California is already notorious
for its strict regulations on firearms, but now one public servant
in the golden state wants to take that prohibition-happy mindset in
a new direction by banning body armor.
The bill, H.R.
5344, the Responsible Body Armor Possession Act of 2014, comes
from Rep. Michae Honda, a San Jose Democrat, and it would “prohibit
the purchase, ownership, or possession of enhanced body armor by
civilians, with exceptions.” That is to say, Honda wants to treat
innocent civilians like
convicted felons.
Honda announced the legislation last week at a press conference
with various law enforcement officials in his district who have
endorsed the propsal. From
NBC:
“This bill will keep military body armor out of the wrong
hands,” Honda said. “It would ensure that only law enforcement,
firefighters and other first responders would be able to access
enhanced body armor.”“We’re not talking about just a standard bullet-proof vest,” he
said. “We’re talking about body armor that is designed for warfare,
designed to protect against law enforcement ammunitions.” …“There’s nothing more dangerous than an unstoppable,
well-armored shooter,” he said. “The law enforcement community sees
an increase in use of body armor in violent, gun-related
crimes.”The congressman cited a shooting on July 22 in Riverside County,
where a man wearing body armor and armed with an assault rifle shot
and killed two sheriff’s deputies and wounded another.“We should be asking ourselves, why is this armor available to
just anyone, if it was designed to be used only by our soldiers to
take to war?” Honda said.
Of course, Honda is overlooking a lot of other
scenarios, and outright ignoring the possibility that law-abiding
citizens would have any reason to wear protective garments, whether
they’re in danger from armed criminals or a no-knock police raid
gone awry. The San Jose Police Department’s ethics are questionable
already: One of its former chiefs has been sounding
the alarm for years about the dangers of police militarization,
meawhile the department has been
pushing for greater surveillance capabilities and was just
caught lying about owning a camera-equipped drone. Even if the
force were squeaky clean, its
snipers, air
support, and camo-covered SWAT
team, cannot and should not be expected to be there to protect
every endangered individual.
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