Endgame - photo:Getty Images

The Gun Control Endgame – A Federal Police Force

Opinion

Law enforcement has been under a microscope, and under attack, for going on a decade now.  Initially, aside from fringe groups like Cop Block, that attack was just being led by those on the political left.  Coincidentally, those are the same politicians who are heavily pushing gun control.  Could it be they have something in mind as their endgame? Could that endgame be a single, national police force they can send out to take our guns because the local cops have proven they will not?

While the continued attack on law enforcement has traditionally been from those on the left, a couple recent events, centered around laws enacted by the left, have seen law enforcement attacked by some on the right, namely the pro-gun folks.  The Whiskey Warrior incident, the Milspin situation, the generally degrading relationship with people who have traditionally been accepting of law enforcement is spreading.  And as it turns out, none of the incidents at that precipitated those situations were legitimate oversteps by law enforcement.  They were just knee-jerk overreactions by people who are increasingly distrustful of cops.

Just last week, an outspoken pro-gun news reporter here in California was attacked online in a pro-gun Facebook group, and her family threatened, because she is also pro-cop.  That she is pro-cop should not be a surprise to anyone seeing as she is married to a cop.

History

People who study history and politics, and specifically the tactics of the far left, know that they always play the long game.  How do you take the greatest, most prosperous nation on the planet and in a few short decades, get the people living there to start pushing for socialism?  Why, take over the education system of course, and that is what they did, and the results of that are visible in the rise of the huge push by the left for “democratic socialism.”  

The fight to push gun control is no different.  Anyone who has been paying the slightest attention can see the gradual chipping away at the Second Amendment.  This attack on gun rights is being pushed primarily by the political left and has been for decades.  As a resident of California, I have watched helplessly as my state government has chopped away at our rights.  It has been the old “death by a thousand cuts.”

So, knowing that history, is it not unreasonable to suspect that those same people might have an endgame planned in their long, constant attack on law enforcement?  But what could that endgame be?

Well, it is not a secret.  In fact, they have been hinting at, even calling for it outright.  They want to do away with local law enforcement and they want a national police force.  Those who think local cops are bad are in for very rude awakening if local cops were to be replaced by a federal force.

Evidence

Folks who may not have been paying close attention might have missed this continual push to eliminate local law enforcement, but that does not mean it has not been happening.  It has been publicly mentioned by prominent politicians from the left going back to when then presidential candidate Barack Obama called for a “civilian national security force” that is just as strong as the US military.  

https://youtu.be/Tt2yGzHfy7s

Groups like Black Lives Matter have been pushing for federal law enforcement every time a white cop, even when fully justified, shoots a black person, claiming the local cops are racist and cannot be trusted.  In recent years, activists like Al Sharpton have also been pushing for a national police force instead of local cops.

Aside from that, liberal media outlets have run articles extolling the idea, some even written by people with a law enforcement background.  Back in 2014, the Washington Post ran an editorial written by a police administrator with a PhD named Sunil Dutra.  His piece used the Mike Brown shooting in Ferguson as an example of why local cop shops were bad, and the solution he offered was a single, national police force.  At the time, I wrote a rebuttal piece in which I countered all of his arguments.

Along the same lines, there is currently a big push by the political left make county sheriffs appointed, rather than elected.  They claim because they are elected, that sheriffs are not responsible to the people, which is ridiculous since elected officials are solely responsible to the people, not to some bureaucrat who appointed them.  

Huge Mistake

I cannot express strongly enough how horribly bad it would be to have just a single, federally controlled national police force.  Every single complaint people have with American law enforcement now would be magnified tenfold if there was only a single law enforcement agency in the entire country.  

As it stands now, if you have an issue with something your local law enforcement agency has done, there are multiple avenues to get that resolved.  You can start at that agency and file a complaint.  If you are unsatisfied, you can take the matter to a state agency, to the district attorney, to the state department of justice, to the local politicians, to the state level politicians, the federal department of justice or the FBI.  

If that law enforcement agency was federal, you would only have one avenue of appeal, straight to the feds.  Who in their right mind sees this as a better option?

Prime Example

If you are having a hard time imagining a situation where having a single federal law enforcement agency would be a nightmare, look no further than Virginia.  Right now in Virginia, the out of control state government is attempting to enact numerous tyrannical gun control laws, and who is standing beside the citizens to fight those laws but the local cops.  If you had no local cops, only a federal agency, that would absolutely not be happening.  If by chance a local commander of a federal agency stood up like those Virginia cops have, and spoke publicly about refusing to enforce those proposed laws, he would simply be removed and replaced by someone else.  

What is taking place in Virginia, right now, is an absolutely perfect example of how local law enforcement is the first layer of defense against a tyrannical government, and why no one who supports the second amendment should be against local law enforcement.*

The Devil You Know…

I absolutely understand that many folks in the pro-gun community are leery of the cops.  Hell, that is why I am writing this article.  That distrust of cops is based on the fact that the cops are the people who would be tasked by the leftists who are attempting to enact these tyrannical laws.

That leeriness has lead to a growing anti-cop sentiment that is becoming all too frequent and seemingly acceptable in pro-gun groups lately.  If we allow this sentiment to fester, it is going to lead us down a very bad road, and is going to give the gun grabbing leftists all the ammo in the world to enact their dream – their very own federal police force.

The leftists know this, and I firmly believe this has been their game plan from the start.  Not only have they been attacking the reputation of the cops, they have been putting law enforcement in between themselves and the people they seek to disarm.  

I’m reminded of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies.  While in the movie it was said about “Russians,” it very well applies to gun grabbing leftist politicians.  “Russians don’t take a dump, son, without a plan.”

If you think the local cops are bad now, just wait until the political left enacts their federal law enforcement endgame.  


* No, this does not remotely mean I am suggesting that you have to agree with everything every local cop does or says.  There are bad incidents, there are bad cops, there are bad agencies, but those are the exceptions, not the rule.  The way law enforcement in this country is organized, you have avenues to address those problems.  If the left gets their way, you won’t, and you will lose a powerful ally in the fight to preserve the second amendment.

Matt Silvey

Matt spent 23 years as a deputy with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, a career from which he retired in January, 2019. During his time as a LEO he attended countless firearms training classes, was a CA POST certified firearms instructor, and was a court recognized firearms expert. During his career, he was directly involved in two officer involved shootings, so he has a little experience when it comes to self-defense shootings and the “360° range.”