Ashlie: (00:17)
Welcome back to another episode of Tactical Living by LEO Warriors. I'm your host, Ashlie Walton,
Clint: (00:23)
And I'm your co-host Clint Walton.
Ashlie: (00:26)
In today's episode we're going to talk about the tendencies of an officer carrying an off duty weapon all the time. So just sit back, relax and enjoy today's content. As a police officer, Clint carries his gun with him whether he's on duty or not. He has a gun for off duty. We have several off duty weapons, actually. An arsenal now that I think of it. Clint, I just want to talk a little bit about some of the nuances of carrying a gun all of the time.
Clint: (01:01)
You know, the first thing that comes to mind when you bring this up is, is thinking about always having another item that I have to carry and that's one of the biggest inconveniences with it, but the, the reward outweighs the risk of it. You know, if we were to run into an incident like we're seeing everywhere happening in this world, it's just being prepared. And in saying that, I wouldn't go out of my way to put either one of us in harm unless I felt I absolutely had to. And I think most officers kind of agree with that. There are those officers who feel that they need to stop anything in everything that's going on and unfortunately sometimes it creates even more of a hazard for their family than it necessarily should.
Ashlie: (02:03)
Can you talk a little bit about your feelings on what had happened with the off duty officer at Costco? Kind of take the listener through a little bit of that story in case they haven't heard about it.
Clint: (02:14)
So in Norco or Corona, California, there was an incident. The officer, he was there with his family and he was just shopping and, and from what I know of the incident, he was approached by a rather large male. I don't know his exact height and weight, but he was just kind of walked up to from out of the blue. And the guy started saying something to him and the officer tried to walk away and the guy pretty much cold cocked him in the back of the head… caused him to lose consciousness, fall to the ground, and this is all while his very young, I want to say two or three year old daughter was in the shopping cart watching everything that went on. This man stood over the officer and what it sounds like is he was going to start hitting him and beating him more.
Clint: (03:11)
Then the officer drew his weapon and shot and killed him. Out of nowhere, his mom and dad started jumping in on whatever was going on and the off duty officer actually shot the dad and the mom. Now, I believe that dad and the mom both lived, but the son didn't. Later on in the news they talk about how the son had mental health issues and he would never hurt a fly and there's just so much surrounding negatively towards this officer in relation to the incident of how he handled it. But I would ask anyone in that situation, if you were just struck from the rear and fell to the ground and lost consciousness and you wake up and there's a guy starting to hit you, pummel you, and you only have one way to react because you felt your life was in danger or your daughter's life. And that's what's being neglected to be told now. I wasn't at the incident. I don't know what exactly occurred. I'm just giving my perception of what I've heard and what I've seen
Ashlie: (04:40)
And then carrying a gun off duty… I think it just creates this additional element of responsibility, whether you're a police officer or you have your CCW, as to how you would react in certain situations like that. And it's not to say who's right or wrong. Fortunately or unfortunately we have a justice system that decides that.
Ashlie: (05:07)
But as you sit there and you listen, could you imagine going to the grocery store and then being ambushed? You have no idea what's taking place and you get struck from behind. You fall to the ground, you're unconscious, you wake up and then you have somebody is hovering over you.
Clint: (05:29)
And you don't even know possibly if this is someone you arrested or any cause I couldn't even imagine the hundreds of people I've arrested. I wouldn't recognize every single one of them.
Ashlie: (05:42)
Exactly. Like, nobody knows what was going through that officer's mind except for that officer and from how quickly he reacted. It seems that everything he did was in self-defense and had nothing to do with the fact he was a police officer and it's a shame in my, in my belief because the media portrays it as this off duty officer did this, but it has nothing to do with the fact that he was an off duty officer. Apart from the relation of being an officer and having an off duty weapon. It could be anybody in the same situation with an illegal or a legal firearm on them that may have reacted in a similar instance, but they try to portray it as another bad officer and it gets under my skin because it doesn't have anything to do with that. It has nothing to do with that because it was simply a man going grocery shopping without any intention of getting into any sort of altercation at all.
Ashlie: (06:45)
He's just trying to get his groceries, but because he's an officer, they have to use that as the leading point in the media. And then his attorneys are doing the same thing as family. Of course they're suing and even though he was off duty. I know that there are other allegations being pulled in for the agency that he works for and it turns into this whole other matter. And I think it's unfortunate. Something that comes to mind as we're talking about this was one time when Clint and I went to a doctor's appointment and we're standing in line and out of nowhere, this gentleman behind us asks if Clint has a pistol in his pocket.
Clint: (07:29)
Actually it was…is that a p, p, pistol in your pocket?
Ashlie: (07:35)
Yeah, I think he was really uncomfortable when he noticed that. You know, you had the outline of a gun in your pocket and it was concealed. And I just remember you immediately telling him, yes, I do. I'm an off duty police officer. You put your hand over your pocket and you turned your body. You shifted immediately. And I just thought it was fascinating that somebody was even paying that close attention. You know, it's almost like you have to be looking for something like that because you know you have a million other things in your pocket that looks like a big wad of something. And immediately after, I remember thinking like, wow, is he going to like report us? Is security going to come up to us and try to say something? He was uncomfortable. We were uncomfortable. But that's just another part of the responsibility of carrying a weapon and off duty.
Clint: (08:33)
And that's something that over the years I have kind of neglected is maybe wearing the right sort of clothes to conceal it or even just secure it where it's not as visible. But I never figured anyone would notice it in my pocket. So in that, I started making adjustments and taking more precautions in reference to that cause it was eye opening because I don't want people to feel uncomfortable around it or to deal with the nonsense that could result with it.
Ashlie: (09:13)
And there are many times where it's so natural for you. It's like this natural extension for you having a gun all the time. It's a natural extension for me, you know, making sure that you have your gun all of the time. And we've, we've talked about that in great detail about how important it is for us to have the ability to protect ourselves if we need to. But in saying that, there have been many times where it's so natural that we go to a public event and we've been scrutinized so much by, not that there's anything wrong with minimum wage, but I'm just going to say these minimum wage employees that try to hold some authority over you because you're carrying a gun. Just recently we went to the fair, we were helping to do something at the fair. We already were in the fairgrounds
Clint: (10:07)
Like we could have already been inside but we wanted to do things the right way and actually pay for tickets and go through the process as everyone else says. We didn't want to just kind of backdoor the system.
Ashlie: (10:19)
Which we could have. We were helping with something on the backend and instead of just enjoying ourselves by going straight through, we exited and went all the way around to the front, stood in line, saw the sign, saw the metal detector. Then we pulled aside a security guard and asked what we needed to do. We explained you're an off duty police officer, you conceal your firearm. He told us to go to the main building to talk to somebody. We go there and it's these snotty girls…like imagine a fair is supposed to be a place of people enjoying themselves. And they were so like…they were very unhappy that they were there working on the weekend apparently.
Clint: (11:02)
And it was like everyone was trying to pass the buck cause they didn't want to deal with it at that time. And it just was, it was to the point that we're like, you know what, just give us our money back for our tickets and we'll leave. But we're like, well let's just try one more thing.
Ashlie: (11:18)
Ao pretty much they said, well it's up to the discretion of one security guard versus the other. So one security guard had no idea, told us again to go to the main office. We told them we already went to there. He didn't want to take responsibility for it. So we found two very nice ladies (also security guards), explained the situation again the same way we had. This is the third time now and they were understanding, let us straight through. We didn't even wait in line.
Clint: (11:46)
And it's kind of funny cause we could have probably walked in without tickets at that point too because those ladies were so helpful for us.
Ashlie: (11:54)
Exactly and we were just trying to do the right thing, but it just goes to show public perception, I believe of somebody carrying a firearm and being a first responder. But the way that I look at it is if any business is functioning with a public event, wouldn't they want more off duty officers? Like, the more the marry and not only if they were armed or not, but just for the sake of knowing that you have another extra person on your side when it comes to protection, looking out for things, you know everything that goes along with having a police presence because whether you're on duty or off duty, you still have an oath that you took that you stand by whether you're on the clock or not.
Clint: (12:42)
And that goes to show with a lot of these incidents that are going on around the world. If there were, there was less scrutiny surrounding officers carrying their firearms or there was more people carrying concealed weapons, you would have a lot less instances of what's going on or they wouldn't be as severe.
Ashlie: (13:07)
And then of course every liberal would argue the other side of that…That it's people like us that believe in owning your own firearm. You know that we're encouraging that type of just heinous behavior, which is just absurd. I just want to tell them like, do you hear yourself talking? And I believe it comes down to the fact that they've never experienced something like this personally, any of these mass shootings and rightfully so, like thank goodness, but it's not until you're faced with the reality of just how tragic life is and how twisted people are in their mindsets and you know, can we talk about this and you shared so many stories with me that just really opens my eyes to the understanding of like this world is really screwed up to some just some point, right? There is the bright side which we try to make more of as much as we can, but we still need to be cognizant of the fact that evil exists and by having the ability to protect yourself and whether you're an officer or a first responder and not understanding that it's important for them to be able to carry their firearms and to respect their space.
Ashlie: (14:20)
If you know that they are a first responder and that you know that the likelihood of them caring is very high when they're off duty, then just give them their space and know that they're there to protect you too. If need be and when you have a better understanding of the challenges that first responders face. Police officers especially, and you know that they never get to clock out. They carry that with them from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. Then you're really able to enjoy your Tactical Living.
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