So would merely brandishing the weapon be considered a threat of deadly force? The article says Hackett never aimed the weapon at the men.

Yes, it is. In Utah, if you pull your gun on someone, you’d better have a damn good reason to do it; Utah only allows deadly force in situations where you or someone else is in imminent danger of death or severe bodily injury (rape is included in that category).

Were Mr. Hackett a Utah CCW permittee his permit would either be suspended or revoked outright, and depending on the level of hoplophobia of the local DA he would be facing a misdemeanor brandishing charge or a felony assault with a deadly weapon charge.

And “brandishing” is described as “displaying a weapon in an angry or threatening manner”, so you don’t even have to point it at someone to be charged.

My non-lawyer guess is that Hackett is being investigated for illegal use of his rifle, not for illegal arrest or detention.

They’ll get you for something.

In TN, you have a carry permit. Concealment is not required but I don’t recommend you open carry.

While some are in favor of concealed carry laws as a way to keep the bad guys away, I am in favor of open carry laws: you can have whatever weapon you want, but everybody needs to be able to see it. Personally, I think that would be more of a deterrent than a concealed weapon. (I’m only about 2/3 serious, by the way.)

And some of us Democrats are crack shots (she says as she gazes lovingly upon her US Navy Expert Pistol Medal)…

I don’t know what Hackett did or didn’t do, but I don’t think it is that absurd to imagine him holding a gun on someone whose face is in the dirt while he was in Iraq.

This is not only hyperbole, but it’s pure BS: Hackett is a major, a civil affairs officer; his job in Fallujah was to distribute humanitarian aid. Majors don’t normally run down suspects in the street in Iraq — that’s the job of junior officers and enlisted men — and they certainly don’t do it 200 times during a 7 month tour, or roughly once a day. And they do it even less when they work at headquarters.

This confirms my first impression about Hackett: He’s a loudmouth who says outrageous things and exaggerates his record in order to make himself look good. The Ohio Dems should be thanking their lucky stars he wasn’t elected, because he’d be a loose cannon when he got to Washington.

Perhaps that is why Mr. Hackett is so upset about the Grand Jury leak: He’s the one the GJ is investigating. And it just ruined his political career (not that he would have went very far anyway, he’s pretty nutty to begin with).

Note here that I don’t really think he did anything wrong, but the law is the law, and if Joe Schmoe doesn’t have the right to chase suspected misdemeanor criminal suspects with an AR-15, then Mr. Hackett shouldn’t have that right, either.

Hackett told police later that he was carrying a civilian model of an AR-15 and that one round was in the chamber but the safety was on.

Well, I’m glad it was only one round in the chamber. If he had two or three in there, it is unlikely that the weapon would have functioned properly.

Of course, he would probably be qualified to carry on on police duty anyways, judging by the pictures we’ve seen about how they use AR-15s.

The driver of the car was charged with failure to maintain reasonable control, driving under suspension and carrying a concealed weapon, a pair of brass knuckles.

So you can carry a gun in Ohio, but brass knuckles?