However, as long as police executives wield outsized influence, they will always be a topic of concern for pro-Second Amendment advocates.
Lee Williams, the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project, recently exposed the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) chief donors and their anti-gun inclinations.
The IACP positions itself as one of the world’s most prominent influential professional associations for senior police executives. Like many organizations made up of high-ranking police leadership, the IAC{ harbors strong anti-Second Amendment views.
According to the Investigative Journalism Project’s research, IACP’s chief donors are made up of billionaire oligarch Michael Bloomberg and other rabidly anti-Second Amendment groups.
An investigation by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project revealed that the top IACP donors include anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg and other anti-Second Amendment organizations.
The IACP was formed in 1893 and boasts having 31,000 members in over 165 countries.
We should remember that police chiefs in major cities tend to be politically appointed, while sheriffs are elected by the people and are ultimately held accountable by the people. Williams explained this dynamic in his post:
There’s an important distinction to be made between elected county sheriffs and the politically appointed chiefs of police who comprise the IACP. Sheriffs are answerable to the people. If a sheriff makes an unpopular decision, such as promoting an anti-gun agenda, the voters can remove them from office. Chiefs of police, however, are answerable to whoever appointed them to office, usually a city manager who serves at the pleasure of a city council. As a result, police chiefs tend to mirror the politics of their bosses. Large metropolitan cities that historically have been controlled by Democratic administrations appoint fellow Democrats as chiefs of police, and it is these anti-rights chiefs who dominate the IACP committees and senior leadership.
An even more curious finding in Williams’ study is how IACP has assets that total over $33 million. In its most recent IRS Form 990, it received over $16 million in grants and contributions in 2019.
Although the document does not list off the exact source of the funding, the IACP’s major donors, which are published on its website, are firmly committed to pushing civilian disarmament.
The principal group funding the IACP credits for funding its efforts is the Bloomberg Foundation. This foundation is part of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s wide-ranging anti-Second Amendment consortium, which is comprised of Everytown for Gun Safety, Demanding Moms, and The Trace.
On this list was the Joyce Foundation, which runs its own “gun violence” prevention program. Some of its goals include:
- Advance and implement federal, state, and local policies and practices that reduce easy accessibility of guns to those at risk of violence
- Support policies to reduce easy accessibility of guns to those at risk of violence
- Reduce the next generation’s exposure to gun violence through education on the risks of gun ownership
- Litigate to defend evidence-based gun policies and challenge extreme gun rights policies and practices
The Laura and John Arnold Foundation is another organization that provides grant funding for the police chief group. The Arnolds are left-wing billionaires who have spent over $20 million in anti-gun research seeking “the causes of and solutions to gun violence in America.”
The MacArthur Foundation, another IACP donor, backs “direct services, police legitimacy, and gun policy—to create the conditions for violence prevention and reduction.”
Gun control is a class issue where large portions of the upper middle classes and higher push for this issue, knowing full well that they’re secure living behind gated communities that are generally protected by private security. Normal Americans on the other hand must rely on private gun ownership because they cannot afford the luxuries of private security.
Pro-Second Amendment advocates should stress this class aspect behind gun control to build a broad-based populist coalition against Gun Control Inc.
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