Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) is all over the news for some hysterically stupid remarks she made at a recent meeting of the Denver Post’s editorial board. But in the frenzy over her obviously ignorant remarks, we miss a point that needs to be emphasized about police response times.
But first some background on the controversy she stirred up.
Revealing Politics has an article in which they describe her unimaginable expected ignorance of firearms.
I’ve come to expect most liberal, progressive politicians to not understand either the nomenclature or the principles of firearms and firearm safety. But in this case her statement is so amazingly ignorant that it shows how desperate this group of politicians are to eventually strip away any meaning to the Second Amendment.
In a meeting of the Denver Post editorial board she makes a stunning announcement about the effectiveness of magazine bans by proclaiming that once they’re “used up” and the “bullets gone” the problem will be solved:
“To your last question: ‘What’s the efficacy of banning these magazine clips?’ I will tell you, these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now, they’re going to shoot them. So if you ban, if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will be shot and there won’t be any more available.”
I guess she must believe that once a magazine has been emptied of bullets it is no longer usable and we just throw them away. Seriously, what else could she be saying here? You can watch and hear the entire exchange here.
But then, the coup de grâce comes when she tells a senior citizen, expressing his concern about his ability to protect himself from criminals, that he will probably be dead anyway. Listen closely:
This is a point that we too often miss or ignore when it comes to the debate over the 2nd Amendment.
The 2nd Amendment, while giving us the right to “keep and bear arms” was also designed to protect us from a tyrannical government. But God has also given us a right of self-defense, a God-given right separate and apart from the 2nd Amendment.
What does this have to do with Congresswoman DeGette’s ignorant statements to the senior citizen who asked what he was supposed to do to defend himself?
Remember, the Congresswoman says her constituent is “lucky” to live in Denver where the Denver Police Department will come to his rescue.
How soon will they arrive?
According to a report by the local CBS affiliate last year, the response time of the Denver Police Department is a whopping fourteen plus minutes:
Figures released this week by DPD show that for the most urgent calls for service — such as kidnappings, domestic violence, hit-and-runs and assaults — the average response time for 2011 was 14.21 minutes.
But in recent months, that number has grown, sometimes by almost three minutes. In September of this year, from the time a 911 call was received to the time an officer arrived on scene, the average wait was over 17 minutes. In October it was 16.8 minutes.
What is the response time of your local police department?
The next time an elected official says the government is there to protect you, ask them how long it will take for that government to show up.
And, what are you supposed to do during those intervening minutes? Cower? Grovel? Beg?
Or defend yourself?
