After Miami police officer Jose Somohano was killed and three others wounded in 2007 with a high-power, assault style rifle, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former police officer and police director said, "There's absolutely no reason I can see having these weapons out on the street." The International Association of Chiefs of Police agreed and urged Congress to pass "an effective assault weapons ban," condemning the "firepower available to criminals.''
Two years later in Oakland, four police officers were killed with high-power, assault weapons and, in Pittsburgh, three officers were killed and two injured with such weapons.
The Pittsburgh murderer, Richard Poplawski, was a violent white supremacist who bought a semi-automatic AK-47-style legally despite his involvement with hate groups, domestic violence charges and an order of protection against him. Like the Dallas and Baton Rouge police murderers, also legal gun owners, he had the "right" to high-power weapons designed to kill many in seconds, says the NRA.
Richard Poplawski killed three police officers and wounded two
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Why is the NRA okay with assault weapons, armor-piercing bullets and high capacity magazines--even when the law enforcement officers it says it supports are sniped, ambushed and assaulted?
The reason, according to Joshua Holland writing in the Nation, is the insurgency interpretation of the Second Amendment "holds that Americans must have the right to own military-style weapons because a heavily armed populace is the last bulwark against a tyrannical government running amok." Without civilian owned military-style weapons, goes the thinking, we could turn into tyrannies like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the 24 countries of the E.U.
"The whole point of firearm ownership is that it allows civilians to fight against agents of the government, be they law enforcement officers or members of the American military, should a situation arise when the government grossly violates the rights of American citizens," says a gun advocate Holland quotes--in a chilling defense of vigilantism.
How can the gun lobby claim patriotism while hating the government asked veteran newsman Bill Moyers this week. "On the one hand, its supporters are mostly conservatives who believe in law and order, the kind of folks who value social and familial hierarchy and respect for authority. On the other hand, the group preaches contempt for government -- and police are the spear point of government authority."
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