Austin police chief: Report gun enthusiasts so we can 'vet them'

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo already has a reputation as not being a fan of the Second Amendment, so no one should be surprised that he took this stance last week in response to a shooting at the Austin Police Department. The shooter, Larry Steven McQuilliams, marched into the APD with as many as 30 targets in mind and was prepared to simply open fire and see how many he could take down.

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McQuilliams fired more than 100 rounds before the cops took him down. It was a truly horrendous occurrence, and it sadly prompted the predictable media speculation that McQuilliams must be a "Christian extremist" and a "right wing extremist" - as if an interest in supply-side economics or the Gospel of Jesus Christ bear some relation to a lunatic's desire to shoot up a police station. At any rate, it's as good an excuse as any for Acevedo to go after "gun enthusiasts" of all stripes, and so he did: MyFoxAustin.com | KTBC Fox 7 | News, Weather, Sports The video embed is being a little persnickety about showing up, so just in case, here is Acevedo's quote (via Fox 7 Austin):

"Let me tell you what keeps me up awake at night, its these guys, its these homegrown Extremist that are lone wolfs that are made at the world that are angry, at that's why it's important for us as Americans to know our neighbors, know our families, tell somebody, if you know somebody that is acting peculiar, acting with a lot of hatred toward any particular group, especially if you know they are someone that's a gun enthusiast, or is armed with these type of firearms and they're showing any type of propensity for hatred, it doesn't mean we are going to go in and take them to jail, but we might want to vet these people, he may very well be alive today if we had the opportunity to do that," said Chief Acevedo.

Now I don't object to the idea that someone might inform police if they have serious reason to think someone might turn into one of these lone wolf attackers. The problem is the what people are told to look for. Being a "gun enthusiast" does not mean you hate anyone. Also, there is nothing Christian about what this guy and his group believed and did. Anyone can misuse the Bible to claim justification for opposing things like bi-racial relationships, which is why the media should check with people who do serious study of Scripture before simply labeling these people "Christian." Of course, that assumes they're interested in truth rather than supporting their favored narratives, and we've already covered that one today. Acevedo claims he supports the Second Amendment, and that he only wants to see guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens while keeping them out of the hands of those dealing in "hate". But think where the culture is going. One of the characteristics Acevedo ticked off in his description of McQuilliams and his group was "anti-gay." And what exactly constitutes "anti-gay." I believe the Bible's teaching that God considers homosexuality an abomination. Does that make me ineligible for Second Amendment protection in Acevedo's eyes? The Bible doesn't say homosexuals (or anyone else) should be shot for their sin, after all, but I guess you could call me "anti-gay" if that means I oppose what God opposes. Does that make me guilty of "hate" in Chief Acevedo's eyes? If a person has an interest in guns, and is turned in by their neighbors as a result, does that give Austin police the right to start looking into that person's background to see what their church might teach, or whether they oppose high taxes? If Acevedo doesn't like what's discovered, does this mean the police can take away their guns? If not, then why suggest it in the first place? Attacks by lone-wolf types are a real danger and they're almost impossible to anticipate and stop, although Austin police did a great job here of making sure the only person who died was McQuilliams himself. But apparently this threat is very easy to use as an excuse to take away the constitutional rights of people who pose only one type of threat - and that is the threat to the political imperatives of the American left.