We told you recently how one U.K. police commissioner had taken some verbal lumps for an open-minded view on the possibility of citizens carrying firearms to protect against terrorism. When asked on a radio program what the repercussions would be if law-abiding gun owners used firearms to defend against terrorism, Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez of Devon and Cornwall counties answered: “That’s a good question! This might be some of our solution,” she continued, adding she wanted to “officially have a look at that and see what would be the implications of it.
That answer didn’t make some police officials happy, and now politicians are getting in on the bashing. “This Council believes that a proposal to utilize domestically owned firearms is a crass and inadequate response to mounting concerns about police cuts,” Labour Party Caucus members of the Plymouth City council wrote in a motion for a vote of no confidence in Hernandez. The motion even called Hernandez’s comments “stupid and dangerous.”
For her part, Hernandez is sticking to her guns. “It will not detract me from representing the views of the public which is central to my role,” she said in a statement following the vote. “As previously stated, I don’t want to see armed vigilantes roaming the streets, but a discussion about how the public responds to any immediate terror threat is completely valid.”
