Poll Shows Police Won't Participate in Gun Confiscation
With the possibility of Biden taking office in just a few weeks, we are all concerned about his public statements about "coming for our AR-15's." I won't put the link in for the youtube video because social media sites will flag me as "fake news", but just type that phrase into youtube and you can find it easy enough.
But, any plan to confiscate semi automatic rifles will require a mass number of people to participate in that confiscation. Politicians will make it a crime which will automatically involve the police. The big question is, will the police actually comply with an order to perform mass gun confiscation?
Clarifying Our Last Poll
Last year I did a poll on what cops really think about the Second Amendment. I felt it did a pretty good job of outlining how important we, the police, thought the 2A was. But you guys pointed out one very important question that was missing; will the police actually comply with an order to carry out mass confiscation?
I didn't put that question in the original poll because I know cops won't comply on a mass scale. Sure there will be the outliers that will follow an unlawful order, but they will be such a small percentage that they won't represent the mass number of sworn law enforcement officers that will refuse to comply with that order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqa37dZRg4g
I'm so sure cops won't comply because I've trained police officers in almost every state in our Union for the last two decades. I know what they think and what they will or won't do. But, I wanted to clarify that question for you.
Our Latest Poll Shows Officers Will Not Participate in Mass Gun Confiscation
For this survey, I headed to a social media site that has a group of 50,000 sworn police officers participating in daily conversation. This group is closed and cannot be found without being invited. I like using this group for polls because it contains a great cross section of law enforcement. There are officers and chiefs and everyone in between. There are big city cops, rural deputies, state cops and federal law enforcement. I had two simple questions that I wanted to ask them.
The first question was simple enough. If the Biden administration is able to pass a law to confiscate semi automatic guns like the AR-15 and AK-47, will you take part in seizing those guns under the new law? Of all of the participants, all but one person said they would not participate in the confiscation of these guns.
Anti cop people will latch on to that one person that says they will confiscate guns and say that it is one too many. However, law enforcement is not immune from peer pressure. How far will one person go trying to participate in wide scale gun confiscation? No, he won't get very far. In fact, I would guess that if he did try, there would be a decent number of cops stopping him.
The comments will make you feel better. Here is a smattering of responses to this question:
"I will not enforce any blatant unconstitutional law or decree."
"Hell no"
"Not just no, but fuck no."
"Shall NOT be infringed..."
"I took an oath to uphold the constitution of the United States, not prevent it."
"Most of our rights and liberties are based upon conduct. Actions are more appropriately regulated with meaningful consequences rather than objects. This is especially true when those objects are arbitrarily identified by more cosmetic traits and perception."
"This isn’t even something I would consider. It is the anthesis of the very oath I took."
"As that would be federal law, I would not enforce it. If it became state law I would see it as Unconstitutional and also not enforce it."
"Because the 2nd amendment was written so that the citizenry has the same access to small arms that the government has. I carry an AR15 on duty, and protect my home with one, I would expect nothing less of our citizenry."
The next and last question
The last question was about registration and then confiscation. I simply asked them, "If the Biden administration requires owners of semi automatic firearms, like the AR-15, to be registered, would you seize an unregistered firearm you came across in the street and arrest the owner?"
For this question, 5% said that they would seize unregistered firearms. 5% is not enough to carry out confiscation. We will cover that impossibility in a follow up article next week. With that said, these cops are looking at it in a more analytical light than the average person. Here, they are thinking about the gun being used in a crime or some other event, which is outlined in their comments.
One of the comments made for confiscating was, "The answer is actually: maybe. Depending on the circumstances, who I'm dealing with, and why I'm dealing with them." Here, this is an officer that is thinking about public safety. His view is that he would do it if it were a gang member, drug dealer, domestic violence, or some other issue where he feels the perpetrator will do harm with it to the general public. The only other comment for seizing post registration stated, "If the registering is deemed Constitutional, then I would have to follow the law by oath. Registering is not prohibiting ownership. It just sucks."
As for the other 95% of officers that said they would not take the firearm, here is a sampling of their thoughts.
"Same as above. If our policy states “you shall” then I will have to find another line of work"
"I support the right to keep and bear arms. I also support a personal right to defense of oneself and others. The Government can’t and won’t protect everyone."
"I’d give them a warning to register, like I do with unregistered autos."
"Truthfully it would depend. If the firearm was already being used in a legitimate crime against a person, then I’d already be seizing the weapon and suspect. Absent that how would I even know? I’m not going to I look into the registration status of a weapon and its owner otherwise."
"A well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"
"It's against the second amendment. I'm not going against the oath that I took as an officer. I won't go against the oath that I took"
"I will only seize firearms reported to be stolen, or if the subject possessing the firearm has been disqualified from doing so through due process."
"Aside from registry’s being unconstitutional, there is no way our dumbass government could effectively establish and run one. They can’t even incarcerate people for the current laws on the books. The goal of a registry is to make ownership so frivolous, citizens won’t own guns legally."
"Fuck no"
"If you don't have to show Id to vote you don't need to register your firearms."
What To Do Next?
The cops have your back. You need to stand up and have their back too. They can't come out and stand on a mountain top and proclaim that they are going to ignore a law passed by the legislature. With that in mind, I ignored many laws as an officer. I worked in California and they made making new laws an olympic sport. Most were moronic.
Politicians have a history of passing illegal laws and then saying the police are going to cite or make arrests. Just look at what they are doing with mask mandates. Sure you see an occasional ticket or arrest on the news, but a vast majority of cops are ignoring those orders. This will be no different.
Make sure that you stay politically active and keep holding those politicians accountable. Also, make sure you go on a ride along with your local police agency. You'd be happily surprised at what that officer is thinking.