Tennessee Firearms Assoc. Inc.

Just a heads up on a HCP instructor working out of the Dandridge PD. Read this on a gun forum:

"So, two weeks ago I went to the HCP class at the police department in Dandridge, TN. The class was taught by officer Kenneth Lodwick. He was an ok guy, but throughout the class he kept injecting his politics into his teaching material. He stated that he could not stand the NRA, and the only reason he was a member was the cheap insurance for the class. He also bashed the NRA for supporting the Guns in Restaurants and Parks legislation. He did not like the fact that the NRA supported the Heller case, and he stated that urban areas should be allowed to completely ban handguns if they wanted to.

"He bashed President Bush for letting the Assault weapon law expire. He stated that only military and police should be allowed to own "assault" weapons.

"It was all I could do not to stand up in class and tell him that he was wrong. I guess was most frustrated by the fact that he was spreading lies and liberal gun control agenda to 30 people some of whom may give credit to what he is saying because he is a police officer. Anyway, he really upset me, and I am considering writing a formal complaint to the PD or the NRA. Do you think that is too much? I am guessing that his viewpoint is overly affected by the crap he sees in the criminal world, but that does not excuse the liberal, 2nd amendment hating filth he was spewing in class. As an officer in the Army, I fully support any law abiding citizens right to own an ar-15, and I completely disagree with his opinions and his sharing his opinions to our class."

If the allegations are true:

Officer Kenneth Lodwick is the type of officer that will volunteer for "confiscation duty" if the gun-grabbers get their way. He is not part of the majority, but he is part of the problem. It would appear that he has an "we are the only ones qualified to have these types of weapons" attitude, when the truth of the matter is that most civilian AR-15 owners get much more range time in with their weapons and are better marksmen than the average law enforcement officer that is "issued" a "patrol carbine."

The sad part of this story is that while the officer is part of the minority at this time, more and more are graduating from academies every day that will tip the scales in the other direction. The idea of being a "civil servant" is giving way to the idea of being an "enforcer." Nothing wrong with enforcing the law... But when the law enforcment officer adapts an "us versus them" attitude, you end up with a lot of violations of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 14th Amendments, with others thrown in when the situation allows. (One local duputy had the attitude so badly that he even had a license plate on the front of his patrol car that said "ENFORCER". I placed a call to the Sheriff and voiced my concerns, advising him that if the duputy's attitude matched his license tag, the department was going to end up with a law suit on their hands because of the deputy's actions. The tag was gone from the front of the patrol car within a couple of days... But the attitude was still there. The deputy ended up getting caught on dash cam busting knuckles on a handcuffed prisoner. He is no longer in law enforcement... Now he is just a loser with an attitude, one that doesn't like the fact that he holds no power over the average citizen.)

I am not "anti-law enforcement"... I am "anti-adversarial law enforcement". There is a big difference. Officer Lodwick bears watching.

Tim, if you hear of any updates on this story, keep us posted will you?

-Mike

Mike, will do.