INDIANA SHERIFF IS GUN RIGHTS DEFENDER
In the midst of this year’s controversy over magazine bans and limits, one Indiana sheriff stepped forward to pop some myths regarding these accessories, and he did it on camera in a video that streaked all over cyberspace.
Boone County Sheriff Ken Campbell was not attempting to defend the Second Amendment, but he was interested in telling the truth. For a public official who puts facts ahead of causes and perhaps puts his credibility on the line, what the veteran lawman did was above and beyond.
The video, obtained by the Citizens Committee for the Right to keep and Bear Arms showed a series of shooting exercises involving an experienced male shooter and novice female. Sheriff Campbell demonstrated that shooters using smaller capacity magazines can fire just as fast, and in some cases even faster despite having to reload. The video was funded by ArmaLite and Campbell supervised the testing and shooting.
Sheriff Campbell told CCRKBA Communications Director Dave Workman that the video demonstration was filmed at the American Institute of Marksmanship near Cave City, Ky. Because of his background as an instructor and range master at the famous Gunsite Academy, Sheriff Campbell was recruited to provide a no-spin, matter-of-fact explanation of what is in the video.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said at the time that the 14-minute video “throws cold water on anti-gunners who argue that magazine limitations are necessary to prevent mass shootings. We are all indebted to ArmaLite for this informative effort.”
No small amount of credit goes to Campbell for coming across the Ohio River to a Kentucky gun range, in uniform, to appear in the video.
The sheriff said he hoped that viewers would observe the exercise and its findings and conclude “there’s some credibility there.”
“They said they want to do this and be non-partisan about it,” Sheriff Campbell explained to Workman, “and let the data speak for itself.”
But what Sheriff Campbell said next underscores why he is being recognized this month as a Gun Rights Defender.
“I’m an office holder,” he explained. “I’m not a department head. A chief of police serves at the pleasure of a mayor and the chief needs to do what the mayor says to retain that position. I answer to the voters every four years.”
Sheriff Campbell notes in the video that, “One of the reasons that the magazine restrictions are being proposed is the perception that if the active shooter has fewer bullets in magazines he will have to reload sooner and this will create an opportunity for someone to tackle him during the reload.”
The video corrects that misimpression, and thanks largely to his matter-of-fact presentation of the facts, Sheriff Campbell helped put the myth to all of the anti-gun rhetoric.