I am providing a forum for voicing your opinions.  I claim no 
responsibility for any opinions expressed here.



ANOTHER INCIDENT

I'm not going to spend a lot of time telling you what lessons should
be learned from this incident.  I will only mention the following:

1.  This attack happened at a Karate dojo.

2.  No one, not even the instructor, tried to use their bad-ass Karate skills
    to take on the gunman bare-handed.

3.  There is nowhere you can go and be truly assured of complete safety.  Crime 
    can happen anywhere, anytime, to anybody, and it's not just certain people
    you have to be afraid of.  Almost anyone can be a threat.

4.  Being with someone else may or may not make any difference.  This man broke 
    into a karate class full of people.  There is no guaranteed safety in numbers.

5.  If you've convinced yourself number 3 and 4 are not true you're just wrong.
    Sorry.  You must be aware and alert at all times, no matter where you are, 
    and being armed doesn't hurt either.

6.  The off duty cop shot the assailant two times with a .45.  Then the attacker
    "stumbled and brought his weapon back up" so the cop shot him a third time. 
    This time, the round "knoced him off his feet" according to the article. 
    Handguns are not the magical instruments of immediate death and desctruction
    everyone thinks they are.  It took three rounds with a .45 to finally stop 
    this guy.  The first two did not knock the attacker "off his feet" so why did
    they think the third round did?  It is safe to assume that when the attacker 
    was hit for the third time, he had finally lost enough blood to fall down.  
    "Fell down" is not the same as "knocked down."  There are multiplied hundreds,
    if not thousands, of documented incidents that PROVE handgun bullets do not 
    knock you down, yet people still insist on repeating this garbage. 



Reprinted from the October 30, 2003, Memphis Commercial Appeal

BULLETS END TRY TO GRAB RUNAWAY
By Chris Conley

Bullets end try to grab runaway

Off-duty officer slays gunman

By Chris Conley
Contact reporter
October 30, 2003

A locked door didn't stop an armed Chicago man as he tried to get
to a teenage runaway who'd come with him to Memphis.

It took three bullets, fired by an off-duty Memphis police officer, 
according to witnesses.
	
Jose Arcos, 23, died Tuesday night at Memphis Aiki-Kai martial arts 
academy at 3901 S. Mendenhall in the Fox Meadows area of East Memphis.

On Wednesday, state prosecutors said officer Gregory Sanders, a
student at the school, was trying to protect himself and others,
and will not be prosecuted.

The trouble started about 8:40 p.m., police said, when the 15-year-old 
runaway came to the academy looking for a cousin. When she tried to walk
out, the unidentified owner refused to let her go.

Police said the owner earlier received a call from the runaway's mother
asking him to please hold the girl until the mother could come and get her.

When the teenager did not come out of the building, Arcos tried to get inside, 
but found the owner had locked the doors.

Police said Arcos left in his Jeep, then returned a few minutes later. He 
stormed into the school just after 9 p.m., shooting out the glass door with
a .45-caliber pistol, police said.

As Arcos entered, firing his gun, the owner wrapped his arms around the girl
to protect her, said homicide Lt. Joe Scott.

Meanwhile, Sanders learned from another student that the owner kept a gun, 
also a .45-caliber weapon, in the office. The officer grabbed the gun and 
ran to where Arcos was holding his weapon to the owner's head.

The officer several times ordered Arcos to drop his weapon. Instead, the 
Chicago man turned the pistol on Sanders, Scott said.

The officer told investigators he then shot Arcos twice. When Arcos stumbled 
and brought his weapon back up, Sanders fired again. The third bullet knocked
Arcos off his feet.

Arcos was pronounced dead at the scene.

At the time of the shooting, there were five students, the owner and the runaway 
inside. None was injured.

Sanders, an officer since 1999, will be on paid leave until a routine internal 
affairs investigation is completed. The girl was in protective custody at 
Juvenile Court Wednesday night, police said.

The owner of the school refused to talk about the shooting and would not 
identify himself.

Arcos apparently left Chicago with the girl on Monday, headed for Memphis. 
Police did not know where the two stayed Monday night.

Police said Arcos, who had no known criminal record, was married and his wife
is expecting a child.