The Sheriff Shot Back

The media yaks endlessly about the thin film of Minnesota law-enforcement leaders – Dakota County sheriff Bellows and prosecutor Jim Backstrom, Chaska’s Scott Knight and a few others – who bark for gun control when the DFL tells them to.

The following group – related in a news release from the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance – somehow got less coverage (emphasis added):

Yesterday, Minnesota sheriffs — experts in both crime and politics — joined judges and legislators in proposing fact-based, realistic solutions to the problem of violence in our society.

These proposals focused on enforcing existing laws and making government bureaucracies do their jobs without infringing on the rights of the law-abiding 99%

The Minnesota Sheriffs Association, represented by Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek and Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson, laid out five specific recommendations:

Improving the completeness and accuracy of the state criminal records system

Making Minnesota courts quickly and accurately report civil mental health commitments that result in a firearms prohibition

Making these public mental health commitment records instantly available to street cops so they know who they may be facing when they arrive at a call for service

Providing earlier mental health assessments for jail inmates, so they get the help they need sooner

Reassessing Minnesota’s civil commitment laws to ensure that dangerously ill people get the treatment they need

GOCRA fully supports these policy proposals, and applauds the sheriffs and other coalition members for focusing on real, solvable issues, and not on fear-mongering. GOCRA also congratulates Senator Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park), formerly an opponent of gun rights, for signing on to this practical approach.

These elected leaders and sworn law enforcement officials recognize that their law-abiding, gun-owning constituents are not the cause of societal violence, and that infringing on the Constitutional rights that they swore to support and defend will not make us safer.

Their common-sense, to-the-point recommendations should be given immediate attention by the Minnesota Legislature.

You would do well to contact Sheriffs Stanek and Olson – and especially Rep. Latz.  Yes, he’s DFLer, but not only is he one of the DFLers that actually thinks about the issue, he’s one of the first in the metro area to break ranks with the orcs.

6 thoughts on “The Sheriff Shot Back

  1. Mitch, a couple of topics you may be interest in:

    Obama administration has ruled that participation in school sports is a civil right, so all schools must accommodate disabled students. That means setting up parallel programs for any/all differently abled students. Cash strapped districts will probably have to kill many of their sports as it will be impossible for them to retro-fit lockers rooms and make other accommodations. I wonder if all of those liberal Democrat teachers will make the connection between voting for Obama and having this massive mandate forced on them?

    Minnesota newspapers are complaining about Dayton’s new taxes…I mean new revenues. They are saying that three new taxes will hurt them. Tax on advertising. Some kind of tax on printing (as a service, is it not taxable now?), and a tax on newspaper retail sales. They say these taxes will cause job layoffs and less news coverage.

    I wonder how they reconcile this for their love of Democrats and big taxes…..I mean new revenues.

  2. Advertising execs say that some of the firms will move to Hudson Wisconsin as Wisconsin doesn’t tax advertising.

  3. Chuck;

    I think that it will end up being more than advertising firms moving over there! Damn I wish I had bought some land over there! 😉

  4. The Bill of Rights offers much more effective and less costly checks on government power. There is the fourth amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure; the fifth amendment, which guarantees due process; the sixth amendment, which establishes fair trials; and so on. When these rights were hollowed out during the war on terror—by acts of Congress, the courts and even through executive orders—where was the outrage from those who see tyranny in every gun law?

    The second amendment has a lizard-brain appeal: it is sexier to imagine yourself a lone soldier for justice defending your loved ones against an oppressive, tyrannical government than it is to imagine yourself protesting warrantless wiretapping. Pine County Sheriff Robin Cole is another sheriff, who states: “We must not allow, nor shall we tolerate, the actions of criminals, no matter how heinous the crimes, to prompt politicians to enact laws that will infringe upon the liberties of responsible citizens who have broken no laws.” Stirring words, and entirely unobjectionable. I wonder if he had the same response to the Patriot Act.

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