It’s time for law enforcement to stand with America’s gun owners

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous writes . . .

“Bad men need no more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”  – John Stuart Mill

(Article by TTAG contributor republished from TheTruthAboutGuns.com)

Law-abiding American gun owners stand with law enforcement, and American law enforcement must stand with us. Elitist politicians across the country are advancing draconian national, state, and local gun control schemes that will do nothing to deter criminal activity and will only undermine honest Americans’  natural right and responsibility to provide for their own safety and security.     

Participating in Second Amendment marches and rallies, calling and emailing  legislators, writing letters to the editor, and engaging in social media discussions are all worthy pursuits. But according to some studies only 30-40% of US households have firearms. 

Gun owners are a minority in modern America and we need a new strategy if we hope to defeat bad public policy and defend Second Amendment civil liberties. Responsible gun owners are also law enforcement’s strongest support group and we, in turn, need—and deserve—law enforcement’s public support of our interests. 

We need law enforcement to stand with us!

Several times the best-known Second Amendment advocacy groups have been approached with a recommendation to draw law enforcement’s unions and associations—their political organizations–into our camp. But those Second Amendment groups have for the most part been non-responsive. 

In one case they said trying to get law enforcement into the public policy debate was “too hard,”  but  sometimes that which is hard is the thing most worth doing, and at this point what do we have to lose?  Law enforcement stand with us!

In April, 2018 the Deerfield Illinois Village Board passed a sweeping ban on commonly used sporting arms and standard capacity magazines; what the board called “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines.” 

Not everyone in Deerfield was subject to the village’s onerous ordinance, however. Law enforcement officers’ (LEOs) and retired LEOs’ privately owned firearms were exempt. That’s worth repeating: cops’ and retired cops’ personally owned gun collections were exempt from the ban. 

The Deerfield ordinance emotionally decries “…assault weapons are dangerous and unusual weapons which are commonly associated with the military..,” yet active and retired military personnel were granted no exemption from the ban. That logic requires some mental gymnastics, or perhaps simply an acknowledgment law enforcement in Deerfield  are more politically astute and well connected than military personnel and other law-abiding citizens. 

In any case, the exemption bought law enforcement’s silence, the village’s cops were able to keep their personal gun collections, and the ordinance was approved by the village board. 

The Deerfield case is not unique, however. The same exemptions for LEOs’ and retired LEOs’ privately owned firearms are seen at the state and local level throughout the country: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Boulder CO, Highland Park IL, and the list goes on. 

All have LEO exemptions for privately-owned firearms collections. Those officers who are exempt from the laws and ordinances they are tasked to enforce will have a difficult time explaining their “above the law” status to the gun-owning taxpayers (and their friends and neighbors) in the communities they serve. 

Read more at: TheTruthAboutGuns.com and GunSanctuaries.com.