I was listening to testimony last week at Warren County Courthouse during the preliminary hearing for a man accused of killing his friend with an AR-15.

The testimony was from police Lt. Paul Springer who described responding to an active shooter call shortly before 3 a.m. Lt. Springer said he drove down the road while using his police spotlight to survey the area. He said his first objective upon stopping his patrol vehicle was to locate the shooter, who could have been hiding in bushes or pointing a gun at him through a window.

Lt. Springer wasn't describing the scene to get praise. He was merely describing what happened as evidence in a courtroom. 

For me, I couldn't stop trying to picture the scene in my head and how terrifying it would have been, at least for me, if I was the officer responding to the call. The active shooter could have still had the gun in his hand, in this case an assault rifle. The active shooter could have been anywhere waiting to ambush another victim.

Fortunately, none of that happened. The gun was already put away and the alleged shooter was described as passive when officers began to arrive. Thankfully, there was no more bloodshed.

Our police officers face potential situations like this one every day on the job. And I think that's something we too often forget.

On Tuesday, a suspect reportedly hit another car and tried to elude officers before he stopped his vehicle on Beersheba Street. He got out of his car, made his fingers look like a gun, and said, "bang, bang, bang" before trying to get physical with the officer.

Deputy Calvin Hammond promptly took the suspect to the ground to end the situation, but it doesn't take much imagination to realize suspects do point weapons at officers that really do go "bang, bang, bang."

All this is a long way of saying I appreciate our officers and the risks they take everyday on the job. They put themselves in harm's way so we can have an orderly society, despite the increasing risks of danger from an often-armed general public.

I had an email exchange last week with John Harris, who is executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association. As most people are aware, there are bills presented every year that look to give more people the right to carry loaded guns in more places.

This makes it even more challenging for law enforcement when every man, woman and child can be considered armed and dangerous. 

I asked Mr. Harris about this and his reply was that "TFA’s mission is to identify and remove all infringements, even if an argument could be made that it is otherwise a reasonable or even necessary infringement."

When a major lobbying group exists that openly admits it is willing to push for unreasonable gun laws, it goes to show what our officers are up against every day on the streets. They deserve our thanks.

Standard editor James Clark can be reached at 473-2191.