SWAT-like Teams To Invade Homes Of Alleged Criminals If There Is A Legal Gun Owner

Do law-abiding gun owners deserve to be the target of Police violence and intimidation? The Ankeny Police Department is so sure the answer is “yes” that they act as if they are justified in the SWAT raid about which Bob Allen posted. If you have not read that post, please do so in order to understand the terrorism and lawlessness inflicted on a household for no reason.

Randy Balko quotes a statement from the Ankeny PD:

 Ankeny police are defending the raid, saying they needed to use that approach to protect officers’ safety.

Ankeny police Capt. Makai Echer said officers knew at least one person in the house had a permit to carry a firearm. She said the department isn’t currently investigating how officers handled the search, nor does the department have a written policy for executing warrants.

Put aside the outrage that they don’t think an investigation is warranted, or that they have no written policy—preferring their officers to live in the land of do-as-you-please. Note the essence of Captain Echer’s justification of treating these people as if they were a possible terrorist nest in Fallujah:

“…one person in the house had a permit to carry a firearm.”

So the threat that justified the cops treating these people as dangerous potential shooters was a man, Justin Ross, who was stupid enough to follow the law and  exercise his Second Amendment right, however weakened by state regulation, by legally applying for a permit to carry a firearm.

Again, no one on that warrant had ever committed a crime of violence and Ross was not even named on the warrant!

So here it is in an official statement by police: If you comply with the law regarding a firearm, so that the police learn that have one, then, if at any time they have any reason to serve a warrant, you will get the full military treatment. They think that is a totally reasonable response.

I thought the point of gun permits was to allow law-abiding citizens to legally carry handguns. How many would-be cop-killers go through the paper work to get a carry permit?

There is no way to get around it. The police chose a course of action that was more likely to cause a firefight and the loss of life. Remember what happened:

Prince’s son, Justin Ross, was in the bathroom when police burst in, and he was carrying a gun that he has the legal right to carry. “I stood up, I drew my weapon, I started to get myself together to get out the door, I heard someone in the main room say police. I re-holstered my weapon sat back down and put my hands in my lap,” Ross recalls.

So they came that close to a shoot out.

And that is why we don’t have to be “paranoid” in Connecticut to refuse to register our guns or our magazines. There is no reason in the world to think the Gestapo forces in Connecticut are more civilized than the jackboots in Iowa. The police are pursuing policies that effectively nullify the Second Amendment. If every legal gun owner is considered a threat who merits military action any time a warrant needs to be served, no matter how light the reason, then gun owners are being systematically terrorized. We have every reason to want to hide from the government our status as gun owners or the number and nature of our firearms.

Police, you need to back off and back down. Follow the advice of one of our readers and make a U-turn on this road to perdition.