When San Francisco County Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was recently charged in connection with alleged domestic violence, the former San Francisco Board of Supervisors member was
SF County Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi
revealed to be something of a hypocrite.
While serving on the supervisory board, Mirkarimi was an ardent anti-gunner. After charges were filed against him, Mirkarimi had to surrender three handguns that he owned; a Smith & Wesson revolver and a pair of semi-autos, one a Beretta and the other a Sig Sauer.
This raised some eyebrows with the San Francisco Examiner and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted that Mirkarimi, who had only recently taken office as sheriff, should step down.
“Mirkarimi’s case presents a massive irony,” Gottlieb noted. “Here’s a man who has supported restrictive gun control measures while on the Board of Supervisors, and yet he had three handguns.
He just was elected sheriff, and now he’s accused of a crime that, if he is convicted, could cost him his gun rights for the rest of his life under federal law.” The case presented a dilemma because it brought focus on a domestic violence statute requirement that essentially treats someone as guilty until proven innocent by forcing DV suspects to surrender their firearms before they have been convicted of any crime in court.
“Hardly would we advocate allowing someone who has abused a spouse or domestic partner to be armed,” Gottlieb stated, “but our justice system isn’t supposed to penalize someone until after they’ve been found guilty.” What other law allows the state to deprive someone of constitutional rights—in this case, the right to keep and bear arms—before they are convicted of a crime, he wondered in a statement to the press.
“Perhaps Mirkarimi’s biggest problem is that he is now exposed as a double-standard elitist,” Gottlieb said. “Someone who has been legally disarmed over a criminal charge should not be permitted to serve as a chief law enforcement officer. Someone like Mirkarimi, who has done whatever he could to discourage others from owning firearms, should admit his world-class hypocrisy and walk away from the public arena.”
