Chief Casady Reads this Blog

Recently I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with Police Chief Tom Casady. As I have indicated in the past the Chief and I converse on a semi-irregular basis anyway.

We were able to discuss a number of issues, reloading, bird hunting, our mutual appreciation for the Smith & Wesson Model 37 and yes CCW.

No I didn't change the Chiefs mind, and he didn't change mine either, but I truley understand why the Chief feels the way he does on the CCW issue.

Chief Casady genuinely cares for the people of the city of Lincoln and wants this city to be safe and rightly or wrongly he is concerned about the types of people that will be able to get a permit.

One of his points is hard to argue with;

When the Chief was still an officer on the beat he was in a confrontation with a person that had a long list of misdemeanor convitions. That night the perpetrator was in posession of a WW I Knuckle duster. (Brass knuckles with a knife blade) In the Chiefs own words "He had a choke hold on me and I was literally seconds from passing out when I was saved by a Univerity Police officer". The offender was charged with a major felony that was barganed down to a simple misdemeanor. That person, if he was still alive would be eligible for a CCW because, even with a long misdemeanor record he had not been convicted of a crime that disqualified him from owning a gun or being issued a CCW permit. (I saw the file on that case BTW)

The Chief told me that he knows a large number of Lincolnites that fall into that catagory to one degree or another. People that were originally charged with a serious felony/s only to have it plead down to a simple misdemeanor. That is a pretty persuasive arguement for sure.

I reminded the Chief that those situations are created by the Prosecuters and Judges and as deplorable as they are even if people like this are eligible for a permit they are already carrying guns and probably wouldn't apply for a permit anyway.
The Chief reads this Blog and in his own words, "I read your Blog Gunscribe and I don't think we are as far apart on this issue as you might think." (Yes he said Gunscribe. The rest of the time he used my real first name)

The Chief and I are on opposite sides of this for our own personal reasons and probably always will be, but we understand each other and from now on I will not be as hard on him as I have been in the past for his thoughts on CCW.

As I have posted in the past, other than CCW, I think that the Chief has done one hellofva job. He has done more with less than a lot of chiefs around the country that run larger departments.