The Sheriff of Elkhart County, Indiana, Brad Rogers, is charged with heading up law enforcement in the county of roughly 200,000 just east of South Bend. He claims that our greatest treasure is our children and on the official sheriff's website, the main reason for the unacceptable school shootings as of late are gun free zones.
But law enforcement partnering with the schools is a start. We need to look at barriers to unauthorized entry without turning our schools into prisons. We need to take advantage of technology. Gun free zones are kill zones.
Brian Kilmeade was riveted by the possibility that this sheriff will openly defy any Executive Order that requires gun registration. There has been no Executive Order of any kind of gun control thus far, but Sheriff Brad felt it was a great PR move to appear on Fox and Friends and show everyone how he will set an example for law enforcement by breaking the law. Sheriff Rogers explains,
'The rhetoric that's occurring from anti-gun people, including the president, would suggest that something that could happen. So you know, you've got rhetoric just moments after the Oregon shooting, he comes on the air and says he's politicizing it and then says that, quite frankly, we should be like other countries like Australia and Great Britain, both of which have banned and confiscated firearms.
That sounds pretty logical to me. Must we be awash with guns, especially illegally purchased weapons? Here's what happens when a city is adjacent to a state like Indiana, which is flooded with easily obtained firearms.
What's so bizarre about the sheriff's mindset, is that he has the same statistics at his fingertips as people who understand the correlation between gun availability and gun deaths.
Laws requiring background checks for private-party sales are effective at reducing gun trafficking. Sixteen states require background checks for all sales of handguns. Compared to the rest of the country, gun trafficking in those states is 68 percent lower, fatal domestic violence with a gun is 38 percent lower, and firearm suicide rates are nearly 50 percent lower.
Kilmeade recalls that Rogers says that if this non-existent Executive Order comes down, it's going to stop in his county.
'You're a law enforcement guy. How do you rationalize defying what would be an Executive Order?'
Rogers cites Article Six Section Three of the Constitution which he says provides for the oath of office that government and law enforcement officials must uphold. Basically, this section states that executive officers, judges, and state and federal legislators must follow an oath saying that they will support the Constitution. It's strange that he'd mention Section III, because that generally refers to no religious tests shall be issued for said oath taker.
The Executive Order is not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution, but the power of the Executive lies within the realm of Article II Section I. I wonder how many of President G.W. Bush's 291 Executive Orders he planned on violating? It seems rather amusing that they would discuss gun control and registration, which likely won't happen, as if it's a fait accompli.
The Sheriff believes that the reasonable conversation here is not getting rid of the plethora of guns in this country, it's getting rid of those pesky gun-free zones. County Sheriff Rogers asserts that there are many 'pro-Second Amendment' Sheriffs out there, because let's be forthright, he's from Ruby Red Indiana. Indiana is the location of a good portion (roughly 60%) of the firearms that are used in the right-wing's favorite punching bag, the problem of Chicago's rampant gun violence.
This grandstanding officer of the law believes his deeply held ammosexual beliefs can supersede the Commander in Chief of the United States. Statistics always show that more guns equal more gun deaths. Why must people disavow facts and then gain notoriety from their obstinate stupidity? Why does Fox 'News' favor people who try to exercise some alleged power they do not have? Perhaps because Fox is an arm of the Republican Party and the whole GOP charade is based on lies, deception, spin, misinformation, gays, god and GUNS. People like Sheriff Brad Rogers are exactly their kind of people.
