Lawmaker takes issue with OKC police chief's remarks about weapons (Oklahoma)

[shadowrider]

I sincerely appreciate the service that Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty has given to our community and share his concern for his officers. However, I strongly disagree with his view that certain types of military-style firearms inherently pose a great public threat (“OKC police chief wants tougher gun laws,” news story, Jan. 16).

City Councilmen Sam Bowman and Pete White have supported Citty's stance and share the belief that these types of weapons have no place in civil communities. I consider those comments to be uncivil to the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Oklahoma gun owners. More importantly, efforts to impose these views on all citizens are a danger to our guaranteed Oklahoma and U.S. constitutional freedoms.

As co-chairman of the Senate Veteran's Affairs Committee and as a member of both Senate public safety committees, I call on Citty to provide the data that shows these types of weapons are used extensively in crime and pose a greater threat statistically than any other commonly held and legally purchased type of firearm.

Read more: http://newsok.com/lawmaker-takes-issue-with-okc-police-chiefs-remarks-about-weapons/article/3534308#ixzz1CQoYXqqu

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Let me guess...

...you probably AGREE with this Republican, while holding the head cop in a major metro area - responsible for the safety of hundreds of police officers - in contempt for daring to suggest that maybe our streets would be safer without allowing practically everyone unfettered access to semiautomatic weaponry of all sorts.

You can spare me any sophistry about the definition of 'military-style firearms' or somesuch garb; I don't even want to argue about fucking firearms. In fact, I would be content to let you gun guys run rampant within the confines of this gungeon, but I see this thread listed on the 'Latest Threads' page, suggesting that you posted in in GD or another 'big' forum before a mod saw fit to move it to the gungeon. I've alerted on this post as a blatant endorsement of Republican politics.

[shadowrider]

2. So you associate anyone who's pro-2A with the right

As if pro-2A Dems don't exist.

You have much to learn grasshopper.

[shadowrider]

3. By the way, this has to do with gun policy and was posted directly to the Gun Forum

If you don't want to read it, don't click the link. See how easy that is?

[hack89]

4. No - I would simply argue that the facts don't warrant stricter controls

1. Semi-automatic rifles are rarely used in crimes (one or two percent of all murders)

2. Overall violent crime rates are at historic lows and still declining while gun ownership has skyrocketed.

And lastly, I would point out that historically the police are the last group of people that can be trusted to respect civil rights. They have a quasi-military authoritarian outlook on life - they have an endless capability to rationalize any limit on our civil rights. What do you think the Chief has to say on Miranda or racial profiling?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Major city police chiefs are just politicians who wear blue every day

[lawodevolution]

6. So a weapon type that is used very rarely used in violent crime if banned will

Make out streets safer. Or is this more about power hungry political figures and police chiefs who think they are the ultimate authority figures being jealous of the power that private citizens have?

[benEzra]

8. So banning the LEAST misused guns,

even though those guns are the most popular civilian rifles in the United States and are overwhelmingly used for lawful purposes, is rational and reasonable?

The chief is stuck in a time warp to the early 1990's, IMO.

[petronius]

10. A demonstration of ignorance, followed by fingers being crammed in ears,

followed by a blatant violation of the the DU civility rules.

For a long time I thought the purpose of the Guns forum was to protect disinterested DUers from a topic that might disturb them - but it becomes clearer every day that the real point is so that those who are able to have intelligent and reasoned (i.e. adult) conversation about an important issue can do so with fewer childish and ill-informed interjections...

[jody]

12. Your post is a blatant endorsement of govt. that deny inalienable rights. Is that democratic? nt

[AtheistCrusader]

13. I see the mods considered your concern valid. *snort*

[virginia mountainman]

17. LOL this "Republican..

Like Sara Brady, Paul Helmke, Rep. King, Caroline McCarthy, Dick Chaney, Mike Bloomberg, Ronald Regan, etc, etc...

Gun Grabbers all....

[spin]

18. Latest threads means latest threads. The forum doesn't matter.

The forum it was posted to is in smaller print just above the title.

Many Democratic politicians endorse the Second Amendment and have an A rating from the NRA. Being pro-RKBA in no way is a Republican only concept.

[shadowrider]

19. You know that, I know that but some people and whatnot n/t

[mvccd1000]

20. So you must agree with...

... Joe Arpaio, "the head cop in a major metro area - responsible for the safety of hundreds of police officers," when he feels that he should stop and arrest all brown people in case they're illegal immigrants. After all, illegals have killed the last 3 Phoenix cops to die in the line of duty, so surely he's only doing it for officer safety, right?

:sarcasm:

[benEzra]

7. Given that rifles are collectively the least misused of all weapons in this country...

methinks the chief is either seriously uninformed or is being intentionally misleading. The FBI keeps track of homicides by rifle vs. other methods, and the FBI stats bear repeating:

http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_20.html

Total murders...........................13,636.....100.00%
Handguns.................................6,452......47.32%
Firearms (type unknown)..................1,928......14.14%
Other weapons (non-firearm, non-edged)...1,864......13.67%
Edged weapons............................1,825......13.38%
Hands, feet, etc...........................801.......5.87%
Shotguns...................................418.......3.07%
Rifles.....................................348.......2.55%

The 5-year trend 2005-2009, again per the FBI Uniform Crime Reports:

2005: 442
2006: 436
2007: 450
2008: 375
2009: 348

Anyone stating that civilian rifles are a serious crime problem in this country is fearmongering. Rifles are the least misused of all weapons.

[YllwFvr]

9. i saw a news article

of a chief call out for reimposing the AWB when his officer was killed by a "assault rifle". When it was pointed out the gun used was never on the list (an SKS) he was a bit confused and let it drop, mostly saying "something should be done"

[AtheistCrusader]

14. Exactly, though in fairness

An SKS can be modified to accept detachable magazines, (sacrificing reliability) so it could end up banned for import or manufacture, in that configuration, under that law.

But anyone who already owned any one of the hundreds of thousands of them already imported to the US... Legal.

[benEzra]

15. Not hundreds of thousands. Millions.

I don't know exactly how many SKS's have been imported, but back in the day of $69.99 Chinese SKS's and $99 Russian SKS's, huge numbers were imported. I read that the Georgia Arms Collector's Association or somesuch once put the total number ever imported at seven million, but I can't vouch for that from primary sources. It could probably be estimated by going through the BATFE import stats for all the various importers for the last few decades, but that would be quite a bit of work.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Wow, that's a lot more than I thought.

I understand they are a pretty good deer gun, on par with the .30-30.

[ManiacJoe]

11. Good article. Someone needs to educate the chief.