Real Men Don't Pull the Trigger

Gary Denton is a Midwestern police officer, and a friend. His ideas about the situation George Zimmerman created are not theoretical.

“I've actually BEEN on my back getting punched repeatedly (Zimmerman's justification),” Officer Denton said. “Just after getting knocked out very briefly (I'm assuming) by a young black man who executed a perfect head butt to my chin, I came to with said suspect (he was wanted on a warrant) straddling me MMA-style, wailing at me with all his might. He was screaming that he was going to ‘fuck [me] up’ and calling me a ‘bitch.’

“I was wearing a gun, at the time.”

“Because I'm not a gigantic pansy with John Wayne Syndrome, guess what happened?

“I grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him down to me, and stuck my thumb as far into a strategic point behind his jaw as it would go. His arms shot out to the side, I bucked him off me, then arrested him, then took him to jail.

“I would NOT have been justified shooting him, even though I could probably drawn my weapon and done so.

“And no, it wasn't because of some kind of super-secret Ninja/Rambo/Chuck Norris/Zen training, either. It was simple lack of cowardice.”

Wyatt Earp, Gary’s spiritual predecessor, would not have shot the guy either. He would have clubbed the thug over the head with his Buntline Special. Civilized, intelligent grown-ups know that guns are the last resort, not an option for which justifications should be eagerly sought. Or, as if the case with Zimmerman, manufactured.