Utah Sheriffs & Gun
Control
The relentless
fury over gun control has dominated every source of media out there and is out
of control. There are speculations of presidential executive orders restricting
or confiscating our guns that are guaranteed within the contents of our United
States Constitution. Many questions have been posed by elected and non-elected officials
how these proposals will play out at the end and if anything can be done to
curb the violent trend in America related to mass shootings inside our shopping
malls, college campuses and schools.
One group of
Utah sheriffs have taken the proactive approach by writing a letter to the
President of the United States that states in part "Make no
mistake, as the duly-elected sheriffs [of] our respective counties, we will
enforce the rights guaranteed to our citizens by the Constitution. No federal
official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them
what the Bill of Rights--in particular Amendment II--has given them."
It goes and adds that “The citizenry must continue its
ability to keep and bear arms, including arms that adequately protect them from
all types of illegality," and basically warns the federal government that
if the ban for guns is acquired through an executive order without debate or
legislative action, they will refuse to confiscate such weapons from their
constituency.
Police officers
are strange fellows to say the least. There are good cops and bad cops but when
it comes to enforcing such a gun control ban, the majority of them are speaking
out against such a plan to confiscate guns from their respective law
enforcement areas. Although it is
possible that no such action would ever take place there are those who are adamant
about this possibility and have stated quite frankly their position on this
matter is uncompromised.
Many really seriously doubt the ATF, FBI or Department of Justice
will go door to door confiscating assault weapons from anyone. First, it's not
in the federal laws or state laws to confiscate weapons from individuals unless
pursuant to an arrest of the suspect and when a search warrant has been issued
by a judge. Second there never would be enough federal agents to accomplish any
such confiscation nationwide even if it were legal to do so. Hereby their
goals are clear that they would never violate their oath to the United States
Constitution to do or perform actions contrary to the Second Amendment.
However, if Congress were to reinstate the assault weapons
ban, as a police officer they are wondering whether it will be their
responsibility to confiscate them separating federal law from state law. As I
look around I have learned that strict controls over existing arms failed in
many places within the United States as well as other countries thus despite
needs-based licensing, storage laws and transportation restrictions the efforts
to enforce such a gun control law is very difficult and impractical from many
different viewpoints. One must also wonder if some items are being “grandfathered
in” as there are mass supplies of proposed accessories and weapons already
sold.
Perhaps the answer to this entire this are two solutions
that have been proposed in some states already. Either everybody that has no
felony record and not restricted by law from owning a gun carries a gun all the
time or we do away with guns all together and mandates all of them [police
included] carry a stick.
After all, the police in United Kingdom carry nothing but stick so perhaps that is the solution for taking control of our guns in this country. Of course this stick carrying mandate would apply to the police as well and then the only ones that have guns are the criminals or those that refuse to obey the laws and use them in the commission of a crime against person’s property or state.
The United Kingdom is made up of four constituent
countries: England, Scotland, Wales (which make up Great Britain) and Northern
Ireland. In Northern Ireland, all police officers carry firearms. In the rest
of the United Kingdom, police officers do not carry firearms, except in special
circumstances. One can imagine why police officers carry guns in Northern
Ireland and the need is expressed around violence and resistance against
government forces. The United States of America falls into this same category as
we fear domestic terrorism as well as foreign attacks.
This originates from the formation of the Metropolitan
Police Service in the 19th century, when police were not armed, partly to
counter public fears and objections over armed enforcers as this had been
previously seen due to the British Army maintaining order when needed. The
arming of police in Great Britain is a perennial topic of debate.
However, I pray these options will never be and should
never be on the negotiations table for gun control. The answer is in individual
responsibilities of owning a gun or the person’s right to refuse to possess a
weapon inside their home or property.
Gun control is not working as they are established today.
The government and the President must acknowledge that when
Congress or the office of the POTUS pass laws or directives contradictory to
our Constitution, their bans or restrictions will be very similar to those of
prohibition days and the 1994 ban of assault weapons as the public will
continue to find ways to buy such weapons, articles of accessories or high
capacity magazines and for most certain a fact that criminals will never give
up their guns as it is the leverage against those that fall victim to the
predatory and violent ways to commit crimes against persons or state.
Other incidents come to mind where there were acts of
discriminatory and biased judgment orders given during WWII against our
Japanese American citizens and placed them in detainment control units so they
could not plot against our government’s efforts to fight the war in the
Pacific.
Japanese-American internment was the
relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of about
110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of
the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," The
internment of Japanese Americans was applied unequally throughout the United
States. All who lived on the West Coast of the United States were interned,
while in Hawaii, where the 150,000-plus Japanese Americans composed over
one-third of the population, an estimated 1,200 to 1,800 were
interned.
Of those interned, 62% were American citizens. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, issued
February 19, 1942, This illustrates that government is not always aware of
our constitutional rights and threatens the existence of our Bill or Rights.
There is also the right to privacy/expectation of privacy
as established by the US Supreme Court. Our homes are considered private, and
unless a citizen(s) are a person of interest, then it is no one's business if
there are guns in the house. The only exception to that would be if LE is doing
a house to house search for a fugitive, and ask if there are guns for the
safety of the officers not for confiscation purposes.
The meddling of our Bill of Rights will lead to further
intrusion of our right to speech, press, lawful search and seizure, to vote and
to remain silent if the words can cause self-incrimination for the individual. There
is more than gun control at stake here. Once allowed to be enforced and
altering the Constitution, the United States of America will no longer be a
free society founded on the very principles that were written and adopted to
prevent tyranny and government control over people’s lives.
Last but not
least was the major impact of President Obama signing in his executive order
related to gun control. Within a week of his announced ban, there were record
breaking sales of the very items proposed to be banned and not sold to the
public via private gun dealers to private gun owners.
However, the
fact remains that there are no current executive orders specifically banning
guns or confiscation of weapons in any shape or form. Reading the 23 executive orders it shows no impact on the
guns people currently own-or would like to purchase- and that all proposals related
to banning assault weapon and accessories will be proposed for Congressional
action.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/utah-sheriffs-warn-obama-of-deadly-war-over-guns/article/2519176#%2EUP3SnB3y-MG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use_of_firearms_in_the_United_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
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