Col. Jeff Cooper on Riots

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

I caught this video — without the audio, on the BBC’s site — the other night, and it made me queasy:

These police weren’t deployed to keep a peaceful gathering from getting out of hand; they were deployed to keep a riot from getting further out of control.

Where are the riot guns? When a young man throws a torn-up barricade at the police and then charges them, it’s a pretty clear-cut case of asking for it.

Borepatch shares Col. Jeff Cooper’s advice on riots:

It would seem desirable to devise a system which would make sure, first, that the riot would stop; and second, that only the leaders would feel the weight of social disapproval.

Let us consider such a means — the 22-caliber rimfire rifle. This weapon, properly sighted and equipped with a noise suppressor, may be used with surgical delicacy to neutralize mob leaders without risk to other members of the group, without noise and with scant danger of death to the subject. A low-velocity 22 bullet in the lung will not knock a man down, and in these days of modern antisepsis it will almost never kill him if he can get to a hospital in a reasonable time. It will, however, absolutely terminate his interest in leading a riot.

The Israelis apparently read Cooper‘s To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth, which is named for the three great lessons taught young Persian men during that empire’s heyday.

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