When is it okay for police to shoot an armed suspect?  When that person points his weapon at them or someone else, as in the case in Michigan last week.

Police were called to a domestic dispute in Roseville, Michgan on Tuesday where they were confronted by a man with a shotgun.

I think the police were remarkably self-restrained when they didn’t kill the guy after he fired a few rounds at them. It wasn’t until he pointed his shotgun at a neighbour that police shot and killed him.

The neighbour’s “crime”?  Apparently he had the nerve to come home while the nutbar was outside with his shotgun.

Roseville Police Chief Michael Pachla said officers shot the gunman, “striking the individual at least once and maybe more, and he is deceased.”

One thing I’ve never understood is why you want to take a shotgun out and start shooting at police.  There’s just no way that’s going to end well for anyone.  Not for the guy who gets killed, and not for the police officers who are left with no choice but to shoot you for being so stupid.

Domestic disputes are the most dangerous call a police constable can answer, that’s a given.  What I don’t get is why people get to the point of wanting to kill each other like that.

My wife and I can get into some pretty heated arguments from time to time.  We’re both passionate about our beliefs (she calls it bullheaded, I prefer a more gentle term!) but at the end of the day we love each other and have absolutely no desire to physically harm each other, no matter how much we may disagree with each other over some transient issue.

And they’re always transient issues.  Little stupid things.  That’s what most people argue about, isn’t it?  The big horrible stuff always pulls us together.  It’s the stupid little crap that pulls us apart.

But to let that little crap get to the point where you’re hauling out a shotgun and pointing at police?  That’s the kind of stupid you just don’t get a chance to recover from, most days.

I’ve never been a fan of permanent solutions to temporary problems.