Quite the Contrast

Last year the Joyce Foundation gave a grant for $250,000 to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The purpose of the grant was:

To continue implementation efforts around the recommendations contained in the report of the Great Lakes States Summit on Gun Violence.

The specific recommendations of the Great Lakes States Summit on Gun Violence (sic) include:

• Requiring judges and law enforcement to remove guns from situations of domestic violence, as well as from people whose adjudicated mental illness, drug use, or previous criminal record suggests the possibility of violence
• Requiring that all gun sales take place through Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders with mandatory background checks
• Enacting an effective ban on military-style assault weapons, armor-piercing handgun ammunition, .50 caliber sniper rifles and other weapons that enable criminals to outgun law enforcement
• Restoring COPS funding to provide vital resources to state, local and tribal law enforcement
• Repealing the Tiahrt Amendment, which hinders investigation of illegal gun trafficking
• Destroying guns that come into police possession once their law enforcement use has ended
• Improving officer training in debriefing suspects and handling crime guns, including tracing all guns
• Training police officers in tactics that can lessen the possibility that a hostile situation will erupt in violence
• Mandating safe storage of firearms by private citizens and providing safe facilities where gun owners can store their weapons
• Mandating reporting of lost and stolen firearms

While improving officer training is a laudable objective, most of the rest of these recommendations trample upon the civil rights of lawful Americans. That they would improve public safety and reduce crime is quite debatable. That it would help the officer on the street, again debatable.

Today's Shooting Wire contained an item about a major donation given to two organizations that assist families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The organizations are the Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) Charity and the Drug Enforcement Administration Survivors Benefit Fund (DEA SBF). COPS was given $50,000 and DEA SBF was given $20,000. The donations were presented at the recent IACP Conference held in Orlando. These donations brought the amount given by the donor to non-profit organizations to $550,000 for 2010.

The donor? Glock, Inc. You know, the international arms merchant and purveyor of undetectable plastic pistols which threaten airline passenger safety.

So in the greater scheme of things who is really doing more for the officer on the street and their families? My vote goes to Glock.