Apparently Chaska Chief of Police Scott Knight prefers his subjects unarmed.

Letter of the day: D.C. gun law repeal will make us less safe

As chief of the Chaska police department, I was disappointed to learn that members of our state's congressional delegation have joined Vice President Dick Cheney in filing a U.S. Supreme Court brief urging the justices to strike down generation-old restrictions on handgun ownership in Washington, D.C.

Note the immediate strawman ploy - Generation-old! I mean, we had segregation for years and years, so being a long standing law must make it right?

No, it's coming down because it's unconstitutional.

The court's ruling won't affect just the nation's capital. The decision could also prevent the federal, state and local governments from crafting reasonable firearms laws to reduce crime in their own jurisdictions.

With 20,000 "reasonable" laws on the books and so far, you're not doing too whiz-bang of a job of reducing crime. Tell me Chief, what extra law will you put on the law abiding that will cause fear and trepidation in the hearts of even the most hardened criminals?

Gun violence plagues every corner of this country, including Minnesota. In the years from 2000 to 2005, firearms killed 1,998 residents of our state.

They did? That's surprising since all of my firearms seem to do nothing of the sort. They just kind of sit there, unable to move without some sort of outside influence. Apparently, firearms in Minnesota leap up on their own accord and go on shooting rampages.

Or, maybe Chief Wiggum here has a problem with crime because he's blaming the tool instead of the criminal.

In 2005 alone, the last year for which data are available, 361 Minnesotans were killed by firearms -- 88 by homicide, 255 by suicide, nine through accidents, two in the course of legal intervention and seven with unknown intent. In other words, firearms accounted for twice the number of Minnesota deaths that year from drowning, fires, lightning, tornados, heat and floods combined.

So, Chief Donutbreath, are you saying that the guns hold a mystical power to make non-depressed people simply kill themselves? The average John Doe comes home smiling, and the mean Glock puts thoughts in his head and he calls it quits right there?

And out of the 88 homicides, how many of those were justified? Oh, that's right, you're an "Only One", so when you kill someone it's "legal intervention" but when the 75 year old man with emphysema protects his family you chalk it up to "homicide".

Different legal approaches may make sense in different parts of the country. But state and local leaders, in consultation with law enforcement, should have the authority and tools they need to fight crime in their communities.

Besides a the mental capacity of a walnut, what tools are you lacking to fight crime with, Chief? And the authority you seek comes not from Congress or the Federal Government, but from the very people you are trying to disarm and render helpless.

Police know from experience that common-sense measures like background checks, requirements for safety training and trigger locks, and other laws are effective in protecting public safety. Eliminating these measures would only put our citizens, and our officers, at greater risk.

Safety training? Shall I start listing the thousands of stories of Police related negligent discharges? Trigger locks? If they're so effective is promoting safety, why don't you require all your officers to have them on at all times? I mean, it's not inconvenient at all and they'll be able to quickly get to their firearms when needed, right? Oh, sorry. Your "Only Ones" get special treatment, don't they?

As for putting citizens at greater risk, you do that with your silly laws that only affect them while the criminals laugh at you.

That's why the International Association of Chiefs of Police (with 20,000 members in 112 countries), Major Police Chiefs (representing the 56 largest police departments in the United States), the International Brotherhood of Police Officers (representing more than 50,000 members) and other law enforcement groups have supported the right of Washington, D.C. -- and other jurisdictions -- to make their own law enforcement decisions.

*sniff* *sniff* Anyone else smell the Joyce Foundation here? And Chief, I don't really give a shit about the other 111 countries. 

Nobody is telling D.C. they can't make their own decisions, they're just being told they have to follow the Constitution like the rest of us. The fact is their firearms laws are a de-facto ban which violates the Second Amendment and finally they're getting called on it.

But keep blaming the guns for crime. It highlights your ignorance.