As a result of this government overreach, numerous political and governmental actors exploit their privileges to carry out brazen acts of corruption. Just look at the city of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Police Department is currently wrapped up in a scandal where 44 firearms were found missing from a gun store at the Los Angeles Police Academy.
According to a report by The Los Angeles Times, Archi Duenas, the gun store’s manager, has reportedly been selling guns at discounted rates to officers for several years. According to AWR Hawkins of Breitbart News, Duenas “was able to hide the sales by simply being at the store every day to handle the paperwork.”
However, back in February 2020, Duenas was informed he saved up the maximum amount of “leave hours” and had to take time off work. When he took time off work, his substitute co-worker found that many boxes labeled as containing firearms turned out to be empty.
From there, investigators began reviewing into store records and Duenas’ dealings and discovered that several LAPD officers had allegedly “purchased stolen weapons from Duenas, bought and sold much larger numbers of firearms in questionable ways, and dangerously stored loaded guns in places accessible to children, according to internal police records.”
Several LAPD commanders are also being accused of impeding the investigation, allegedly undermining investigators’ attempts to identify LAPD leaders who may have acquired guns as well.
According to a KRCW report, the “LAPD captain overseeing the investigation says top commanders on the police force tried to hamstring her team’s work.”
Additionally, one deputy in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and four LAPD officers allegedly “knowingly bought stolen guns from the LAPD Police Academy’s gun store.”
California is an incredibly anti-gun state. According to Guns & Ammo magazine, California is ranked in 47th place for best states for gun owners.
What the LAPD case shows is that government actors will always to try to acquire firearms regardless of how unscrupulous they behave throughout the process. Also, we should keep in mind how big governments don’t necessarily lead to more accountable forms of governance. In fact, the more intrusive and vigorous a state is, the more likely corrupt actors will exploit it for their own benefit at the expense of the public good.
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