Sheriff Joe deputizes armed Americans for war on terror: ‘I’m concerned about what’s going on’

Special to WorldTribune.com

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is calling on Arizona’s 250,000 concealed weapons permit holders to fight terrorism in the homeland.

On Dec. 1, one day before 14 died in a San Bernadino, California massacre involving 28-year-old Syed Farook, the man known as the “toughest sheriff in America” said he could not guarantee the public’s safety and said legally armed citizens should take matters into their own hands if necessary.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“I’m just talking about the areas where you have large crowds and someone pulls out the gun and starts shooting. Maybe somebody with a concealed weapon takes the guy down,” the Maricopa County sheriff said.

In the wake of recent terror attacks in Paris, Beirut and Mali, a CBS poll found 69 percent of Americans believe an attack by jihadists in the U.S. is likely.

Arpaio also said an armed citizen could have stopped the Colorado man accused of killing three people at a Planned Parenthood facility.

“I’m concerned about what’s going on. Just think about Colorado. If there was someone in there with a concealed weapon that guy would have been shot down,” he said.

Steve Henry, chief deputy of the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, said Arpaio’s plan was not the way to go.

“Sometimes it’s not proper to pull the trigger because the collateral damage is not worth it,” Henry said. “We don’t want to walk into a gun fight between anybody, much less a gun fight where people are untrained.”

But Arpaio believes a well-armed citizenry is one way to keep the public safe.

Related: Sheriff Joe Arpaio: It’s ‘amusing to see all the heat’ Trump’s statements generated, July 3, 2015

“All I’m saying is if it’s controversial, then OK, let it be controversial, but we have to protect the public,” he said.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig takes the same view as Arpaio, and has said Detroit’s thousands of legal gun owners are a deterrent to terrorists.

Craig said “a lot of Detroiters” have concealed carry licenses and “the same rules apply to terrorists as they do to some gun-toting thug. If you’re a terrorist, or a carjacker, you want unarmed citizens.”

According to the Michigan State Police, more than 30,000 of Detroit’s 688,000 residents are legally armed.

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