{"id":77339,"date":"2022-02-12T00:28:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T06:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=77339"},"modified":"2022-02-12T02:36:24","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T08:36:24","slug":"77339","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=77339","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

No-knock warrants and the Second Amendment<\/a><\/p>\n

The police shooting death of 22-year old Amir Locke, a legal gun owner and concealed carry holder killed during the execution of a no-knock warrant in Minneapolis last week, has prompted\u00a0protests<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0renewed debate<\/a>\u00a0about the use of no-knock warrants.<\/p>\n

One of those critical of the practice; Bryan Strawser, chairman of the MN Gun Owners Caucus, who joins today\u2019s Bearing Arms\u2019 Cam & Co to talk about the Locke case and the dangers presented by no-knock warrants to both legal gun owners and law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The 2A group was quick to criticize the incident on social media after the story broke last Friday, and Strawser says he and other members got plenty of flack from folks accusing them of \u201cgo[ing] full BLM and Antifa<\/a>\u201d for the organization\u2019s initial statement, which read as follows:<\/p>\n

While many facts remain unknown at this time, information indicates that Amir Locke was a law-abiding citizen who was lawfully in possession of a firearm when he was shot and killed by Minneapolis Police on the morning of February 2nd.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs seen in the body-worn camera video released by Minneapolis Police, Mr. Locke appears to be sleeping on the couch during the execution of a no-knock warrant, \u201c stated Bryan Strawser, Chair, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is awoken with a confusing array of commands coming from multiple officers who are pointing lights and firearms at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Locke did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances, he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening, \u201c added Rob Doar, Senior VP, Governmental Affairs.<\/p>\n

Mr. Locke was not a suspect in the crime for which the warrant was issued and was not named at all in the search warrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tragic circumstances of Mr. Locke\u2019s death were completely avoidable, \u201c stated Doar. \u201cIt\u2019s yet another example where a no-knock warrant has resulted in the death of an innocent person.<\/p>\n

In this case, as in others, the public should expect and receive full transparency and accountability from law enforcement agencies that serve and protect our local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmir Locke, a lawful gun owner, should still be alive, \u201c added Strawser. \u201cBlack men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus expects a transparent and independent investigation into the circumstances of this tragic incident.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, Strawser says that as far as he can tell, not one of the criticisms or pieces of hate mail that the group\u2019s received since last Friday has come from a current or former member or anyone who\u2019s ever contributed money to the organization\u2019s 2A efforts. That suggests to me that concern over no-knock warrants isn\u2019t limited to \u201cwoke\u201d gun owners or those on the left, but is something that many conservative gun owners may be uneasy with as well.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And for good reason. I don\u2019t think being opposed to the routine use of no-knock warrants makes you anti-police. In fact, one of the reasons why I oppose the use of these warrants except in extraordinary circumstances is because they can\u00a0increase the risks to police<\/a>\u00a0as well as those on the receiving end of a warrant.<\/p>\n

In December 2013, Henry Magee shot and killed a police officer during a pre-dawn, no-knock drug raid on his home. He was initially charged with capital murder, but he argued that he shot the police officer, who he thought was an intruder, to protect his pregnant girlfriend. In\u00a0February 2014<\/a>, a grand jury declined to indict him, and charges were dropped.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s just one example, but there are plenty more to be found. And it\u2019s worth noting that not only did the St. Paul police\u00a0investigating a homicide<\/a>\u00a0originally request a knock-and-announce warrant (a request rejected by the Minneapolis PD, which was the agency serving the warrant) on the property where Locke was killed, according to Strawser the St. Paul police haven\u2019t executed a no-knock warrant in several\u00a0years<\/em>. In Minneapolis, on the other hand, Strawser says a majority of the warrants served last month were of the no-knock variety.<\/p>\n

Clearly the utility of these warrants (at least when they\u2019re used on a routine basis) is up for debate within law enforcement itself, and I\u2019m sure that there\u2019s a divide as well among in the broader universe of gun owners. You can count me among those who see more dangers than benefit to the routine use of no-knock warrants; not because I want to hamstring police or make their jobs more dangerous, but because the use of no-knock warrants in a country where we have the legal right to use lethal force to protect our lives in our home can only increase the danger to everyone involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No-knock warrants and the Second Amendment The police shooting death of 22-year old Amir Locke, a legal gun owner and concealed carry holder killed during the execution of a no-knock warrant in Minneapolis last week, has prompted\u00a0protests\u00a0and a\u00a0renewed debate\u00a0about the use of no-knock warrants. One of those critical of the practice; Bryan Strawser, chairman of … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goobermint","category-law-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77339"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77390,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77339\/revisions\/77390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}