A missed opportunity for NC law enforcement to lead on gun control
Madison County, one county over from where I live in Asheville, garnered national headlines recently with an announcement that every school in the N.C. county will be outfitted with AR-15s this school year.
This initiative embodies how many on the right today bend over backward to suggest anything but gun control as the salve for gun violence.
Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood wrote on Facebook, “to exhaust every resource we’ve got to ensure that our kids are safe, that when they go to school, they can learn...and they can go the playground and play, and not worry about some thug who’s going to come out onto the playground and open up on them with some type of AR-15, shotgun, pistol, whatever.”
Only Harwood didn’t exhaust every resource. If he’d done that, he would’ve been advocating for meaningful gun control — a shooter can’t open fire with an AR-15 if they can’t purchase one.
Bill Clinton signed an assault weapons ban in 1994, outlawing AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles. As reported by NPR, mass shootings were down in the decade that followed, compared to the decade before (1984-1994) and the one after (2004-2014). Assault weapon bans work.
Harwood represents a bigger problem: the refusal of law enforcement in North Carolina to lead the gun control conversation.
Law enforcement officers are the ones risking their lives to respond to our escalating incidents of gun violence. They’re witnessing the horrific violence semi-automatic bring to our grocery stores, holiday parades and schools. They understand what weapons of this magnitude do to human bodies and, in some cases, are being outgunned by perpetrators. They have the experience and professional expertise. Who better to stand up and say, “Hey, we’ve got a problem with guns in this country”?
You might even think, if anything, N.C. police departments would use gun control as a savvy public relations move. Reputation-wise, law enforcement has had a rough couple of years, and they could do worse than court public opinion (especially in this case when public opinion is on the right side of history).
While gun rights activists are often the loudest voice in the room, the American public wants common-sense gun control. A 2022 ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that 70% of Americans think enacting new gun control laws should take precedence over protecting gun ownership rights, and according to a WRAL News poll, the majority of North Carolina voters want stricter gun laws, including support for bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
And yet? North Carolina law enforcement officials remain largely mum. When the Asheville CItizen-Times reached out to local sheriffs on Aug. 11 to get their thoughts on Madison County’s AR-15 initiative, many of the sheriff’s did not respond or declined to comment. Imagine the impact of all the western N.C. sheriffs saying we need stricter gun laws. It’s such a missed opportunity.
I’m not writing this piece to criticize N.C. law enforcement but to give them a nudge. I’m hoping to appeal to those in law enforcement who have seen what gun violence can do, who are sick of mass shootings becoming commonplace, and who’d rather protect lives than push a political agenda. I know they’re out there, and while it may seem hard to step up in our current climate, it’s the right thing to do.
Law enforcement ostensibly exists to serve and protect. Meaningful gun control does both. Why is it being ignored by those whose profession is public safety?