On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 12:11:52 +0000 (UTC), "Ronald Bloom"
wrote:
[i]
The Cop Revolt Against Gun Control
By Richard Poe
October 23, 2003
http://www.richardpoe.com/column.cgi?story=130


AN ALL-OUT REVOLT against gun control may be brewing among rank-and-file
police officers.

In my last column, "Gray Davis' Cop-Killing Gun Law," I revealed that
anti-gun zealots such as Sarah Brady and Ted Kennedy have found a new
enemy: cops. No longer content to disarm ordinary citizens, gun
prohibitionists now want to strip off-duty and retired police of the
right to keep and bear arms.

Reader reaction to my column was mixed. Virtually every correspondent
favored gun rights, but many expressed disdain for the rights of police.

"Maybe when their CCW [Concealed Carry Weapon] rights are stripped away
they will look more favorably on ALL of us being allowed to carry,"
grumped one reader on the FreeRepublic.com message board. "Police
officers should not get special rights."

"Hear Hear! Screw the cops. let them see how it feels!" responded
another.

" find it hard to feel too sorry for the cops," opined a third reader
by e-mail. ".Let them taste some of what we supposedly free Americans
have been dealing with. If I can't carry across state lines or into a
government building, why the hell should a cop be able to?"

The resentment these readers express is understandable. Police spokesmen
often publicly applaud gun crackdowns. But police brass in big cities
are not free to speak their minds. They get their marching orders from
City Hall. If they want to keep their jobs, they must toe the party
line. Often that means pretending to support gun control, when in fact
they oppose it.

During a 1990 crime wave in New York City, an ex-cop named Stephen D'
Andrilli suggested on a TV talk show that the city issue one million
permits to carry handguns. Host Dick Oliver asked then-New York Governor
Mario Cuomo to respond. Cuomo snapped, "Why don't you ask the cops what
they think of everybody packing guns?"

Oliver replied that a Mr. Byrne, then head of the Police Benevolent
Association, had said of D'Andrilli's plan, "It's a good idea."

"Well, somebody better talk to Mr. Byrne, straighten him out," said the
governor.

Many high-ranking police have been "straightened out" behind the scenes
just as Governor Cuomo prescribed.

"The Clinton Administration was particularly successful at enlisting
police support for gun control," notes the Web site of the Law
Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) a national anti-crime
organization of law enforcement professionals, crime victims and
concerned citizens, based in Falls Church, VA.

"[The Clinton White House] funneled millions of your tax dollars in
political payoffs, disguised as `research' into the pockets of national
law enforcement organizations.," states an online article published by
the LEAA. ".In one year during the Clinton Administration, the Police
Executive Research Forum, the International Association of Chiefs of
Police, the National Sheriffs Association and the Police Foundation
collectively hauled in $4.4 million in Justice Department
grants. .[P]olice groups that scurried to do Clinton's bidding happen to
be the same ones that were awarded the lucrative federal grants."

The same LEAA article notes that many police officers were literally
ordered to support the Brady Bill and the 1994 "Assault Weapons" Ban.
"In some outrageous cases, police officers who actually opposed the
legislation were forced by their superiors to appear in staged
photographs as if they were solidly behind gun control!" charges the
LEAA.

Despite all the payoffs and political arm-twisting, when the National
Association of Chiefs of Police conducted a mail survey of 15,000
sheriffs and police chiefs in 1996, 93 percent said they approved of
law-abiding citizens arming themselves for self-defense.

More and more pro-gun cops are working at the grassroots level in
support of citizen gun rights.

Shortly after the 9-11 attacks, Sheriff John Raichl of Clatsop County,
Oregon proposed recruiting armed citizens to guard docks, bridges,
reservoirs, power stations, gas lines and other potential terrorist
targets. Governor John Kitzhaber shot down Raichl's plan.

Kennesaw, Georgia and Virgin, Utah passed laws requiring every household
to own at least one gun. "Hundreds of towns and cities are passing or
considering similar ordinances," claims VirginUtah.com, a Web site which
promotes the town's unusual gun laws.

Meanwhile, Sarah Brady and Ted Kennedy continue antagonizing police by
opposing Senate bill 253 a law that would permit active and retired
cops to carry concealed weapons anywhere in the USA, without
restriction.

Gun-ban activists have made a fatal error by targeting police. They have
laid the groundwork for a grassroots alliance of gun owners and lawmen
a coalition that could well tip the scales in favor of our beleaguered
Second Amendment.

Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to
clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are
so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry