fox files

When President Barack Obama began his recent traveling campaign for gun control flanked by law enforcement officers, the message was clear—cops support his gun control measures. Strangely enough, in the real world (as opposed to the world envisioned by his public relations strategists), thousands are hearing from a lot of officers who don’t believe his proposals would make us any safer.

All 62 county sheriffs in Colorado, for instance, signed on to a position paper arguing against bans on semi-automatic firearms, arbitrary magazine limits and a ban on private transfers of firearms. And when officers watching “NRA  News Cam & Co.” on Sportsman Channel were asked to tell the NRA what they thought would be effective, NRA inboxes were quickly flooded.

Brett, a former law enforcement officer from New Jersey, wrote: “The laws have not changed a thing in our state. The rate of crime is a constant despite the strict gun laws. If we were to enforce these laws and eliminate plea-bargaining, it would reduce crime. Let’s be realistic, gun owners that [sic] go through background checks to buy guns are not committing armed robberies.”

Dwaine, a retired state trooper in Michigan, said: “I was more afraid of some idiot eating a Big Mac with the stereo blasting running me over. I am appalled at these so-called law enforcement officers who would say that banning my guns or any other good citizens’ guns in this country is the right thing to do.”

Finally, a retired police detective from California named Gary wrote an incredibly eloquent letter, which said, in part: “34 years ago I took my first oath to defend the Constitution, as well as federal, state and municipal laws. I devoted those 34 years to this country and members of my community to protect them from criminals and those that would do them harm. Now, when I see this administration and our nation’s chief law enforcement officials providing misleading information to the American public, it does more than frustrate me, it insults everything we as a nation stand for. Shame on them!”

To pretend that law enforcement supports these laws wholeheartedly is to believe in fiction. Ask a beat cop what he or she thinks about the effectiveness of more laws versus better prosecution rates and fewer plea bargains, and listen to his response. You might be surprised—especially if you listened to the president pitching gun control with

‘cops as props’ in Minneapolis, Minn.