🚀 go-pugleaf

In ca.general Dick <tjdick@my-deja.com> wrote:
: In article <7qkilp$j2s@dfw-ixnews4.ix.netcom.com>,
:   Merlin Dorfman <dorfman@netcom13.netcom.com> wrote:

: DICK:
:> :> : 84% of line officers (the ones who do the work, not the chiefs)
:> : favor
:> :> : private ownership of firearms.
:> :>
:>
: MERLIN:
:> :>      I have to question that statistic...and wonder why the brass
:> :> would have an opinion so different from the guys in the trenches...
:> :> which used to include said brass.  (There are very few political
:> :> appointments of police chiefs, etc., who were never "line
:> :> officers" themselves.)
: DICK:
:> : As I mentioned, the San Diego County Police Officers Association
: did a
:> : study two years ago and that is where that figure comes from.


: MERLIN:
:>      Like all surveys, if not repeated/repeatable, one has to
:> wonder about the agenda of those who ran it.

: Why do you say it is not repeated/repeatable?  You questioned the
: statistic so I provided you with a source (someone even provided a link
: to the San Diego Police Officers Association survey) and you reply with
: an innuendo about those who ran it.  Do you subject surveys you like to
: the same rigor, Merlin?  It's hard to argue with 87%.  You said you
: don't like gun advocates who "stonewall" on any arms restrictions, but
: you seem as obstinate as a person can be.

     Wow!  I guess you must accept all surveys as gospel truth without
wondering who ran them, how the questions were phrased, whether the
responses were processed honestly, etc.  Apparently you regard anyone
who does not do that as "obstinate as a person can be."  I take
everything I see and read--even if I agree with it--with a few grains
of salt.  I guess that makes me obstinate.

: That survey was conducted only two years ago (1997).  It may have been
: conducted before that, and that is only the most recent (I don't
: know).  Why would they run that same survey every year, anyway?


:> (You do question
:> surveys run by NOW, for instance, don't you?)

: (Off topic, but:  I did not know they were still around.  I see now
: that they have a web site.)

     They are "still around," doing quite well, thank you, running and
publishing surveys, among other things.  Of course you accept the
results of all their surveys as gospel truth, because you are not
obstinate.

:>      After all, officers "in the trenches" are much more likely
:> to be shot by armed citizens than chiefs are.

: By labeling criminals as "armed citizens," you blur us with them for no
: reason.  I resent that.  How would you like others to insinuate that
: you are a criminal?  You have male "plumbing" that you carry with you;
: does that make you a rapist?

     I suspect that those officers who are in favor of gun control are
concerned by the additional risk posed to them by armed non-criminal
citizens.  Hence I did not and do not use "armed citizens" as a 
synonym for "criminal."  
     BTW how many chiefs are at significant risk of being shot by 
criminals?  Not many, I suspect, compared to the ordinary officers who
are in physical danger every day.

: DICK:
:> : I don't know that the brass would necessarily have a different
: opinion,
:> : but suspect those who do have higher aspirations for politics or the
:> : lecture circuit, and adapt a "politically correct" answer, i.e., an
:> : answer they suppose will be more easily heard.
: MERLIN:
:>     Do police chiefs "moderate" their views to appeal to liberal
:> voters if they are essentially conservative??

: LAPD Chief Bernard Williams and LA County Sheriff Lee Baca both
: advocate gun control.  Williams advocates *Draconian* gun control.
: Why?  I surmise because they already get to carry their guns, play with
: toys that are illegal for the rest of us, and don't want anyone else to
: have them so they can be part of the privileged elite.  That oligarchy
: includes Dianne Feinstein, who (as I've already mentioned) as mayor of
: San Francisco passed a city ordinance *banning* handgun ownership,
: WHILE SHE *CARRIED* ONE HERSELF!!  She is an elitist monster who needs
: to read the 14th Amendment as well as the 2nd.

     And according to the SDPD survey, such elitist feelings come to
a policeman only when he gets promoted to Chief.  Ordinary officers
would NEVER want to be members of an elite that is privileged to own
guns--they want everybody to have that right.  (If that doesn't make
sense to you, you will understand why I questioned the survey.)

: Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
: Share what you know. Learn what you don't.