Bad Apple

A bad apple in a California police force was shot and killed by his fellow officers who were trying to arrest him for sexual misconduct against a minor.

There are unfortunately some bad officers among the very heroic and good members of our police forces. Similarly, there are bad gun owners among the larger category of gun owners, a group which has less training, less supervision, and less accountability, less testing, and no insurance requirement, unlike police forces.

But we are supposed to assume that everyone with a gun is good, and will behave responsibly, and with good self control, and lawfully, and not under the influence of either drugs or alcohol, and  will be mentally ill. We are supposed to ASSUME, but god forbid we actually ever dare to TEST those assumptions in any meaningful way, or require anything from a gun owner that would encourage, or penalize for failure, to properly supervise and secure and use those deadly dangerous weapons.

That is stupid on the face of it, and is not a plausible or desirable way to address weapons in our society.  This one police shooting death is one more than all of the UK, and is far from the only police shooting this year so far in the first month of 2012, despite the state of California having a little more than half the population of the UK.  This is certainly not the ONLY law enforcement gun death so far in 2012.  Our gun culture, our guns, our gun owners, are responsible for the gun violence that kills people and injures people and which makes people less safe.

From MSNBC.com and the Santa Maria Times:

Police officer shot, killed by fellow officer trying to arrest him

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – A Santa Maria police officer was shot and killed Saturday by a fellow officer who was trying to arrest him for suspected sexual misconduct with a minor, the Santa Maria Times reported.
The slain officer was on duty when police tried to take him into custody early Saturday, the Santa Maria Police Department said in a press release.
The suspect officer allegedly drew his weapon and fired. "In response, one officer on scene fired at the suspect officer hitting him once," officials said in a news release, according to the Times.
The wounded officer was taken to a hospital, where he died.
The name of the slain officer was not released. Authorities said he was being investigated on an allegation of sexual misconduct against a minor.

Update on the Courthouse Shooting in Minnesota

The shootist has died, of an illness.

From the Associated Press:

Man accused in Minn. courthouse shooting dies

(AP) – 14 hours ago 

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — A man charged with opening fire in a Minnesota courthouse after being convicted in a sex case, wounding a prosecutor and a witness, died at a Duluth hospital Tuesday after showing signs of "medical distress" in jail the previous evening, officials said.
Daniel Schlienz, 42, was taken to Essentia Health St. Mary's Medical Center on Monday night and died about 8 a.m. Tuesday with family members present, according to the sheriff's office, the Duluth News Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/vvfDnf).
St. Louis County Sheriff Ross Litman said he was not aware of any medical condition that Schlienz had before Monday, when he exhibited flu-like symptoms and was treated by medical staff at the jail before taken to the hospital. Litman said the county medical examiner will perform an autopsy, although foul play was not suspected. There were no signs of any injury from someone else or self-inflicted, he said.
"But we just don't know that for sure until we see the autopsy results. It didn't appear to be any outside influence. It appeared he became sick and got worse very quickly," Litman said.
Schlienz was being held in the jail on $2 million in bail for the courthouse shooting of two people in Dec. 15 in Grand Marais. The criminal complaint says after he was convicted of criminal sexual conduct, he retrieved a .25-caliber handgun from his vehicle and then shot Cook County Attorney Tim Scannell and Grand Marais resident Gregory Thompson. Both were hospitalized for five days.
John Lillie, Schlienz's defense attorney for the criminal sexual conduct trial, said his client didn't appear sick at the time.
"I didn't notice any kind of coughing or wheezing or anything like that. Maybe a runny nose or a cold, but certainly nothing serious that stuck out during the trial," Lillie said.
According to the criminal complaint, Schlienz told officers he meant only to confront Scannell about the case, but when he heard Thompson thank Scannell for prosecuting, he decided to shoot both men. Schlienz allegedly told officers that he had a plan to shoot but not kill Scannell if he was found guilty.
Lillie said the sudden death adds more sorrow to an already traumatic series of events.
"I feel terrible for his parents who already had so much sorrow to deal with and now have to deal with this," Lillie said. "Whether this brings closure to the victims, I don't know. Maybe it will make it worse."
Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthsuperior.com