Sheriff Joe Arpaio is one of those chief peace officers who regularly and vocally support defense of self and others by force of arms. In the run-up to Christmas, Arpaio has asked both open and concealed carriers to protect themselves and each other. From fox10Phoenix.com . . .
Surrounded by his posse, Sheriff Joe Arpaio asked armed citizens to help protect malls this holiday season. Arpaio says nearly 250,000 Arizonans carry concealed weapons and many more are carrying in the open.
“I’m asking for that group to make sure that if some violent activity occurs that they take action to defend themselves, and also the people around them until law enforcement shows up,” said Arpaio.
In 2009, Arpaio voiced support of Constitutional or ‘permitless’ carry. From azcentral.com:
But Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he would support the bill, saying carriers of concealed weapons should not face permit requirements when people who carry their weapons openly do not.
“A gun is a gun, whether it’s concealed or not,” Arpaio said.
In 1997, Sheriff Arpaio raffled off an AR-15 that had been grandfathered in under the then recent Clinton ban on “assault weapons.” From the News-Herald, 24 December, 1997.
I hope that you or someone on you(r) behalf at Handgun Control Inc. is not using this single raffle (f)or a legal firearm and the national notoriety of this sheriff to pursue his or her own anti-gun agenda throughout the United States.”
Sheriff Arpaio has been a proponent of an armed citizenry for a long time. He was first elected in 1992, before Arizona allowed for a concealed carry permit, and long before the state instituted Constitutional or permitless carry. [Note: Arizona always had open carry. Constitutional carry was supposed to be protected in the State Constitution, but legislators and the courts had chipped away at that right from the beginning of statehood in 1912.] Arpaio’s unabashed support for defense of self and others in this holiday season deserves recognition. Not bad for the former head of the DEA in Arizona.
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