Just under two years ago, a Thurston County middle school teacher was made to resign after she was found to have brought a firearm to school. The teacher had told both the school administration and the police that she had only brought it to protect herself from her husband, for whom she had recently gotten a protection order on after he threatened her with a gun.
They ignored the clear and present threat, patted her on the head and told her not to worry her little self over it. Shortly afterwards, they said that if she refused to resign, they’d fire her and have charges pressed against her. Yes, she had a valid Washington State Concealed Pistol License at the time.
Her name was Mary Catherine Roe.
And now to the present day.
Over the weekend, a multiple convicted felon murdered a US Forest Service K9 officer, Kristine Fairbanks, when she pulled him over in Olympic National Park for not having any plates on his van. Shortly thereafter, he ditched the van and committed a home invasion robbery, killing the homeowner, Richard Ziegler, and stealing his truck.
When the man was spotted a few hours later, he decided to go into a quickdraw competition with Clallam County Sheriff Deputies and lost.
It was later discovered that he had been recently released by the state Dept. of Corrections and there was somewhat of a warrant out for his arrest because he had failed to check in with his probation officer. I say “somewhat” because the probation officer had requested one be issued on September 10th, but as of this weekend, it had not yet happened.
His name was Shawn M. Roe. Mary Roe’s violent ex-husband.
With all of the domestic violence rules in place that give women the upper hand when they need it (and sometimes when they don’t deserve it), why isn’t one of them the ability to carry a legal and permitted concealed weapon anywhere they damn well please not one of them.
Let us hope that, at the very least, all of this carnage will lead to some changes in that direction.
I’m sure that we all remember Medford, OR school teacher, Shirley Katz, who made the same request and was also denied.
Even my wife, who thinks I’m a bit nutty about guns and carrying, thinks that a person who has an Order of Protection out against a person who may be violent toward them should be allowed to carry if they’ve gone through the background checks and all.