Indianapolis postman shot in the eye with a .38

[SSN Vet]

I think it's pretty obvious that the guy didn't intend to confront the armed perp.. but rather, he was attempting to be an effective witness and get a plate number as the car sped off.

What someone is intending to do with their actions, makes a big difference in how others should evaluate those actions. (i.e. he wasn't running up to the guy to fight him for the money he just stole..... which might have the exact same outcome... but for a very different reason). If people are going to judge the actions of others... they need to be responsible and thoughtful and wise enough to make a right judgment)

Unfortunately for him, he wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time.....

"Chicken soul" or not, he was hurt badly while trying to do something good.

Were his actions wise? I personally don't think so. If anyone has a responsibility to stop a bank robber it would be an officer of the bank (i.e. the branch manager)... yet we all know exactly what the banks tell their employees... "just give them the money and don't get yourself or anyone else hurt". And they tell them this with a significant measure of experience and wisdom.

The real tragedy is that the armed robber who attempted to kill a witness to his crime by shooting him in the face, is going to get a tax payer funded attorney, is going to burn tens of thousands of dollars of our resources in a trial and then is going to get three hots and a cot, cable t.v., free education and the best health care money can buy for the next 7 to 10 years. Where as he should get a "speedy trial" followed by a long jump off a public stage with a short rope around his neck. Done!

Mr. Postman may well be a contractor.... in which case he will not get squat.... if a contractor, he probably doesn't even have health insurance, in which case he's got a whopper of a bill coming from the hospital. The hospital won't push him into bankruptcy to pay his surgery bills, so they'll do what they do whenever someone can't pay their bill... they pass on the cost to you and me.

If he is a full time employee of the USPS, they he will have good health insurance and his medical bills will get paid.

If the guy was on his lunch break and in the bank on personal business, the USPS will likely (and probably has every right to) deny a workers comp claim. If that's the case... he's out a couple months pay. If the bank was a stop on his assigned route.... he'll be covered by workers comp and the USPS will just pass the cost on to us the next time they hike their rates.

Honestly guys... this is all pretty basic stuff.... If you ever have to ask yourself "who's paying for all of this cr@#" the answer is most likely "I AM"

As for obligation to community goes... the first building block of any community is the nuclear family (despite Hillary's rainbow village myths) and in my personal case... I am responsible (not the state, not the bank, not the insurance company, etc...) for the feeding, sheltering and care of four other souls. I will think very carefully B4 risking my life. If the guy was taking a teenage teller with him as a hostage/victim I would (Lord help me) do the right thing and risk my life to save her. However, I would not risk my life for the $500 dollars the guy likely got from the bank.

 

[KBintheSLC]

Well if you shoot someone point blank in the FACE and they can still call their wives on a cell phone....

suddenly I am thinking maybe a j frame isnt such a hot idea.

Well, according to the story it looks like it did the poor guy a good bit of damage. Maybe not fatal, but jeeze...

The right side of his face is swollen from a shattered cheek and jawbone fractured in eight places, and though the tissue around his right eye is a deep shade of purple, he can see out of it.

Also, it immediately put him down... out of the fight. The bullet may have grazed rather than hit directly too... they were struggling for the gun after all.

I feel bad for the mail man, but I would say the 38 spl performed as well as could be expected.

 

[Yo Mama]

Highwayman:

Any bullet to any face is going to stop the fight.. I'll have to agree.

Ohh really? Back it up with fact's.

Stopped the mailman didn't it?



Buddy of mine said it best. "I don't care who you are, you don't want to get shot in the face with anything, even a pellet gun."

If anyone has a responsibility to stop a bank robber it would be an officer of the bank

Not sure if you're referring to an armed guard, or actual officer, but there is no legal requirement for police to protect you in any way shape or form. This leads to the idea that everyone needs to be armed, and should be.

 

[Carl Levitian]

Quote:
Well if you shoot someone point blank in the FACE and they can still call their wives on a cell phone....

suddenly I am thinking maybe a j frame isnt such a hot idea.

Well, according to the story it looks like it did the poor guy a good bit of damage. Maybe not fatal, but jeeze...


Quote:
The right side of his face is swollen from a shattered cheek and jawbone fractured in eight places, and though the tissue around his right eye is a deep shade of purple, he can see out of it.

Also, it immediately put him down... out of the fight. The bullet may have grazed rather than hit directly too... they were struggling for the gun after all.

I feel bad for the mail man, but I would say the 38 spl performed as well as could be expected.

----------------------------------------------------------

Any bullet in the face stops the fight. Anyone in any doubt, please get Frank Serpico's book by his name, and in the first chapter he starts right off with a very vivid description of his experiance being shot in the face from a few feet away with a .22 pistol. He was in an ardeniline charge breaking down a door to a suspects apartment, and he was halfway through the door when he got shot. It knocked him down to the floor where he lay stunned, wondering if he was going to die. He was 100% out of action. The .22 bullet bounced off his jaw and down into his neck.

The had to carry him out of that apartment building.

Getting shot with anything in the face is serious hurt.

 

[krs]

That 'postman' may get fired.

If he's a letter carrier he left his route to go do personal business in the bank and compounded that by running around chasing bank robbers.

If he is fired he won't be the first postal service employee fired for good samaritan acts while on duty.

If the guy has 30 years in he should have seen things like this resulting in employee firings or suspensions and known better.

In this one it'll be up to his supervisor and postmaster if the story doesn't spread too far.

If it gains national attention then the local managers are going to answer for their employees running around doing other than what they're paid to do while on the clock, and those managers will be forced to take a corrective action even if they don't think it's warranted.

the Postal Service has demonstrated it's heartlessness many times in situations like this.

 

[Yo Mama]

^ And it they do let him go, I hope we find out.

 

[LRaccuracy]

Someone I knew was murdered with a .38 Special last year. The guard at the Holocaust museum was killed with a .22 LR. A OSP officer was killed with a .22 short. I remember that a child in Marietta, GA was killed with a BB gun. If you are going to shoot me with something, make it a toy water gun............... unloaded.

 

[krs]

Any gunshot can be fatal.

It's useless to use this as an example of the effectiveness of .38 Special, or of the ineffectiveness of the caliber.

Examples of survival after being shot by any caliber named can no doubt be found, just as examples of fatal results after being shot by any caliber named can no doubt be found.

Nothing about either type of example can be a predictor of the result of the next gunshot episode.

The postman is lucky.

 

[SHusky57]

That 'postman' may get fired.

If he's a letter carrier he left his route to go do personal business in the bank and compounded that by running around chasing bank robbers.

If he is fired he won't be the first postal service employee fired for good samaritan acts while on duty.

If the guy has 30 years in he should have seen things like this resulting in employee firings or suspensions and known better.

In this one it'll be up to his supervisor and postmaster if the story doesn't spread too far.

If it gains national attention then the local managers are going to answer for their employees running around doing other than what they're paid to do while on the clock, and those managers will be forced to take a corrective action even if they don't think it's warranted.

the Postal Service has demonstrated it's heartlessness many times in situations like this.

Norman, a 30-year mailman who is assigned to the Wanamaker Branch, said he stopped at the Chase at Southeastern and Northeastern avenues about 3 p.m. Thursday to get lunch money. He was eating late, he said, because earlier that day, he had discovered that one of his patrons, an elderly woman whom he checked on occasionally because she was a shut-in, had died at her home.

Dude, really. He has to be a local hero. No way they the USPS would want to hurt his career. He was late to lunch because a patron on his route that he regularly checked on had died. I barely know my neighbors. This guy went out of his way to check on an elderly lady. Then he goes to play superman, but unfortunately has no super powers or government issue Sig-sauer. Maybe postal carriers should just be armed.... it would cut down on vicious dogs and mail thiefs?