This year’s National Police Shooting Championships
will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the National
Rifle Association (NRA), which opens the two-day competition in
September to any “eligible law enforcement member.”
In May the Department of Justice
released the findings of its probe of the Albuquerque Police
Department, saying it had found probable cause to believe there was
a pattern and practice of excessive force. There had been 24 fatal police
shootings between 2010 and the release of the report last month
and at least one since, with at least an additional 13 non-fatal
police shootings in that time. Albuquerque has a population of just
555,000. Unsurprisingly the conditions have led to
protests over police brutality. A group of residents
tried to arrest the police chief at a recent city council
meeting.
Police violence, and especially questionable shootings, provide
a real-world example of why the state
shouldn’t be granted a monopoly on the use of guns by
measures curbing the individual right of self-defense. It also
shows what’s dangerous about the
assumption that state agents are innately more qualified in the
use of firearms than civilians looking to exercise their Second
Amendment rights. It’s a shame the NRA doesn’t seem to see it that
way.
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