California police chief: The idea that a gun is a defensive weapon is a ‘myth’

Washington Examiner ^ | February 14, 2013 | Charlie Spiering

[Zakeet]

California Police Chief Ken James insisted earlier this month that the idea of a gun as a “defensive weapon” was a “myth.” Speaking at a news conference about gun control with California lawmakers, James explained that he was concerned with the amount of weapons owned by American citizens.

“One issue that always boggles my mind is that the idea that a gun is a defensive weapon,” James said. “That is a myth. A gun is not a defensive weapon.”

James is the Police Chief of Emeryville, California and the Police Chief Association’s Firearms Committee Chairman.

“A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and show power,” he asserted, explaining to the audience that police officers don’t carry weapons to defend themselves, but to do their job in a “safe and effective manner.”

James’ statement has become a subject of ridicule among gun owners online.

[RavenLooneyToon]

“A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and show power,”...when in the hands of the LAPD.

[ArrogantBustard]

You need a gun to safely eat your donuts?!?!?

Dude ... have you ever eaten a donut?

Them things are mean ... grab one out of a box, and the other 11 jump up and try to do you in.

[dfwgator]

Who’s the token white guy in the upper right?

[longfellow]

“A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and show power,” he asserted, explaining to the audience that police officers don’t carry weapons to defend themselves, but to do their job in a “safe and effective manner.”

so much for protect and serve.

[ThomasThomas]

Not California but just Emeryville. Emeryville is a small city It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland.

Need I say more.

[ArrogantBustard]

Token White Guy frowns on your shenanigans, too.

[KrisKrinkle]

“A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and show power,”

More accurately: “A gun may be used to intimidate and show the capacity to use force or to actually use force.”

This can be done for an offensive or defensive purpose, depending on the bearer of the gun. That’s important because any so called “problem” is not due to guns but to the people who misuse them.

Lots of people use guns in self defense without firing a shot because they intimidate aggressors by showing they have the capacity to use force.

Lots of criminals use guns to commit crimes without firing a shot because they intimidate victims by showing they have the capacity to use force.

In some or many places it is illegal to use a gun to show the capacity to use force in self defense. It’s called brandishing. It forces people to wait until they are sure they are in danger of death or great bodily harm and must shoot to protect themselves. That gives an edge to the aggressor.

[SpaceBar]

Actually the military teaches something that is quite at odds with this police chief is saying. Your pistol is a last ditch defensive weapon that is used when you are separated from your rifle or are otherwise defenseless and being pursued by the enemy.

[jsanders2001]

> Hmmm....The idea of a POLICE OFFICER as a defensive weapon is a myth...

True they are pretty much a reactive force at that and overloaded often

[Yosemitest]

That idiot should NOT carry a gun.
That idiot should NOT be in the police force.
That idiot should NOT be an American.

The United States Citizens KNOW that they're going to have to fight TYRANTS in their own government.
You cannot protect life, without the ability to take life.

While you are WAITING for the police to respond, someone could be losing their life.
All people of a responsible age should be armed.

As EternalVigilance reminded us:

The Second Amendment IS Pro-Life.

"Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these:
First, a right to life;
Secondly, to liberty;
Thirdly, to property;
together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.
These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation,
commonly called the first law of nature...
In short, it is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society,
to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights;
when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights;
the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property.
If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation.
The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty,
it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift
and voluntarily become a slave."




-- Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists

Click here to read the 12 page pamphlet.

Let us NEVER FORGET THAT !

Let's subjugate them to OUR end game, DUST!
"COMPROMISE" is a DIRTY word!
People who study the Bible know that COMPROMISE almost always leads to destruction.


It's time to mock the "Gun Control" Zombies!
"Gun Control" is a firm grip, steady breathing, accurate aim (developed by lots of practice), and a slow trigger pull.


The Swiss have got it CORRECT !
We need to learn from the Swiss and implement their "gun control measures" here in the United States right now, today!
These laws are the ones we should shove into the "2nd Amendment Haters" faces.

" Today, military service for Swiss males is universal. At about age 20, every Swiss male goes through 118 consecutive days of recruit training in the Rekrutenschule. ...

Even before required training begins, young men and women may take optional courses with the Swiss army's M57 assault rifle.
They keep that gun at home for three months and receive six half-day training sessions.

From age 21 to 32, a Swiss man serves as a "frontline" troop in the Auszug, and devotes three weeks a year (in eight of the 12 years) to continued training.
From age 33 to 42, he serves in the Landwehr (like America's National Guard); every few years, he reports for two-week training periods.
Finally, from ages 43, to 50, he serves in the Landsturm; in this period, he only spends 13 days total in "home guard courses."

Over a soldier's career he also spends scattered days on mandatory equipment inspections and required target practice.
Thus, in a 30-year mandatory military career, a Swiss man only spends about one year in direct military service.
Following discharge from the regular army, men serve on reserve status until age 50 (55 for officers).

By the Federal Constitution of 1874, military servicemen are given their first equipment, clothing and arms.
After the first training period, conscripts must keep gun, ammunition and equipment an ihrem Wohnort ("in their homes") until the end of their term of service.

Today, enlisted men are issued M57 AUTOMATIC assault rifles and officers are given pistol.
Each reservist is issued 24 rounds of ammunition in sealed packs for emergency use.
(Contrary to Handgun Control's claim that "all ammunition must be accounted for," the emergency ammunition is the only ammo that requires accounting.)

After discharge from service, the man is given a bolt rifle free from registration or obligation.
Starting in the 1994, the government will GIVE ex-reservists assault rifles. Officers carry pistols rather than rifles and are given their pistols the end of their service.

When the government adopts a new infantry rifle, it sells the old ones to the public.

Reservists are encouraged to buy MILITARY ammunition
(7.5 and 5.6mm-5.56 mm in other countries-for rifles and 9 and 7.65 mm Luger for pistols)
which is sold AT COST by the government, for target practice .
Non-military ammunition for long-gun hunting and .22 Long Rifle (LR) ammo are not subsidised, but are subiect to NO sales controls.
Non-military non-hunting ammunition more powerful than .22 LR (such as .38 Spl.) is registered at the time of sale.

Swiss military ammo must be registered IF bought at a private store, BUT NEED NOT BE REGISTERED IF bought at a range.
The nation's 3,000 shooting ranges sell the overwhelming majority of ammunition.
Technically, ammunition bought at the range must be used at the range, but the rule is barely known and almost never obeyed.

The army SELLS a variety of machine guns, submachine guns, anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft guns, howitzers and cannons.
Purchasers of these weapons require an EASILY OBTAINED cantonal license, and the weapons are registered.
In a nation of six million people, there are at least two million guns, including 600,000 FULLY AUTOMATIC assault rifles, half a million pistols, and numerous machine guns.
Virtually every home has a gun.

Besides SUBSIDIZED military surplus, the Swiss can buy other firearms easily too.
While long guns require NO special purchase procedures, handguns are sold only to those with a Waffenerwerbsschien (purchase certificate) issued by a cantonal authority.
A certificate is issued to every applicant over 18 who is not a criminal or mentally infirm.

There are NO restrictions on the carrying of long guns.
About half the cantons have strict permit procedures for carrying handguns, and the other half have NO rules at all.
There is NO discernible difference in the crime rate between the cantons as a result of the different policies.

Thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Swiss gun lobby, semi-automatic rifles require NO PURCHASE PERMIT and are NOT registered by the government.
Thus, the ONLY long guns registered by the government are FULL AUTOMATICS."

The Swiss have got it CORRECT !
Let's adopt THEIR LAWS !

Remember:

The beauty of the Second Amendment is
that it will not be needed
until they TRY to take it.

Read Second Amendment: It’s Not About Hunting, IT'S ABOUT TYRANNY .

[depressed in 06]

Why does he wear one?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Another political appointee who was promoted above his intelligence.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

FBI to desk-job LEO James: On average, 500,000 times a year the presence of a firearm prevents a felony. Many of these instances of using a firearm for self-defense are women defending themselves against abusive husbands, ex-husbands, and ex-boyfriends.

Taking away firearms will result in thousands of women being attacked and murdered every year.

And the left accuses conservatives of engaging on a ‘war on women.’

[BobL]

So I guess he carries his weapon to go shooting at people for sport?

...since he states it’s not for defense.

[wac3rd]

I was in Emeryville on Tuesday at the IKEA store. Here is what’s interesting about Emeryville, it has a very pro-business environment there, so Peet’s Coffee, Pixar, Title IX Sports, the Oaks Card House and the Powell Street retail/mixed-use property are all there.

This is a city that saw the light of private sector business...they can afford a Libtard like this to spew nonsense, they have 10,000 people.

[noinfringers2]

Typical social snob. I’ll join the police force so I can have a gun to use at my discretion but my neighbor just isn’t fit to have a gun. All ‘public’ employees place themselves in the ruling class and the ones given guns shower themselves with accolades all the time.

[Mouton]

Good point, shows the hypocracy in his statement.

The real crime here is asshats like this guy are one of two officials who can approve a CCL in Cal, the other being the county sheriff.

[TWhiteBear]

Chief Ken James is a moron.
It is good, however, for dimwits like him to have an opportunity to speak and expose themselves as total retreads.
TWB

[SargeK]

On another thread, I said that police need to be under the firm control of elected civil authority. I am starting to re-think that as quaint but tragically out-dated.

No one in a police department is more directly accoutable to the elected officials than the chief. Generally, the chief is selected by and serves at the pleasure of the elected official(s). No union, no civil service.

And this is what we get - nearly every time. Just exactly what the elected officials want. We elect idiot petty tyrants and they in turn appoint idiot petty tyrants.

And, OBTW Chief, the 70’s called. They want their dry-look and moustache back. Sheesh, what a soup strainer.

[clee1]

“A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and show power,” he asserted, explaining to the audience that police officers don’t carry weapons to defend themselves, but to do their job in a “safe and effective manner.”

Prima facia evidence as to a) why this idiot should NOT be a cop, let alone a police chief; and b) why "police" should be rare.

Police are the government's "intimidate and show power" arm.