November Rangemaster Newsletter

[Tom Givens]

The November issue of Rangemaster’s monthly newsletter is available at

https://rangemaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2019-11_RFTS-Newsletter.pdf

There is a lot of useful information in this edition.

[Medusa]

I appreciate your posting these and have a great deal of respect for Dr. Lott’s work, but-respectfully, I do wonder a bit at the statement he made in the newsletter that no incidents where CCW holders have been mistakenly shot by police have occurred. Less than a year ago an army vet named Emantic Bradford appears to have been killed by police in exactly that manner. I agree with Dr. Lott’s general conclusions (ie more guns, less crime) and don’t believe that tragedies like what happened to Mr. Bradford militate against CCW, but it is a danger I worry about as a CCW holder and it informs my planned course of action if I were ever to face such a situation. I’ve seen folks like Greg Ellifritz discuss such issues at length, so it doesn’t seem beyond the pale to say they’re a concern.

[Pepper]

Thanks Tom!

[Tom Givens]

I appreciate your posting these and have a great deal of respect for Dr. Lott’s work, but-respectfully, I do wonder a bit at the statement he made in the newsletter that no incidents where CCW holders have been mistakenly shot by police have occurred. Less than a year ago an army vet named Emantic Bradford appears to have been killed by police in exactly that manner. I agree with Dr. Lott’s general conclusions (ie more guns, less crime) and don’t believe that tragedies like what happened to Mr. Bradford militate against CCW, but it is a danger I worry about as a CCW holder and it informs my planned course of action if I were ever to face such a situation. I’ve seen folks like Greg Ellifritz discuss such issues at length, so it doesn’t seem beyond the pale to say they’re a concern.

Given that there are 18.66 million people with carry permits, plus 16 states with permit-less carry, one dude being shot by the police is an astoundingly rare event.

[RJ]

Very useful information, as always Tom.

[JAD]

The November issue of Rangemaster’s monthly newsletter is available at

https://rangemaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2019-11_RFTS-Newsletter.pdf

There is a lot of useful information in this edition.

I particularly enjoyed the ‘culture’ essay — thanks, Mr. Givens.

[0ddl0t]

Given that there are 18.66 million people with carry permits, plus 16 states with permit-less carry, one dude being shot by the police is an astoundingly rare event.
Not an exhaustive list...

CCWers/legal carriers shot & killed by police:
Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr.
Jemel Roberson
Corey Jones
Philando Castile
Jason E. Washington
John Capano (plain clothes LEO)
Brian Simonsen (plain clothes LEO)


Lawfully armed homeowners shot & killed by police:
Atatiana Jefferson
Jose Guerena
Richard Black
Kathryn Johnston
Andrew Scott
William David Powell
Duane Browne
Dennis Tuttle
Ismael Lopez
Julian Alexander (armed with broomstick)
Angel Mendez (he survived, sans leg)
Dick Tench (survived)

[fatdog]

...Less than a year ago an army vet named Emantic Bradford appears to have been killed by police in exactly that manner.

It is disappointing when I hear this incident cited. This incident was local to me, so to cut past the national coverage of the incident, which was largely bullshit:

Mr. Bradford was not an "army vet", he was kicked out of boot camp after a couple of weeks and sent home as unfit for service, I think the official term is "administratively separated”. There are pictures out there of him in his BDU's with his hat on backwards flashing gang signs from that brief period in boot camp. The media even tried to clip his hands out of the picture but failed to cut his left hand out of view when those pictures came to light.

44363

It appears at this point, he was an instigator or co-aggressor for this apparently gang related shooting in a local mall here.

AFter the initial gunfire where one of the shooters and an innocent third party were hit. What the police officer saw, and responded to was Bradford aggressively moving towards an unarmed party, gun in hand, muzzle on target, toward this third unarmed person in the mall, appearing to have the intent to fire on said unarmed person and the officer fired to defend what he perceived to be an innocent party. It was a snap judgement about Bradford's intent. The officer was cleared by our state attorney general after a long and intense investigation.

The other gangbanging shooter Bradford was originally engaged with, who has a long criminal record, has yet to come to trial and we will know a lot more of the backstory when that finally happens.

We had a wannabe local "civil rights leader" shakedown artist who stirred up months of mini-riots and protests in attempt to get local businesses and the city to "pay up" but thankfully we have a few people in this part of the world with enough backbone to turn it on him and press charges against him for the crimes he committed in that process. This fine upstanding civil rights activist was arrested again a few weeks ago for being passed out at an intersection while dui and carrying a load of pot. He lost his race for a place on the Birmingham city council this fall as well.

Thing is, the facts of this entire matter do not fit the media's template or the BLM movements'. So other than local press which was more or less forced to cover it as it all got unwound by our state attorney general, the media have not bothered with it after the riots stopped. I suspect the other gangbanging shooter's trial, when it finally happens, will not be covered at all on a national basis, too many inconvenient facts are likely to be exposed that just ruin the whole story for them.

[Medusa]

That’s why I said appeared to. I would be interested reading publicly available sources that back up the narrative that he was actually at fault for what happened to him. I did find this - https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2019/02/hoover-police-officer-justified-in-fatal-thanksgiving-galleria-mall-shooting-ag-rules.html

And this - https://www.alabamaag.gov/documents/news/AG%20Releases%20E.J.%20Bradford%20Jr%20Investigati on%20Report.pdf

But the link in the pdf doesn’t work for me.

Please note I didn’t fault the officer(s) involved, and don’t dispute that they had to make a split second judgment. Speaking generally the latter is what makes me as a legal ccw holder so concerned about how to avoid being on the wrong side of a legally justified but actually mistaken police judgment. If the case I cited wasn’t such a case, it doesn’t suddenly mean the worry isn’t valid and something to consider - is that not a fair statement ?

[fatdog]

Tit doesn’t suddenly mean the worry isn’t valid and something to consider - is that not a fair statement ?

I agree with that, it certainly emphasizes that you don't want to be the unknown person with a gun in your hand and perceived as a threat when the police show up to respond to a "shooting", he was and he got capped for it. There have been so many undercover, off duty, and plain clothes officers killed for the same reason.

It is just sad to me that many people who were not local and have never researched it. are left with the national media's false narrative and politically motivated characterization of what this one was about. I get very triggered when I read that "army veteran" part of the false narrative repeated some place.

[HCountyGuy]

I do wonder about the truth in the statistics that get cited in relation to how being a victim of a violent crime isn't quite as unlikely as people might think. Namely in that how many of the "victims" were actively engaged in criminal activity that contributed to them becoming "victims".

[HCM]

Not an exhaustive list...

CCWers/legal carriers shot & killed by police:
Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr.
Jemel Roberson
Corey Jones
Philando Castile
Jason E. Washington
John Capano (plain clothes LEO)
Brian Simonsen (plain clothes LEO)


Lawfully armed homeowners shot & killed by police:
Atatiana Jefferson
Jose Guerena
Richard Black
Kathryn Johnston
Andrew Scott
William David Powell
Duane Browne
Dennis Tuttle
Ismael Lopez
Julian Alexander (armed with broomstick)
Angel Mendez (he survived, sans leg)
Dick Tench (survived)

I know how much you like to hate on law enforcement but you will find many more blue on blue shootings (cops mistakenly or unintentionally shooting other cops) in sources like ODMP.org than CCW holders mistakenly shot by the police.

I point this out because it demonstrates this is a training and performance issue rather than a “police are bad” issue.

A personal friend of mine is one of those on ODMP. Two other instances I’m personally aware of involved the academy classmate of a former task force partner who was killed after turning around with a gun his hand after being told not to, and a partner who was one of two officers who fired and luckily missed at a plainclothes LEO. Said plainclothes LEO was 100% at fault having disregarded his briefing instructions, failed to have any external indication he was LE and failed to obey commands from uniformed officers.

We address blue on blue issues at least twice a year, once as a regular training topic and again during active shooter training. Tom Givens is correct about these being rare incidents but it’s one of those it’s not the odds but rather the statues things.

As @fat dog addressed, some of these shootings are not what they are purported to be by the media.

[Gater]

Re the Bradford shooting, according to this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/24/police-said-they-killed-mall-shooter-now-they-say-they-might-have-shot-wrong-man/

"About an hour before the shooting, Bradford had posted on Facebook a photo of him posing in a doorway wearing the shredded jeans and T-shirt in which he would die. Digital scribbles on the photo obscure his left hand, in which he appears to be holding something."

...he posted this:

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46707223_2221244894865138_9072297013189541888_o.jp g?_nc_cat=106&_nc_oc=AQlavXDb1ABIgBQ8YU3Aef55l2WBJSY8pZS2OdJl39H 2zOKY5F9gtLChCT8xFw2lDCc&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=caa950dcb795012d7be13dc1e09404aa&oe=5E1A83DE

Different lawyers can construe that (and its relevance to what happened subsequently) in different ways, but I think most folks on here can see better than the Post reporter.

[Andy in NH]

Recommended reading; Defensive Shotgun with Tom Givens, By Dr LateBloomer.
Question about Casino Drill with shotgun:
Shot on steel or paper targets?
Distance to targets?
Distance between targets?

[Totem Polar]

Man, I’ll trust fatdog over the MSM most days, and twice on Saturday night. JMO.

Great newsletter, per usual, Tom.

[0ddl0t]

I know how much you like to hate on law enforcement but you will find many more blue on blue shootings (cops mistakenly or unintentionally shooting other cops) in sources like ODMP.org than CCW holders mistakenly shot by the police.

I point this out because it demonstrates this is a training and performance issue rather than a “police are bad” issue.

Funny; elsewhere I'm supposedly a total LEO bootlicker, but to some here I hate police...

Let's be clear: in the last 10 years, police in the US have justifiably killed ~4,000 suspects, yet we're looking at less than 20 cases that were problematic. Police did a good job 99.5% of the time. And they probably acted within the realm of reasonableness for most of the remainder (e.g. Braddock). But the wrong person still got shot and those problematic instances should offer lessons for both gunowners and police.


PS: I didn't go line by line through ODMP or Wikipedia's list of police killings so I'm sure I missed a few cases. But I also consciously excluded any blue on blue where I wasn't sure the victim was in plainclothes & killed during the fog of battle.



It is disappointing when I hear this incident cited. This incident was local to me, so to cut past the national coverage of the incident, which was largely bullshit:

Mr. Bradford was not an "army vet", he was kicked out of boot camp after a couple of weeks and sent home as unfit for service, I think the official term is "administratively separated”. There are pictures out there of him in his BDU's with his hat on backwards flashing gang signs from that brief period in boot camp. The media even tried to clip his hands out of the picture but failed to cut his left hand out of view when those pictures came to light.

44363

It appears at this point, he was an instigator or co-aggressor for this apparently gang related shooting in a local mall here.

AFter the initial gunfire where one of the shooters and an innocent third party were hit. What the police officer saw, and responded to was Bradford aggressively moving towards an unarmed party, gun in hand, muzzle on target, toward this third unarmed person in the mall, appearing to have the intent to fire on said unarmed person and the officer fired to defend what he perceived to be an innocent party. It was a snap judgement about Bradford's intent. The officer was cleared by our state attorney general after a long and intense investigation.

The other gangbanging shooter Bradford was originally engaged with, who has a long criminal record, has yet to come to trial and we will know a lot more of the backstory when that finally happens.


A couple of minor corrections:

Braddock was in the Army for more than a couple of weeks (November 2017 to August 2018)

There was only 1 shooter (Erron Brown) and he was not shot. Brown shot Brian Wilson twice, and one of those rounds went through and struck a 12 year-old bystander in the back (wasn't someone on PF recently talking about how overpenetration never happens in real life?)

Braddock's muzzle was at the ready and never "on target." You can see it in the videos and read between the lines of the shooting officer's two statements:

initial:

“Me and [Officer 2] were standing over there. We heard two shots. And I turned around; we drew our guns. That guy [E.J. Bradford] was running toward them with a gun in his hand. I shot him.”

formal:

“At approximately 2100-2130, I was located on the second floor in front of Spencer’s. My partner and I were observing the crowd for any violations of the law and/or disruptions to the orderly conduct of shopping. I heard two gunshots and a female’s scream behind me. I turned toward the noise, drawing my firearm. I was in reasonable fear for the lives of the shoppers, my partner, and myself. I instinctively started moving towards the area where the gunshots were heard while looking for immediate threats. I then observed a crowd of shoppers near FootAction running away from where I heard gunshots.

I observed two males who were not running away, but, instead, were standing near the railing in front of FootAction. One male appeared to be injured, clutching his stomach, while the other male appeared to be helping him. Next, I observed an armed suspect quickly moving towards the two males standing near the railing. The suspect was advancing on the two males and had a black handgun in his right hand. I fired my duty weapon at the armed suspect to stop him. The suspect fell near the other two males[,] and I observed the suspect’s firearm slide across the floor"

44394

[Tom Givens]

Recommended reading; Defensive Shotgun with Tom Givens, By Dr LateBloomer.
Question about Casino Drill with shotgun:
Shot on steel or paper targets?
Distance to targets?
Distance between targets?

Cardboard silhouette targets, like IDPA silhouettes. Number 1,2 3 or 4 painted on head, shots go to body.

Targets are two feet apart, edge to edge.

Targets are numbered in this sequence, 3-1-4-2.

Shot at 7 yards with buckshot. All shot are to impact in the -0 zone.