Posted on 01/17/2013 1:59:49 PM PST by Altariel
Newtown massacre pushes some police chiefs beyond enforcing the law, to advocating new ones
Lawmakers and mayors aren’t the only ones ratcheting up the debate on gun control. Some big city police chiefs are also stepping into the political arena, lobbying for tighter controls that they and their officers would then enforce.
Take for instance San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne, who in an interview last week called for tougher gun laws and clearly chafed at the influence the National Rifle Association has held for years over the national debate.
Lansdowne suggested the Newtown, Conn., massacre may have undercut the gun lobby’s power and opened the door for new gun control legislation. “We broke the NRA,” Lansdowne boasted in an off camera portion of an interview with San Diego 6 and the Washington Guardian. When asked to expound, he demurred.
The White House plans to unveil its regulatory plan Wednesday for tightening gun controls, and Lansdowne threw his support behind President Barack Obama.
"I could not be more supportive of the president for taking the position he has," he told KPBS in a separate interview. "I think it's courageous with the politics involved in this process. But I think it's going to eventually make the country safer and certainly safer for my officers that have to respond to these calls. "
The pro-gun movement is showing no sign of letting up, however.
The NRA unleashed a new video Tuesday calling Obama "an elitist hypocrite" and announced it has had a massive surge in new memberships since Newtown. Gun sales have soared as some gun owners fear new restrictions. And after a White House meeting with the NRA, Vice President Joe Biden pointedly omitted promising an assault weapons ban that he and the president have long supported, suggesting the White House would focus first on closing loopholes on gun buyers’ background checks and limiting the size of ammunition cartridges.
In fact, the NRA scoff at the notion that the tide has turned against Second Amendment supporters. “I would say that the likelihood is that they are not going to be able to get assault weapons ban through this Congress,” NRA President David Keene told CNN this past weekend.
Normally, police leave the politics to politicians, or their umbrella lobbying groups. But the Sandy Hook Elementary rampage, which claimed 20 children and eight adults, has pushed many individual chiefs from their normal positions of enforcing the law to expressing political opinions and advocating legislative outcomes.
Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy recently was quoted as supporting several new laws that would restrict assault weapons, restrict high-capacity magazines and close a gun-show loophole on mandatory background checks.
“People are going to say that this is gun control and they’re going to take our guns,” McCarthy was quoted earlier this month saying. “We’re not looking for that. We’re looking for reasonability in the law.”
On the flip side, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose district suffered through the mass shooting that wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords a couple of years ago in Tucson, Ariz., is supporting the NRA's position of putting armed security in schools, and opposing tougher gun controls.
“Cities with the largest gun crime problems are New York City, Chicago and Washington DC all have one thing in common- the strictest gun laws,” he said. “This is not a gun issue, it’s a mental health issue,”
Some groups representing rank-and-file also are opposing more gun controls, like the Law Enforcement Alliance of America. “That’s because they know, better than most, that disarming honest citizens does nothing to reduce crime, but will deprive citizens of the means of defending themselves from violent predators,” the group said.
San Diego's Lansdowne, who plays an active role in the western region of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), said in the interview it may take a generation, but guns will eventually be taken off the streets through new laws.
He also has personally advocated for a legislative solution that would allow current lawful firearms owners to keep their assault weapons if new sales are banned, but prohibit assault firearms from be passed down to living relatives after death, meaning the weapon would be destroyed when the current owner dies.
Separately, IACP is advocating a ban on assault weapons, restricting high-capacity magazines, closing loopholes that allow firearm sales between private owners without background checks, future gun transfer grandfathering, and implementing much stricter background checks by using a comprehensive database.
Lansdowne also is pressing to address the mental health component that is a common denominator in many of the recent mass shootings.
“Having a national system that quickly identifies those people who are suffering from acts of violence and mental health issues,” is also key when it comes to addressing gun violence, he said.
Under Lansdowne, San Diego Police implemented the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team or (PERT), a program that pairs a licensed mental health clinician with a law enforcement officer to respond to calls dealing with psychological issues.
“I live in San Diego...”
You have my sympathy.
I never heard of this Lansdowne scumbag but he sounds like he would be more than comfortable with a swastika on his shoulder instead of the stars and stripes.
I lived in California for a long time, and moved out 20 years ago. The gang problems in California’s largest cities was bad 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, etc. And nothing is done, because it isn’t PC to go after Mexican and black gangs. So they go after the law biding people instead. Now the gang problem has spread to smaller California cities and towns, and to other states.
Police chiefs abd sheriffs who are hostile to the Second Amendment are just as big a threat to our freedoms as Obama and his cohorts.
Another American city temporarily behind enemy lines.
There they are, the IACP. I’ve been warning people about them, they are fascists.
Janet Napolitano is on the IACP board. Obama was once on the board of the Joyce Foundation which works with the IACP.
The chiefs are union political hacks.
Whoever wrote this article doesn't know Arizona very well. Tucson is in Pima County. Pima County has that idiot Dupnik as County Sheriff who blamed the right for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords.
www.CSPOA.org
www.OathKeepers.org
Strange Bedfellows: Obummercommies will push armed gangsters and armed law-abiding citizens against a common enemy
That and a cushy DC appointment when Dago runs him out for incompetence.
A friend sent me the link for a Youtube video called “Why the Cops fear SHTF”. I wasn’t sure what to think when it started off with the assertion that the biggest gang on the streets was not the Crips but the local police department.
By the end of the video I saw where they going with that statement. And it sort of explains why the Police chiefs want the common citizen disarmed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xlA-2xf9mE
I neither approve or disapprove of the video, I am just bringing this up for additional discussion.
We did not vote him into office. He was appointed. You make a good point though. The San Diego County Sheriff was elected and he is another liberal scum sucker. His name is Bill Gore. He earned his bones as the leader of the FBI operation at Ruby Ridge.
Bflv
According to Open Secrets, the Pharmaceuticals and Health Products industry lobby spent nearly $181 million in 2012. Business Associations spent $122 million in lobbying, the Insurance Industry spent $113 million, the Electric Utilities industry spent $108 million, and the Oil & Gas industries spent $104 million. All in 2012.
According to the same site, the "gun rights lobby" spent ...
... are you ready? ARE YOU SITTING DOWN?
In 2012, this ominous all-powerful influencial "gun lobby" spent ...
... a whopping $5.8 million.
In other words, the Pharmaceuticals industry spent MORE THAN 31 TIMES MORE than "the gun lobby."
"The gun lobby's power ..." is that of a kitten even compared to the Defense Aerospace Industry, which spent $42.5 million lobbying in 2012 -- that's more than seven times the "gun lobby's power."
Claims of being pressured by a "powerful gun lobby" are pure HOKUM.
The disarmed are not citizens. They are serfs.
“San Diego’s Lansdowne, who plays an active role in the western region of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), said in the interview it may take a generation, but guns will eventually be taken off the streets through new laws”
Chief Lansdowne what have been drinking, smoking or popping?
Chief Lansdowne please tell me off top of your size 6 head, give me the last 5 killers you had in San Diego that were also NRA members.
And this is from our friends at KPBS
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/may/17/san-diego-police-there-pattern-misconduct/
Whistling past the graveyard.
Remember that name.
Another delusional small person with a Napoleon complex (should that be updated to 'Obama' Complex?) who believes that those 'old white men' in the late 18th Century, who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, had no clue what they were doing; or why.
Karma, however, is a bitch.
Good luck to him.
Context is key.
And after a White House meeting with the NRA, Vice President Joe Biden pointedly omitted promising an assault weapons ban that he and the president have long supported, suggesting the White House would focus first on closing loopholes on gun buyers’ background checks and limiting the size of ammunition cartridges.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.