The on-going flap over a semiautomatic AR-15 type rifle left unattended on the trunk of a Seattle police car Monday night just may become the pin that punctures a public perception – especially when it comes to the legislative arena – that police are the “experts” on all things firearms-related.
Both the Seattle Times and on-line Seattle P-I.com are having something of a field day with this incident, and readers on forums at both publications are decidedly critical.
The rifle, with a magazine inserted, may also come to symbolize something else that gun prohibitionists will never acknowledge: Lying on that trunk lid, the rifle was an inanimate object, no more or less harmful than a garden hose. It may appear menacing to some, and inert to others. It did not go off, it did not commit a crime (or somehow demonize somebody into grabbing it and commiting a crime) and while some people are obviously embarrassed, nobody got hurt. Keep that in perspective and learn from it.
"The fact of the matter is that a police rifle was left on a car in public, and that is unacceptable. It's very embarrassing, and it shouldn't have happened."—SPD Sgt. Sean Whitcomb
Coupled with the infamous theft of former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske’s 9mm Glock pistol from his parked car on a downtown street several years ago (the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms offered a reward for the gun's recovery and prosecution of the thief), and the recent inventory discrepancy on King County Sheriff's Department shotguns, this incident should serve as a reminder that police are not the infallible experts on firearms and gun safety some would have the public believe. This is typically the situation during legislative sessions when gun control advocates insist that police should be relied upon for “expert” testimony on so-called “gun safety” measures (provided their positions support the gun control agenda), while remarks from non-police firearms experts somehow become partisan rhetoric.
Washington State’s firearms community has not entirely recovered from the State Patrol’s public relations gaffe three months ago when it mounted an alarming effort to find a missing AR-15 rifle of its own. A WSP detective contacted every licensed firearms dealer in the state, asking for a veritable mountain of paperwork and information that, as the dealers pointed out, the WSP had no business, nor authority, to request. This column discussed that situation here, here, here and here.
The rifle mishap isn't the first for Seattle police. In Dec. 2004, then-Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske has his gun stolen from his unmarked car parked in downtown Seattle.Kerlikowske, now President Obama's drug czar, said the weapon was not in plain view and nothing else was taken.
The gun has never been found.—Seattle P-I.com
Nearly everyone in the firearms community is familiar with the video (preserved for posterity by the folks at Reason) of a Drug Enforcement Agency agent literally shooting himself in the foot with a semi-auto pistol a few years ago after lecturing students in a public school classroom that he was the “only one qualified” to handle that gun.
What all of this demonstrates is that civilian law enforcement officers are as capable of human error as anyone else, even with training and years of experience. That’s because, as Jack Webb’s deadpan Sgt. Joe Friday once observed on the old Dragnet series, we pick cops from the human race. Monday’s “gun-on-the-trunk” incident should be considered a learning opportunity. No real harm, no serious foul. Those involved will definitely be harder on themselves than any loudmouth weighing in on one of the newspaper feedback forums while hiding behind an on-line alter-ego who calls himself “Magnum44” or some similar nonsense. Trust me on this: right now cop squad rooms all over King County (and probably the state) are humming with this discussion, spiked with no small amount of “there-but-for-the-grace-of God” eye-rolling. It is not easy being the butt of a joke in the workplace, much less on the streets.
In the long run, Seattle police and their colleagues everywhere, and ultimately the people they serve, will be better off for it.
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