“No Point” Florida Sheriff Declines to Meet With Gun-Control Activists

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence bills itself as “one of America’s oldest and boldest gun violence prevention groups,” whose 12-point “plan” to make that happen primarily involves turning lawful gun owners into criminals.

Most gun owners see Brady initiatives – such as universal background checks even for private sales, a ban on military-style sport weapons, ending immunity for gunmakers, and demands for studying gun violence as a public health problem – as a threat to their rights and counterproductive in actually reaching the goal the group claims it wants to reach.

So recently Sarasota County, Florida, Sheriff Kurt Hoffman, knowing full well what Brady is all about, declined a request from a local chapter for a meeting.

But it was the way Hoffman turned them down that had gun rights’ activists cheering.

“Thank you for your recent request to meet. I am very familiar with the bradyunited.org 12-point platform and I have fundamental differences regarding nearly every objective of Brady,” Hoffman wrote.

“I am a member of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the 2nd Amendment Foundation, in addition to being a Life Member of the NRA. I have been a law enforcement officer in this state for over 32 years, eight years of which were as an Assistant State Attorney, and I am satisfied that the laws on the books in Florida sufficiently protect this community from gun violence.”

“In Sarasota County, we have worked diligently over the past decade prosecuting part one crimes, including gun crimes. We have reduced part 1 crimes by 52% since 2009. This reduction represents the largest part 1 crime reduction in the state of Florida for law enforcement agencies serving populations of 100,000 or more.”

Hoffman continued, “We made these strides without infringing on our citizen’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms, more succinctly stated, we went after criminals, not lawful gun owners.”

“’Gun safety’ is often cloaked in language that essentially bans certain guns, ammunition or magazine capacities while criticizing award-winning programs like Eddie Eagle. Calling certain firearms ‘weapons of war’ and ‘assault weapons’ while limiting how many rounds a citizen can carry for self-protection or creating gun registries is a non-starter for me.”

“I represent many citizens in this county who have businesses related to the firearms industry and who protect their family and property with firearms your organization seeks to ban. I cannot support that. Thank you for reaching out but I will respectfully decline your offer.”

In response, a Brady told local media, “We meet with most elected officials, candidates, and others who are in a position to help the people of Sarasota. Seldom have we been turned down. … Our goal is always to let them know Sarasota has a Brady chapter and to see if there are ways we can work together.”

When the local media inquired with the sheriff’s office about Hoffman rejecting the request, his spokeswoman noted, “With an anti-Second Amendment platform that focuses on federal gun regulation, the Sheriff respectfully declined as he did not see anything productive coming from a meeting.”

Because nothing productive ever comes from such meetings. Brady and other gun-grabbers aren’t interested in compromise, only unilateral disarmament – by lawful gun owners.

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