THE ONLY ONES

Every time I hear it out loud, or read printed words, calling a law enforcement officer (LEO) one of THE ONLY ONES if he or she has an accidental discharge, whether or not due to negligence, I get a little fired up. You see, to compare every LEO to the DEA agent who shot himself after saying in essence 'I am the only one, I know of, qualified in this room to handle a firearm' is ludicrous. As a matter of fact, they way the whole ONLY ONES thing is often stated, it makes it appear as if that DEA agent, and every other law enforcement officer in the United States of America, made the statement that only LEOs are qualified to carry firearms. That was not the meaning of the DEA agent's statement at all, listen to the video, you have to be a raving anti-law enforcement person to arrive at such a conclusion. The DEA agent was in effect just telling the children in the class that they should not handle firearms if not in some way qualified or instructed in how to do so, his meaning was pretty obvious or should have been even to a moron. All that aside, yeah, he did something very stupid in how he shot himself, I would bet he never does it again because pain can make you smarter.

All that I just said though does not explain why it gets me miffed when I hear references to THE ONLY ONES in that sarcastic or outright friggin nasty manner in which term is usually conveyed. Nope, it is not even that anyone says it with sarcasm or with anger or nastiness that gets me fired up. What gets me fired up is that the same disrespectful shitheads who group all LEOs together as some anti-gun rights group of ONLY ONES, never for a moment even consider that those same officers are truly, just about (and I said just about because there are some rare folks who are not LEOS that would do this) face the danger every day of being run over, attacked by animals (both two legged and 4 legged), beaten, tabbed, gunned down just because they are law enforcement officers in protecting you and yours. No this is not a debate so please do not start one and don't tell me how you should be free to own guns to protect yourself. If you know me at all, you know I think we should be free to own Abrams tanks to overthrow a tyrannical government if need be; I truly believe that was the intent of the inclusion of  the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights - to assure the people kept the power over the government and not the other way around as it almost seems now.

No, this is about something else. It is about a class of people, not the bad apples, but the 90% or more who are truly good guys in law enforcement. A class of people who rush to shooting, stabbings, muggings, 9/11 catastrophes, to help those in need and possibly to face life threatening situations. And it is about they to whom it seemingly does not matter that they indiscriminately use the term the ONLY ONES to insult and demean LEOs who quite frankly may not, for even a second, deserve that term applied to them, in a negative manner, no matter what the incident in which they are involved. To those name callers, it does not matter if the LEOs are liberals, conservatives, libertarians, gun haters, gun lovers, lifetime NRA members, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters - they just know that if a cop, or other LEO, fucks up with a gun - he must be an ONLY ONE. How immature and how sad that such a view point exists in light of incidents like this:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/16/13315235-two-louisiana-deputies-killed-in-ambush-shootings?lite

You know, when I think of these apparent ambush style cop shootings, and when I think of officers who died in events like the destruction at the World Trade center on 9/11/2001, and when I think of cops delivering babies, or pulling people out of car wrecks, or federal agents risking their lives to try to stem the flow of illegal aliens and narcotics at our borders, or an undercover federal agent setting up terrorists for the fall, or a cop climbing a tree to rescue a darned cat, or any other number of things that most other folks would not do in a million years, because they think it is an LEOs job to put themselves in Harm's Way, well then that is when I think that yes indeed - law enforcement officers do deserve the title of THE ONLY ONES. Yeah sure, cops enforce the law but nowhere in any job description I have ever seen for an LEO does it say they have to put themselves in danger to save any one's sorry butt. Yet they do it all the time, and while some gun bloggers acknowledge this, I never have heard certain so called hard core pro-gun bloggers give these cops a nod of approval. They sure do slam them if ever they have a chance and an accidental discharge of a firearms seems all they need whether they know the facts surrounding it or not. All without knowing the officers stance on gun control at that.



As a matter of fact, the person from whose mouth I most recently heard the words THE ONLY ONES used in a somewhat negative manner against LEOs also had recently mentioned that he, in essence, quite possibly would not act like a cop in a situation where others (besides himself or his family) were being harmed by an evil doer. He would protect his family and himself and leave the rest to the cops. I am not saying I blame him, it takes a certain type of individual to guard the flock beyond your own immediate family. (By the way, no names, this is no attack on the person who said that, it is just a reiteration of something to give an example of what I am saying from real life. Please, no one take any offense to me using that example.) Nope, most people, even those who are 100% pro right to keep and bear arms, those who carry every day, those who consider themselves ready for action against bad guys, quite possibly would not help other citizens in dire need in such cases. Yet, LEOs are expected to go out of their way to do so each and every day. In fact, LEOs do that each and every day. Still, they are only considered THE ONLY ONES if they screw up. What a joke but not a funny one.

Yep, they truly are THE ONLY ONES but in a very different context than what most folks mean by it when they say it. When I say it I mean it in a very positive light.

Sure, there are LEOs whose heads are so far up their asses they are truly beyond hope - probably should not be cops just because of bad attitude but my bet is that copy is not going to ask you if you are pro-gun or anti-gun if he is saving your life from drowning, pulling you out of wreck, giving you a ride to the hospital, getting an attacker off of you, helping your wife have a baby, or whatever.Try to remember, please, they are citizens too and they do have the right to their political opinions and their own convictions, and they certainly do not have to be the same as yours or mine. There are also bad LEOs. Let's face it, some could probably have done quite well as members of any hate group of which you can think and some are outright criminals.

The truth is though that the great majority of LEOs are good guys and gals and they do not deserve being slammed in a discriminatory manner without knowing anything about them other than maybe one had an accidental and maybe even a negligent firearms discharge. Why not also give them their due and honor those who serve so well, to protect us, to help us, to uphold the law (remember we vote in the jerks that legislate those laws, the LEOs just enforce them) and who face serious an sometimes even life threatening danger on an all too frequent basis. Why not stop using such a derogatory term as THE ONLY ONES in reference to any LEO whom you pretty much know nothing about. If he is a rabid anti-gun person and truly believes that only cops are qualified to own guns, fine - fire away. But again, why is it I so rarely hear praise for the good things LEOs do from the same folks the likes of whom so frequently slam the police at every chance they get.

All the best,
Glenn B