This year, a federal law was passed that lets off-duty and retired police officers carry concealed firearms nationwide (assuming they are willing to jump through the necessary hoops). The priviledge supercedes local and state laws (like those in D.C. or Chicago) that would normally prevent them from carrying. Of course, Chicago's rabidly anti-gun Mayor, Richard 'the turd' Daley, doesn't trust off-duty police officers; not even his own. He's hoping to change federal law to create a total victim disarmament zone.

...The mayor is proposing some changes to the federal law, and that is his right. However, he included in his opposition to the new concealed-carry law our Chicago Police Department's off-duty officers, and that is a huge mistake.

Most, if not all, Chicago police officers of all ranks carry weapons off duty. At any time it's possible for them to come in contact with people they have investigated, arrested or stopped for traffic and other violations. In addition, they are never really off duty, in a moral sense. Hundreds of times a year, off-duty cops witness criminal actions and intervene. The mayor would prefer they all be unarmed?

Why would you not ask these same questions for normal law-abiding citizens. Cops are not 'supercitizens', and should not enjoy special privileges and rights that the rest of us do not enjoy. I'm not against our boys in blue being allowed to carry, but then I'm not against pretty much anyone being allowed to carry.

But in areas like Chicago, however, that leave the average Joe Citizen to the mercy of street thugs, maybe it's high time that off duty cops get a sense of just what it's like to walk the streets in fear.