See, now, this is typical

NH Officer Shot, Run Over By Ski Champ's Cousin
(WBZ) FRANCONIA, N.H. A Franconia, New Hampshire police officer was fatally shot and run over by ski champion Bode Miller's cousin while on duty Friday night. The alleged gunman was then shot by a passer-by with the fallen officer's gun. According to Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, Liko Kenney, 24, who is a cousin of ski champion Bode Miller, shot Cpl. Bruce McKay, 48 -- a 12-year veteran of the force -- after a traffic stop. According to Authorities, McKay pulled Kenney over for speeding on Route 116. When Kenney drove off, the officer followed him for about a mile-and-a-half before pulling his cruiser in from of Kenney's car and pushing it off the road. Ayotte said McKay sprayed Kenney with pepper spray. The officer turned around and that is when he was shot. "

Cpl. McKay's cruiser video confirmed for police investigating this case that in fact Mr. Kenney had discharged several shots at Cpl. McKay before running him over," Ayotte said.McKay was allegedly shot four times. "This once again reminds of us of the difficult and dangerous work that is done everyday by the law enforcement of this state to protect each of us," Ayotte said at a news conference in Concord. "The police officers of this state, including Cpl. McKay, are nothing short of heroes."

Ayotte said Gregory Floyd, who was driving by with his son at the time of the incident, then shot Kenney with McKay's gun when he refused to drop his weapon. His son, also named Gregory, used McKay's radio to call for help. Floyd is not being charged, according to Ayotte.

The victim's uncle, Bill Kenney, tells us his nephew allegedly had trouble with this officer in the past, describing him as his “nemesis.”“There was an incident four years ago with this police man,” Kenney said. “This police man basically stomped Liko when he was a teenager and Liko came out of it with a coma.”

Woody Miller, Bode's father, said Kenney and McKay had a history. "They had a long relationship," said Miller, who operates an international tennis camp in nearby Easton. "There's been physical altercations between them before in the course of being arrested."

Kenney's uncle said there was so much animosity between the two, if Kenney got pulled over by McKay, "he had the right to request a different officer.""That's what I heard," said Bode's father, Woody. "That Liko requested a backup officer, and that was when he was pepper-sprayed."

The passenger in Kenney's car told police Kenney said something like "Get another officer" just before speeding off after the initial stop, Ayotte said. "But he refused to produce a license and registration to Cpl. McKay, which is standard operating procedure, and then just took off. So this is a situation where he obviously disobeyed a police officer," she said.

Bode, who had bailed his cousin out of jail once, was on his way home to Franconia, said Woody. In 2005, while in Franconia, Bode was fined $250 for going 83 mph in a 40 mph zone. According to an article published on Sports Illustrated's Web site, Miller said he chose to contest the ticket "to try to get my fine reduced and to antagonize McKay."

In a written statement, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch paid tribute to the fallen officer's service. "We honor this officer's courage, service and commitment and extend our deepest sympathies to this officer's family, friends, community, and brothers and sisters in law enforcement."

Before becoming a Franconia, New Hampshire police officer, McKay worked in Haverhill, New Hampshire. Survivors of the fallen officer include a daughter.Lynch has asked that all American and state flags be flown at half-staff in memory of the fallen police officer until further notice.In October, another New Hampshire officer was killed in the line of duty. Officer Michael Briggs, 35, of Manchester, was shot in the head while responding to a domestic violence call. The man accused of shooting Briggs, Michael Addison, 26, faces capital murder charges and could be put to death if found guilty.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc.

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I have to comment on this. Why is it that whenever a citizen uses a firearm in real self-defense, or, in this case, in real defense of his community, as well, it's an incidental detail of the article *if* an article appears at all outside the strictly local news. Someone goes off criminally with a firearm, we hear all about it, though way less than one percent of citizen firearms owners ever use one for a criminal purpose.

Who's the hero of this story? A cop gets shot in the back and then run over by a car and he becomes a courageous hero.

A civilian citizen passerby, grabs the cop's handgun and orders the killer to drop his weapon. Now, hear this: The guy's already a cop killer and so has literally nothing to lose. He's going down for hard time for life, no matter what, and therefore has little reason to govern his behavior safely. It's not like he's going to get less time for any reason -- or more. No one gets more time than a cop killer. So, the civilian passerby who grabs the dead cop's firearm, orders the man to drop his weapon, he doesn't, so the passerby shoots and kills him. Correctly, in my view, as the man is clearly at this point an armed menace who's already proven his own murderousness by shooting a cop in the back.

Who was it that protected the community? The cop? No. The cop was shot in the back. He had no reason to presume himself in imminent danger of death, or he'd not have turned his back on the man. He and the killer had a history but clearly not one the cop had any idea might be cause for getting himself killed. He clearly believed himself to be in little if any danger, judging from his casual behavior. You don't turn your back on anyone you'd consider a lethal or even serious threat, let's face it.

The hero of the story is the civilian passerby who took the cop's handgun and killed the guy, yet this detail is mentioned nearly in passing, in every article I've seen about this instance.

There are many situations in the US, every year, where honest citizens successfully defend themselves or others in justified situations, with firearms, yet we almost never hear about one.

Several hundred million firearms are in private, civilian hands in the US. Only a miniscule percentage of those firearms are ever used criminally or in anger. The percentage is so small it is not even statistically significant in any scientific or even plain rational way. It's not even significant if one uses plain common sense. Yet, whenever one is, there is enormous news. Not so the other way around.

When the kid ran berserk in Virginia not long ago -- incidentally, with illegally purchased firearms -- federal felony -- a Brit newspaper contained the, to me, startling news that "massacres in the US are a fact of life." Oh, yeah, I come across a massacre every time I take a piss. Yet, idiotic commentary like this is commonplace and just accepted on face value with little if any thought or reflection.

I live in Vermont, which has one of the lowest serious crime rates in the US if not the lowest. It's also the most armed place I've ever lived with the exceptions of Nicaragua and El Salvador during the wars of the 1980s. Yet, Vermont is one of the most peaceful places in the world.

These two facts ought to give pause for a little serious thought at least.