Who are the 'Only Ones' we can trust with guns?

October 21, 6:31 AMGun Rights ExaminerDavid Codrea

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We left things open yesterday with a question:

If the sight of a man or woman openly carrying a gun frightens you, why is it you don’t get scared when you see an armed police officer? Are they the only ones who can be trusted to bear arms?

I'll get to that in a moment, but first an update on the City of Cleveland, notably the mayor and police chief, enforcing non-existent law against open carrying of firearms--something that is legal, albeit not widely practiced in Ohio.

The Plain Dealer has an update with no small amount of backpedaling:

Stacho said he was misquoted and never made the statement about Jackson.

"I do not speak for Mayor Jackson, and no such order was given to the Division of Police by the mayor or anyone in a position to do so," Stacho said in an e-mail statement to the newspaper.

For it's part:

The Plain Dealer stands by its story.

The Buckeye Firearms Association, a statewide grassroots gun rights group uses somewhat stronger language in disputing the city's contentions.

I suppose a publicized open carry gathering within city limits would tell us whether or not the city is being forthcoming when they claim:

The police are enforcing state gun laws, said Andrea Taylor, spokeswoman for Jackson.

"We are also enforcing our local gun ordinances that are not in conflict with any state law," Taylor said.

But more on that later.  We have a question to consider.  Are police the only ones trustworthy enough to bear arms?

Meet Lee Paige, a DEA agent who maintained exactly that.

"I'm the only one  in this room professional enough that I know of to carry this Glock .40," he told a roomful of school kids in an anti-gun/drug lecture, then proceeded to shoot himself in the foot trying to holster the weapon.

How often have we been told this though, by police officials, by politicians, by anti-gun groups, by the media?  Our laws have been geared to exempt police from carry restrictions in "No Guns" zones, assigning to the uniform and the badge an automatic and unquestioned trust that police are better trained, and just generally more cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent than we mere mortal citizens. They are, we are told, the only ones who can handle the awesome trust of being armed in public.

Thing is, that doesn't bear out, and the best benchmark to test that is by looking at the remarkable record of the concealed carry experiment that has been successfully conducted in every state but two to varying degrees.  Good people simply don't change their behavior or character around tools.  And the police are no more law-abiding than any other demographic.

Paige's remarks became the catalyst for a phenomenon that readers of my blog, The War on Guns, began noticing along with me, something that resulted in what I call The "Only Ones" Files.

Over the past couple years, without setting out to do so, I've documented thousands of examples of moral and professional failings, including acts of true evil or incompetence by those with official power, that should give anyone pause claiming this group or that is somehow more trustworthy because of career choice/government employment status. I've actually had to beg off posting on tips because the preponderance of news accounts could easily become the dominant focus, and occasionally have to remind readers:

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 the police 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 when they're involved in gun-related incidents.

The late, great Col. Jeff Cooper was legendary among informed gun owners.  "The gunner's guru" and "father of the modern pistol technique" coined a term to describe fear of weapons, "hoplophobia."

Let's talk about that tomorrow, or more specifically, fear of weapons when the person bearing them is one of "We the People."