Firearms training important

My deepest sympathies for the families of anyone killed in self-defense, regardless of circumstances. I am also sympathetic to defenders, private citizen or cop. Now that some of the video is out that the jury saw in the Philando Castile case we can see why the officer was not charged. There was an apparent training failure indeed, but most of the failure sadly was on the part of Mr. Castile. Before Mr. Castile told the officer he was armed he should have indicated verbally first that he was legally armed, and then followed the officer’s instructions/commands. I wish we could look at mistakes in these cases like the aviation sector looks at aircraft accidents, with the focus on prevention in the future.

Off-duty and plainclothes cops know the risks of a mistaken ID shooting of themselves by another officer and communicate accordingly, yet such tragedies still occasionally occur. As armed citizens it is our responsibility to understand how to interact with responding and/or investigating officers. Our ignorance of this topic can lead to such sad, but avoidable results as in the Castile case. If you carry a gun and haven’t received such training, do so.

Robert Smith

Hayden