Police continue to dispel myth they are ‘only ones’ trusted enough to bear arms

“Concealed Carry Killers,” the subversive effort by the Violence Policy Center to discredit people exercising their right to carry firearms for self-defense, would have us believe that police are the “only ones” trained and trustworthy enough to possess guns in public—in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary that peaceable gun owners are exactly that.

To discredit that myth, instead of those it disparages, I created the “Only Ones” files, taking the name from the unfortunate Lee Paige, a DEA agent who cautioned schoolchildren that he was” the only one…professional enough” to carry a Glock and then shot himself in the leg in front of them while holstering it (see sidebar video player). Over the years readers have sent in literally thousands of news stories illustrating cases of police abuse, negligence and outright criminality, to the point where I regularly beg off posting them, worried that the category may dominate my total War on Guns blog efforts. I’ve even felt compelled to permanently post the following disclaimer in its sidebar:

About "The Only Ones"

The purpose of this feature has never been to bash cops. The only reason I do this is to amass a credible body of evidence to present when those who would deny our right to keep and bear arms use the argument that only government enforcers are professional and trained enough to do so safely and responsibly. And it's also used to illustrate when those of official status, rank or privilege, both in law enforcement and in some other government position, get special breaks not available to we commoners, particularly (but not exclusively) when they're involved in gun-related incidents.

Which still hasn’t stopped the Bradys from claiming the motivation is to “denigrate law enforcement.” Ah well, if they were interested in truth, they wouldn’t be anti-gun in the first place.

And this brings us to two more recent examples of sterling “Only Ones”:

DC Police Officer Accused in Killing Woman and Her Baby Ordered Held Without Bond

...Richmond Phillips is accused of killing Wynetta Wright and leaving her baby to die in a hot car on the day they were due in court for a paternity hearing.

DC, the “Only Ones” Capitol of the Republic! Where this guy was trusted to carry a gun and you are not.

And then there’s this, from the perversely-named “Freedom States Alliance’s” anti-rights site “The Gun Guys” (and no, I will not link to them, but it was posted on June 26, 2006):

The Durham Sheriff’s Anti-Crime Narcotics Unit seized more than 2.5 pounds of marijuana, 1.5 ounces of cocaine, nine guns and a stack of cash from a house at 8715 N. Roxboro Road, according to Lt. Derek O’Mary.

Now here’s a story I will link to:

O'Mary, 44, is headed to the slammer for embezzling $97,976 from the county. ..

… O'Mary between August 2003 and March 2009 stole those tens of thousands of dollars from the county when he was supervisor of drug investigations. That role gave O'Mary sole responsibility over the money given to officers to buy drugs during undercover drug investigations. But O'Mary was dipping into the cash stash and doctoring paperwork to make it look like the money for drug buys was running out… That gave O'Mary reasons to request more money from the county...

OK, but so what? There will always be “a few bad apples.”

These apples didn’t spoil overnight. And as I said, I have thousands upon thousands of examples amassed over the years, many of them corroborating that misbehavior has been either widespread or widely tolerated, and that those who were not engaging in it looked the other way and kept quiet about it.

So what does that mean? Am I saying all peace officers are untrustworthy and bad?

Hardly.

All I’m saying is the police aren’t the “only ones” we can trust to be armed. And anyone who tells you otherwise is either ignorant of the truth or an agenda-motivated liar.

And any time Josh Sugarmann wants to match his "Concealed Carry Killers" anecdotes against my "Only Ones" archive, let's dance.

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