Biden wants more cops…to enforce more gun control Norm Leahy, 3 months ago

President Joe Biden is asking states to use a portion of the $350 billion in federal relief money heading their way to hire more cops. A lot more. And pay for their overtime, too.

What will those cops do? Go after guns. According to Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown:

Biden told state and local leaders that they could use money provided to them as part of the pandemic relief package to fund more police officers and hours.

“We’re now providing more guidance on how [state and local governments] can use the $350 billion nationally that the American Rescue Plan has available to help reduce crime and address the root causes,” said Biden. “For example, cities experiencing an increase in gun violence were able to use the American Rescue Plan dollars to hire police officers needed for community policing and to pay their overtime.”

It’s easy to forget – as many progressives, and not a few conservatives have – that Biden is a life-long believer in expanding law enforcement’s size and power:

Biden spent…much of the ’80s and ’90s spearheading congressional efforts to create new federal crimes, ramp up punishments for drug offenses, provide more resources to police and prosecutors, and generally find new ways to spend more federal funds on putting people behind bars. This is what made conservative fearmongering during the 2020 election about Biden being some radical “defund the police” type especially laughable.

It all dovetails with his call for increased gun control:

Biden renewed calls for Congress to pass comprehensive gun legislation as two relevant loophole-closing bills sit in legislative limbo; like the fate of many Biden-supported bills, they seem destined to fail due to lack of any Republican support.

“We know that if there is a strict enforcement of background checks, then fewer guns get into the hands of criminals,” Biden said Wednesday. “Background checks have thus far kept more than 3 million guns out of the hands of convicted felons, fugitives, domestic abusers and others prohibited from being able to purchase a gun. And there’s still too many loopholes in that system.”

More cops, enforcing more gun laws. Welcome to Mr. Biden’s endless war.