Limiting Gun Rights While Defunding Police Is a Recipe for Disaster

For years, gun-control advocates told people that it is the job of police to protect them. But now, the same people who want to ban gun ownership also want to defund and disarm the police, replacing them with social workers who won’t do anything to stop violent crime.

After a concealed-carry-permit holder stopped a shooting last December at the West Freeway Church of Christ near Fort Worth, Texas, Michael Bloomberg warned that it didn’t mean we should put our faith in civilians. “It may be true that someone in the congregation had his own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people,” he said. “But it’s the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot. You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”

But months later, with the movement to defund police all the rage, gun-control activists now don’t trust police with guns. The Trace, a Bloomberg-funded outlet dedicated to gun-control advocacy, is probably at odds with police in part because officers are so overwhelmingly in favor of gun ownership. Just in the last month, it’s published articles with such headlines as, “An Arkansas Cop Said He’d Shoot at Protestors. Then He Killed a Fellow Cop,” and “The ‘Warrior Cop’ Is a Toxic Mentality. And a Lucrative Industry.” And it advocates for disarming police, claiming that American officers kill civilians at higher rates than those in countries where law enforcement is unarmed.