From Massad Ayoob’s First Responder column, Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement, July 2006 issue:

“… a captured hard guy admitted to police that he ‘rated’ cops by the guns they carried… …if the cop carried a cocked and locked .45 automatic, this thug considered the officer just to dangerous to mess with.”

Same author, column, issue:
“A battered revolver with factory grips… was the mark of a Barney Fife type he figured he could take easily.”

(My appreciation to Massad for including such information in his columns. It’s necessary for cops to know and understand as the following addresses.)

Think about the above sentiments as voiced by an arrestee. I first heard that criminals “rated” cops when I was in the police academy. I’ve argued appearance with other veteran officers. To me, what the public thinks is not nearly as important as what the bad guy thinks when the time comes for him to get handcuffed. I’d much rather have him thinking, “He’s too dangerous to mess with,” rather than, “Hmmm… Barney Fife… you’re dead.”

This is NOT an article about carrying cocked-and-locked government model .45s. That example is just that: an example. It’s there to demonstrate that bad guys do indeed size up cops and they use miscellaneous observations to decide what kind of cop they think we are.

The full text of this article is available in the anthology titled American Thinking.
To order your copy, CLICK HERE.

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