“When I met them, they schooled me. They not only schooled me — they embarrassed me. They humbled me. I was wrong. I was completely wrong.” – Former Maryland State Police Licensing Division commander Jack McCauley in The Conversation That Made Veteran Cop Change His Views on Concealed Carry: ‘They Schooled Me’ [at theblaze.com]

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

47 COMMENTS

  1. Connecticut is already lost. Their government doesn’t care about the rights of citizens and the gun owners don’t care about their rights. One liberally minded official finally woke up and spoke up. The lights are on but nobody’s listening. The Sandy Hook commission report gun control recommendations will have no effect and they all know it. They don’t care.

  2. It’s too bad he retired. He could be there effecting change instead of speaking to a bunch of stuck in the mud politicians.

    • “Since retiring, he has been vocal as a gun rights activist on the “may issue” law in Maryland.”

    • He retired b/c despite his efforts, he wasn’t able to fix things while working within the MSP. By retiring from the MSP he is able to speak out publicly without fear of losing his job.

      • Not only is that not evidenced by the article but it makes no sense whatsoever. (Better kill the patient to save him!)

    • He is retired from the MSP, not retired from activism. Besides his testimony, the state police did not oppose the shall-issue wear and carry law before the house/senate committees in MD. Could this be the year?

    • Yup. Think of how many times a guy in uniform sits in front of a hearing and gives the party line so the politicians can have cover to vote the way they want to anyway. Imagine if that guy were to throw a wrench in the process by bringing some facts to the table.

      I’m glad he’s changed his mind and is now an advocate. I just wish he had done so when it was his job to determine who could legally carry a gun to defend themselves.

      • Facts and logic are just inconvenient truths that get in the way of the agenda, ignored at will.

      • Mr. McCauley did just that in 2013 before the committee that passed the Firearms Safety Act of 2013 in MD. Mr. McCauley retired because of the party line, he was told by the Governors lawyer not to answer questions about the bill because “It was about votes and nothing else.!” If he had spoken his mind at that time he probably would have been fired or reassigned to a shizzhole job, but we probably would not have this POS legislation.

  3. Two comments so far, both negative. How about we support this guy instead of being the Victor von Doom in the room? There’s no stronger missionary than a convert.

    • More importantly than him being a convert..

      He is a good example for someone, who has been won over to the right side with reason, good arguments and showing him, that there is no horde of homicidal gun maniacs behind various pro-gun orgs.

      Good words managed to show him the right way, not hateful comments about killing this and that politician if they try to take your guns or jokes about shooting people, if they don’t stop talking about shit they don’t understand.

      Every such comment is a loss in the battle for gun rights.

      We can only hope, there is more good people out there showing others the ropes by means of reason and arguments.

      • I appreciate your comments and they have a lot of merit.

        Here is something to keep in mind. Good people who own firearms honestly and truly have the means to force government to back down from unconstitutional and human rights violations. And yet those good people have rarely, if ever, applied their force of arms to government. That alone demonstrates a tremendous amount of restraint.

        Make no mistake though, the clock is ticking. And the good people of the United States of America are rapidly approaching the limit of what they will tolerate. We have a saying about the righteous way to bring our government back in line from polices and laws that violate the inherent dignity and sanctity of human life: first the soap box, next the ballot box, then the jury box, and finally the ammo box. We, the good people of this nation, have exhausted the soap box (free speech) and the ballot box (elections) to no avail with respect to many unconstitutional laws on the state and national levels. And we have almost exhausted the jury box (courts) to overturn unconstitutional laws on the state and national levels. That brings us to the ammo box (force).

        Let me state something for the record. No one, I repeat, no one wants to go to the ammo box. The problem is that no one wants to die or suffer rape or severe injuries at the hands of a violent criminal, either, and any government employee who commands us to be unarmed if/when we face a violent criminal is nothing more than an accomplice to that attacker. Such a government employee deserves no respect or consideration whatsoever.

        • Clarification: the ammo box is our last remaining alternative if/when we have exhausted the jury box (courts). In my opinion we have not yet exhausted the courts. To be sure we are close. I don’t think we are quite there yet.

        • As time passes, Americans are less likely to ever actively resist. Plainly spoken, I don’t think most people will do squat. Part of the plan to make sure we don’t is immigration. They will eventually water our numbers down beyond the point of no return by importing hordes of tens of millions of low information insta-democrats. Todays immigrants aren’t going to participate in an insurrection.

  4. “I was wrong. I was completely wrong.” – Former Maryland State Police Licensing Division commander Jack McCauley

    I haven’t watched the video yet. Based on this quote alone I salute Mr. McCauley. I admire a person who can look at something objectively, change their mind, and admit they were wrong.

    I wish more people were like Mr. McCauley.

  5. Excellent quote, from a story that buries the lede:

    Maryland is currently considering a bill would clarify that “self-defense can qualify as a good and substantial reason to wear, carry, or transport a handgun for purposes of the issuance by the Secretary of State Police of a permit to carry, wear, or transport a handgun.”

    I admire McCaulley:

    “When I say I studied it, I mean I slept two hours a night studying it,” he added. “And I found out some staggering information about handgun permits and what was going on. My fears were not justified.”

    • While I appreciate his current stance, I have to ask where he was hiding since 1987 when FL went shall-issue, and all the fears he discusses were proven wrong, and then over and over as state after state said the same things he was talking about, crazy people with guns, blood in the streets, all of it, and proven wrong again and again and again, it took him 25 years to discover that everything he had been taught was lies? That is ridiculous.

      • Apparently, he was in law enforcement – in Maryland. In case you haven’t been there, the People’s Republic of Maryland is rather insular – moreso, I would expect, with respect to constitutionally protected rights.

      • There are plenty of folks that still have not discovered it. The information is there. They are worse than Thomas. They place their hand in the bloody wound and still do not believe.

      • Yeah, it would be nice if people learned from another persons experience.

        But that ties in to the idea of learning from history. What a concept, right?

        Human beings have a hard enough time learning from their own personal experience. I know it took me almost getting killed by a human predator to wake me up to the need for carrying a weapon.Learn from someone else’s experience? Perish the thought.

  6. Just like with LEAP they always seem to see the light after retiring.
    If only ones benefits and pension were tied to the protection of liberty rather than the simple justification of ones office or position.
    Better late than never I guess.

  7. I love this statement from Mr. McCauly in the video

    “Law enforcement is more dangerous that concealed weapon carriers.”

    Furthermore, Mr. McCauly noted that most of the concealed carry licensees who lost their concealed carry licenses for firearms infractions lost them for carrying in a “gun free zone”. Thus, if “gun free zones” went away — and their infractions with them — law enforcement officers would be considerably more dangerous than concealed weapon carriers.

    Now, imagine the how much more the spread increases if we account for all the times that the boys in blue covered for each other or prosecutors refused to prosecute the boys in blue.

  9. The NRA should fund this guy and the people with whom he met to travel around the country meeting with people in the gun control bureaucracy to try to educate more people making these types of decisions.

    • Great clip. Send it to all representatives and ask they watch it. Push it viral everywhere !!
      We need him in Pa. to counter Gov. Wolf’s Anti-Gun pick for head of State Police (also from Md.) Good to include when talking about H.B. 230 , Constitutional Carry.

  10. Wait, so all guns owners not all tightly wound, mentally unstable, inbreds, fixated on violence and overthrowing the government? But I heard it on MSNBC.

  11. If you live in MD, be sure to email/write your delegate to support SB0100 or HB0767, which would repeal “good and substantial” from the requirement for a MD wear and carry permit.

  12. Anyone notice that within about two seconds of mentioning MDA (Moms Demand Action), the “mediator” basically asked him to shut up?

    OK, off to the grocery for more tin foil.

  13. Finally! He’s facing an uphill battle with the heavily Democartic state legislature. However, the state elected a Republican governor recently so maybe there will be progress.

    The pro gun control laws and attitudes were among the chief reasons I left MD.

  14. He was a part of the problem. Now he’s part of the solution. It’s disappointing that it took this long for him to remove the blinders and actually seek the facts, but it did happen and he appears to be atoning for it.

  15. To the comment about MD being very insular, that is key. I grew up in MD as the son of a gun owner, and the very concept of licensed (let alone unlicensed) carry of a firearm was completely foreign to me.

    In short, you don’t know what you don’t know. Now I live in MI and I carry every day, everywhere. I applaud this gentleman, and I hope his testimony made an impact.

  16. After repressing 2A for his entire career, he had his epiphany? Well, I’m not going to kick him out of the club for being late to the party, but I will say that he has a lot of atoning to do. Speaking out is a good start.

  17. I’m with you Ralph. Especially since I have a son and grandkids in Maryland. Good for him but what was your problem that you violated peoples rights?

Comments are closed.