There’s been a lot of outrage toward Broward County, FL’s Sheriff Scott Israel over his department’s lack of response to the rampage shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. See also this. I’d like to point out that the Broward County Sheriff’s Department has a longer history that people should be aware of.
During the waning days of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban (that wasn’t), then-Sheriff Ken Jenne invited CNN’s John Zarella to demonstrate to him the difference between the then-legal semi-automatic weapons and those that had been banned by the 1994 AWB. It was one of the earliest things I posted about here at TSM.
He had a deputy fire four rounds from a (legal) AK-clone into cinderblocks.
He then demonstrated that rifle rounds from that AK-47 clone would penetrate the “bulletproof” vests worn by law enforcement – vests that are rated, at best, to stop pistol rounds. Zarella was shocked. He was told that the rifle held only ten rounds, as per the law. He was not told that 30-round magazines were still legal and still fit in that rifle.
Then he ostensibly demonstrated a banned AK-clone. Thirty-round magazine, FULL-AUTO.
A transcript of the clip (video not available) is here.
The NRA responded to this episode of “fake news.”
And Sheriff Jenne? Well, he suffered a rather spectacular fall from grace not long afterward.
Is Broward County a smaller version of Chicago?