The matter of Detective Tuason

Reference http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585807,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r3:c0.000000:b0:z5

On his Facebook page, a police detective in California advocated "proning out" anyone openly carrying a firearm and then shooting them if they moved. The problem is that it is legal to carry an unloaded firearm openly in California. So now there is a Facebook group for folks who want to Detectice Tuason to be fired.

This raises some interesting questions. It's a dilemma for us law-abiding gun owners. As good guys and conservatives, we want to be on the same side as the police. But they are not on our side.

Yes, one can find pro-Second Amendment police. I have a friend who is a US federal Drug Enforcement Agent who is as rabidly pro-Second Amendment as I am. The Sheriff's Department in the exurban Maryland county in which I reside will not respond when Washington, DC refugees call 911 to report target shooters. But by and large, cops don't want citizens to have guns. Let's discuss why.

1. Officer safety. Police have been trained that firearms in anyone's hands are a threat to them. Remember the gun confiscation that occurred in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina? Remember all the cops who refused to report for duty, leaving the people defenseless except for whatever means of self-defense the people had? And then those same cops sallied forth to confiscate law-abiding citizens' firearms when the people needed them most. Police assume that everyone not wearing a cop uniform is a bad guy, and want to disarm and dominate everyone else in the name of "officer safety". Remember, unlike the military, the police are unionized. They worry about themselves before they worry about anyone else.

2. Police privilege. Back in the 1990s, in between tours of active duty in the US Army, I worked as a security guard. A lot of my fellow security guards wanted to grow up to be cops one day. When I'd ask them why they wanted to be cops, these were the reasons they stated:

a. I can drive as fast as I want and never get a speeding ticket.

b. I can carry a gun.

c. I can bully the people who used to bully me.

Just as only samurai were allowed to carry swords in feudal Japan, the police caste in our society want to be the only ones allowed to carry firearms. The police are the sheep dogs and they regard the rest of us as sheep. The police think that they are the only ones trained well enough to possess firearms. They think that the rest of us are incompetent and that we will only have our firearms taken away and used against us. As an infantryman who has consistently scored expert with both pistol and rifle for 23 years while observing police who were also reservists barely able to qualify, I have a different opinion.

3. Police culture. Police deal with liars and criminals all day long. They see everyone at their worst. People don't call 911 when they earn their Ph D or win the Nobel Prize. Police see the church pastor who snaps and hits his wife. They see the brain surgeon who has had a couple too many drinks and tries to drive home. Police think that if you are not home watching the football game, you are up to something criminal. To the police, your hobby makes you aberrant and suspect. If you are a gardener, you must be growing marijuana. If you are a martial artist, that ancient Japanese weapon in your gym bag is a concealed weapon and you are on your way to a gang fight, not your weekly class at the dojo. If you are a target shooter, you must be on the way to rob a bank with that Olympic-grade .22 rifle in your trunk. If you are a chemist, you must be making methamphetamine etc etc. Police culture is a culture of privilege and suspicion. It's a world of "us" and them. Don't be fooled into thinking that "us" includes anyone but police officers. The rest of us, even members of the military, are "them". Detective Tuason was doing us a favor when he let his all-too-common attitude be known.

Please post comments; I'm interested in your thoughts.