Disarming the good guys
What would have happened if there had been a couple of fully-armed retired police officers attending the holiday party in the conference room at the San Bernardino Inland Regional Center? Would there still be 14 dead and 21 wounded? The terrorists came in, started spraying the room with bullets and then walked over to those who had hit the ground and executed them. Wouldn’t the retired officers have returned fire? Of course they would. But alas, there was no
one there who was armed. Everyone had to await the arrival of on duty officers and, in the meantime, the terrorists had their way. Murder after murder.
Wednesday, four City councilmembers tried to take away the weapon that I have carried on duty and off duty for over 20 years. Why? Because it carries too many bullets! I always thought more bullets was a good thing. For 20 years before I purchased a Beretta 92FS semi-automatic pistol, my fellow officers and I carried a six-round Smith & Wesson revolver. Going from six bullets to 16 bullets was very comforting to me and thousands of other officers and was probably not good news to the bad guys.
There is some good news for the bad guys now. The Los Angeles City Council is banning magazines that have a capacity of more than 10 rounds. I can’t wait to see how many Crips, Bloods, MS-13, Hells Angels and Aryan Brotherhood gang members line up to turn in their high-capacity magazines and guns now that they are against the law. I guess the Council also expects the terrorists and the mentally ill to line up behind them to turn in their weapons.
I said good news for the bad guys because the only people who will be affected by this wacky law will be the good guys who will actually obey the law. The bad guys, who are lawless, can now count on the fact that their victims will have fewer bullets to defend themselves, and that is good news for them.
In a complete insult to police officers who have served this City for 20, 30 and even 40 years, four of the councilmembers wish to take away the right of retired police officers to be fully-armed when they are in the City of Los Angeles. The original form of the law had no exception for the honorably retired. The League protested and most of the
councilmembers saw the wisdom of having fully-armed, trained and experienced retired officers scattered throughout the city, but Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Mike Bonin, Paul Koretz and David Ryu did not. They voted against making an exception for retired police officers.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Paul Koretz justified his opposition as follows: “Before the vote, Koretz said while he was ‘willing’ to support the exemption for reserve officers, he was ‘uncomfortable’ with the exemption for retired police officers, who he feels ‘are not necessarily magically any different from anybody else. If you have a situation where someone was depressed or have other problems 30 years after they retire from the LAPD, there’s nothing magical that keeps them from being an active shooter,’ Koretz said.”
I am sorry, Koretz, there is something “magically different” about people who have spent 20 to 40 years upholding the law and protecting people in the City of Los Angeles; who have qualified with their weapons once a month for 20 to 40 years; who have been in countless situations where judgments under difficult conditions have been exercised, and who have spent most of their lives in public service and are not likely to forget it after a few years, or even a few
decades, of retirement.
And, although it has never happened, and never will, if a retired officer decided to become an active shooter as Koretz fears, do you think he will give a damn about the magazine limitation law? Again, only his victims will be less well-armed.
Councilmember Mitch O’ Farrell was quoted in the same Los Angeles Times article with a more realistic view. “‘I am of the firm belief that once a cop, always a cop,’ Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said. ‘We live in a very dangerous world in a very over-armed society here in the United States,’ he said. ‘I feel much more secure with reserve officers and retired police officers being out and about in this dangerous world, fully equipped to handle emergency situations that spring up out of nowhere and I don’t need to elaborate on any of those.’”
Thank you, Councilmember O’Farrell, for some common sense and, more importantly, for having some respect for people who have dedicated their lives to serving and protecting the public.
San Bernardino is not that far from Los Angeles. There will be terrorist attack on a soft target in this city. It is just a matter of time. A movie theater, a local sporting event at a high school, or maybe another holiday party would be soft targets. I only hope that there is a fully-armed retired police officer at that event. Rather than helplessly waiting to be executed, he or she will make good use of those 16 bullets, and wish for more.
Be legally careful out there.
