the call of duty in holding fire as long as they did here, and I suspect that the officer or officers who fired have explained why they chose to refrain from firing as long as they did.

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Let me assure you of something, however, and let me make it perfectly clear.

The moment Christopher Anderson pulled his weapon and pointed it at another person, anyone in that room—police, doctors, nurses, or a wayward bedpan salesman—had the immediate constitutional, legal, and moral right to pull their own weapons and remove the threat that Christopher Anderson represented to at least a half dozen people, including his own nine-year-old daughter.

This may come as a completely novel, and perhaps insane idea to some of you, but I’m going to put it out there anyway.

Do not point guns at other people if you do not want to risk the very real possibility of dying when people decide to shoot back at you.

If you don’t want to die, don’t flippantly deploy a deadly weapon. When you do, you open yourself up to immediate and potentially permanent corrective action by every law enforcement officer and/or concealed carrier in range, and they don’t owe you anything other than “front sight, press.”

Are we clear?

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