Across the span of the past two decades we have seen a strong evolution in police response tactics in reaction to various violent incidents such as Columbine, Beslan, Virginia Tech and now, Mumbai. Since I am a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment and believe that every legally armed citizen should play a role in “homeland defense” I have gotten the same question a number of times from said civilians: how do we identify ourselves to the arriving police so we don’t get shot?
I’ve shared that question and some of the response I’ve gotten from law enforcement professionals is, “Tell them to stay out of it. Escape or take cover and leave it to the police.” In my view this is the “big brother will take care of everything” answer that is unacceptable to those who refuse to be victims.
America was built by men (and women) of conviction. They had strong beliefs in such things as liberty and independence; liberty from government control and independence from government care. Such folks - and there are plenty of them in our country today - aren’t satisfied with the answer of “do nothing; let the police handle it.” Indeed, as legally armed and properly trained citizens they feel duty-bound to take SOME kind of action beyond escaping or hiding. In their mind it is just as wrong to leave others to needlessly die as it is in the mind of the responding law enforcement officers.
Article here. Friendly-status identification to responding uniformed officers and other armed good guys who may be in the incident area is something anyone who carries, whether off-duty or plainclothes law enforcement, or armed citizen, needs to consider. There are, unfortunately, no failsafe solutions, but being aware of the issue, and the possibility that other armed "friendlies" may be in the area, is a start.
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